FITSSFF Magic Events

A Successful Start

2011-09-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

After a 32-person draft and a 16-person sealed (both M12), the Magic Committee's efforts in putting these events together have definitely resulted in success. Though I myself had to miss the draft due to work, I participated in the sealed, and it was a lot of fun (except for the part where John stomped me with all his Chandra shenanigans, but that's another story). We've got some great new faces at our events, and many of the old ones have made their appearances as well. So, first thing's first, thank you everybody for coming out!!

Now, here are the results of the draft. We had two pools of drafters, a beginner's pool and an experienced pool. The top 4 of the beginners were:

1 - Sean Davenport

2 - Chris McKibben

3 - Jay Fry

4 - Chris Tsien

And the top 4 of the experienced pool were:

1 - Bryant Benson

2 - Joe Hammond

3 - Scott Record

4 - Mike Mooty

Finally, the top four of the sealed were:

1 - Phil Griffin

2 - John Kreinberg

3 - Scott Record

4 - Michael Carney

Great job, everybody!

Now, onto news. The next event is a standard constructed tournament this Sunday, September 11th (see sidebar for details). If you don't have a deck but would like to play, contact the committee members, and they will most likely be able to help you put something together, if not lend you a deck. Emails (and some phone numbers) are located in the next sidebar down. The committee will be there early for those registering for the event, and anyone who wants to just do some deck testing. The other cool thing going on this weekend is a Magic Celebration on Saturday at Dogs of War Gaming (on Palm Bay Rd.), which basically involves getting free packs of M12 and playing pack wars. Details can be found at the Dogs of War website: http://www.dogsofwargaming.com/

The week after next, we'll be doing an EDH/Commander tournament, and we're trying to figure out a way to make it multiplayer because that is way more fun. I call dibs on Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund as a general, by the way. ^_^ Actually, though, if we have anyone with the same general as another player, we'll finagle it so that those two people don't play each other. Still, be individual about it! Again, if anyone is in need of a deck, ask the committee--I myself have an extra EDH deck, the Kaalia of the Vast deck released by Wizards. EDH is by far my favorite format, because you can play all of those random awesome cards in your collection that you could never reasonably fit into a deck before. Details on this event will be posted as soon as I get them.

In addition, I have here two links to Magic tutorials created by The Magnanimous Dom (awesome nickname courtesy of Skye). One is for constructed Magic, and one is for drafting. Anyone looking for awesome advice should check them out, because Dom is definitely one of the best players I know.

Constructed: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1730581941EDEB8C

Draft: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2739A46D75F1F695

Sorry for the long post--I was a slacker by accident last week, so think of this one as two posts in one. I'll now close with the current league points for each person:

Name	Events	League points
Scott Record	2	14
Michael Carney	2	10
Sean Davenport	1	9
Bryant Benson	1	9
Phil Griffin	1	9
Chris Mckibbin	1	8
Joe Hammond	1	8
Mike Mooty	2	8
Kyle Coleman	2	8
John Kreinbring	1	8
Jay Fry	1	7
Chris Tsien	1	6
Anna Hallahan	2	6
Hunter Garrett	1	5
Luke Glesener	2	5
Ryan Ripper	1	4
Michael Smith	2	4
Eric Wells	1	3
Hannah Sharp	2	3
Liz DiGangi	1	3
Jonah Melegrito	1	2
William Smith	1	2
Aaron Macy	1	2
David Jacobsen	2	2
James Throne	2	2
Chris Pear	2	2
Drew Partynski	1	2
Gabe Stanley	1	1
Pablo Chery	1	1
Kenneth Shafer	1	1
Stephen Kwok Choon	1	1
William Sturges	1	1
Max Kruger	1	1
Alex Kerns	1	1
Michael Cambata	1	1
Kyle Byun	1	1

I hope to see everyone come out this weekend!

Welcome back--let's draft!

2011-08-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! I hope summer treated everyone well. I'll be taking over the general job of keeping the website updated and bombarding everyone with emails, since Dom is off doing grad-school things in South Carolina. We all wish him the best of luck, and we wish everyone else luck with the 2011-2012 school year as well.

Now that we're back at school, the Magic Committee is back in business. The first event we have lined up is an M12 draft this Saturday, August 27th, at 1:00 pm. Like usual, the cost is $12 for entry. We will be having a draft and a standard event every month, along with two other events like EDH/Commander and Modern, and I'll be updating times and entry fees and such in the little sidebar of this website as we plan them out with more detail. Dom's also making a series of Magic tutorials, which I will be posting here in the near future. Contact myself or the other committee members if you have any questions!

Open Game Night at Orientation

2011-08-11T14:17:00.001-07:00

I want to remind everyone who will be available next weekend to attend Open Game Night in the Hartley Room from 8-11 P.M. on Saturday, August 20. You will get an opportunity to greet the new freshmen and play some other games, as well.

This should be the last you hear from me on the Web site (except for some tutorial videos that Liz will send you or post once I'm done with them). Best of luck to all in the coming year!

- Dom

FITSSFF Magic Survey

2011-06-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

I hope all of you are having a great summer! Please take a few minutes to complete a survey about the Magic events at Florida Tech last semester. You can find it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T7XR86W. Thanks in advance!

- Dom

Uber Draft Results & Prerelease Info

2011-05-04T17:28:00.001-07:00

The Uber Draft was a really fun event, where we had 16 players come out for some chaotic drafting madness. We started with the Top 8 awards presentation, where Michael Smith was awarded a Fire & Lightning Premium deck for his victory in the Invitational. Joe was given an IOU for the Ajani vs. Bolas duel decks for his runner-up finish, and everyone else was given some promo cards for participating. I was also quite honored to receive a gift from all of you, as Hunter and Alycia led the group that bought me the rare textless foil Doran, the Siege Tower card from 2007 States. Thanks so much to everyone who chipped in! Now I'll think of you all every time I pull out my Commander deck after I move to South Carolina in August. :)

In the draft itself, I also managed to give everyone else a parting gift of my own:

4/29/11 Top Finishers: Uber Draft

1. 4-0 Boros (!) by Dominic Casali

2. 3-1 Grixis Control by Noah Senzel

3. 3-1 Green/Black Aggro by Hunter Garrett

4. 3-1 Black/Red Beats by Jordan Arnold

5. 3-1 Green/White Ramp (Maybe?) by Scott Record

I started the draft intent on tapping Islands and drawing cards like I usually do, but after three picks the blue dried up, and I ended up being pushed into red and white thanks to Seal of Fire, Cerodon Yearling, and a Legions White Knight. Pack two brought some Unhinged goodies, as I added an AWOL, Fascist Art Director, and a (foil!) Dumb Ass to my pool, along with some white removal and some cheap, efficient creatures. I was set to be almost mono-white, splashing red, and then I had the good fortune of opening Akroma, Angel of Fury from my Planar Chaos pack, so I ended up more solidly into Boros, picking up a Saute and an Orcish Cannonade along with a late Daru Encampment to go with my 6 soldiers and add a little extra synergy.

Sorry, but I'm the only one I got to see play much, so this report's mostly going to be about me. In round 1, I got Chris's blue/green deck down to 4 life, and he stabilized with an Overbeing of Myth, but then my third Mountain showed up and Akroma finished the job. I flooded with him at 1 life in game 2, but got turn 6 Akroma and tap effects from Benalish Trapper and Repel the Darkness to make sure she connected to win the last game despite his Gravity Well and reach blockers. In round 2 against Hunter, it was my turn to stabilize at 1 life, and I won game 1 with the unlikely Daru Encampment/Dragonstalker interaction. Game 2 was also fairly close until Akroma showed up.

I played against Kevin Crowley's green/white deck in round 3, out-aggroing him in the first game. The second game followed the familiar pattern of doing some early damage and stalling out before Akroma could evade his pair of Ballynock Trappers and finish the job. The finals against Noah was a really fun match. We traded blows in game 1, but he took possession of the board by Swerving my removal spell, and then finished it off with his bomb flyer: Crosis, the Purger. In game 2, however, I was ready for it with my Bound in Silence (a 3-mana Rebel Tribal Pacifism) and managed to finally push through the last point of damage with a Mourning Thrull. Game 3 was unfortunately not too exciting, as Noah never found blue mana and was slowly beat down by 2/2's. Upon taking him to 3, I finished the match off with what I hope comes to live on in Uber Draft lore: a lethal Saute to the dome.

It was a really fun event, and everyone seemed to have had a good time. I am glad that this semester, which is probably the best one FITSSFF Magic has had on a whole, went out with such a good event. Thanks to everyone who came to events, and for all of you being a great group of people and making this group so much fun to be a part of. It was an honor and a pleasure to have run these events for three years, and I hope I was able to make it as fun for you as it was for me.

One last order of business: the New Phyrexia Prerelease is this weekend, and if you're still in town, give our local gaming stores one last event before you head out for the summer. Here's the schedule:

Wizard's Wall:

Saturday, May 7 @ 5 P.M: $25 Sealed

Sunday, May 8 @ Noon: $25 Sealed

Dogs of War:

Friday, May 6 @ 11:45 P.M: $25 Sealed

Saturday, May 7 @ 1 & 4 P.M: $12 SOM-MBS-NPH Draft

Saturday, May 7 @ 7:30 P.M: $25 Sealed

Sunday, May 8 @ Noon: $12 New Phyrexia Draft

Get Your Fun On:

Friday, May 6 @ Midnight: $25 Sealed

Saturday, May 7 @ Noon: $25 Sealed

Saturday, May 7 @ 3 & 7 P.M: $12 Draft (unspecified format)

Sunday, May 8 @ 3 P.M: $25 Sealed

Sunday, May 8 @ 7 P.M: $12 Draft (unspecified format)

Note that attending drafts will not earn you a prerelease foil (which is Sheoldred, Whispering One for this set), while attending Sealed events at all locations will. Also note that the seniors are graduating Saturday morning, so seniors or anyone attending graduation will probably only be attending events on Saturday evening or Sunday.

Best of luck to everyone at the prerelease and thanks again for all your support this year. I hope everyone gives their best effort to the new Committee members next year. Have a great summer and hopefully I'll see you all again sometime next year; I'm sure my parents will want me come home to visit Melbourne fairly often. Until then, may you planeswalk to wonderful and amazing places, both in Magic and the realm of life!

- Dom

Top 8 Player Profiles

2011-05-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

So that we all get to know our Top 8 players better, I decided to ask them the following questions:

1. What is your name?

2. What is your age/class standing?

3. What is your major?

4. Where are you from?

5. What is your proudest Magic accomplishment?

6. What Standard deck are you playing today?

7. What is your best matchup and why?

8. What is your worst matchup and why?

9. What was your favorite event this semester?

10.What is your favorite card from Mirrodin Besieged?

Carney:

1. Michael Carney

2. 21, Junior

3. Computer Science

4. Cleveland, OH

5. Winning the Invitational last semester despite not qualifying for it!

6. Non-Valakut Red/Green Ramp

7. Elves…I killed them…I have red spells

8. Control Decks, especially ones with Jace...I always lose to that card

9. MBS Emperor Draft

10. Cryptoplasm

Hunter:

1. Hunter Garrett

2. 20, Junior

3. Aerospace Engineering

4. Stockton, CA

5. Runner-up finish at least year’s Invitational

6. Orzhov Control…it’s no fair that Boros is the only guild that gets remembered nowadays

7. Creature-heavy decks (because I can Wrath)

8. Other Control decks (because I have a lot of dead cards against them)

9. Extended

10. Black Sun’s Zenith

Smith:

1. Michael Smith

2. 21, Junior

3. Mechanical Engineering

4. Brooksville, FL

5. Building an awesome Wizard EDH deck!

6. Neo-Mythic

7. Control and Combo

8. Fast aggro, and Valakut (apparently)

9. EDH tournament

10. Slagstorm

Jordan:

1. Jordan Arnold

2. 20, Junior

3. Computer Engineering

4. Venice, FL

5. Winning the Legacy tournament with mono-red Storm

6. Mono-White Triple Threat (Quest/Battle Cry/Tempered Steel)

7. Anything slow

8. Other white decks (Wrath effects) and burn decks

9. Will be Uber Draft, but EDH for now

10. Signal Pest

Chris:

1. Chris Pear

2. 19, Freshman

3. Marine Biology

4. Newtown, CT

5. Making Top 8 in Freshman Year; also drawing a 3 land/4 White Knight opener vs. a mono-black deck

6. Knights of the New Republic

7. Most control decks (and Vampires)

8. Blue/White Control (specifically)

9. EDH

10. Mirran Crusader

Noah:

1. Noah Senzel

2. 19, Freshman

3. Computer Engineering

4. Cape Cod, MA

5. Using Blinding Mage on a Birds with 3 Swords equipped

6. Tezzeret Artifact Stuff

7. Vampires

8. Red Deck Wins

9. Block Wars

10. Phyrexian Revoker

Jason:

1. Jason D’Mellow

2. 18, Freshman

3. Mechanical Engineering

4. A town in India you've never heard of before

5. Killing an Ulamog with Diminish and Shrivel

6. Elves!

7. Slow decks without Mass Removal

8. Decks with -1/-1 Counters and Slagstorm

9. Extended (because I won with a Standard-legal deck)

10. Inkmoth Nexus

Joe:

1. Joe Hammond

2. 21, Senior

3. Mechanical Engineering

4. Melbourne, FL

5. Getting 3 people to concede after playing a 1-of Sway the Stars 3 times in the same game

6. Valakut

7. Not Caw-Blade

8. Caw-Blade/anything with Swords

9. Extended (I got to play Ob Nixilis/Scapeshift Combo!)

10. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (only PW I don’t have; Note from Dom: he traded for one later in the day, but wants a Karn if you get one at the next prerelease!)

And finally, they decided it was only fair to turn the tables on me:

1. Dominic Casali

2. 21, Senior

3. Chemcal Engineerng, with a minor in running Magic tournaments

4. Melbourne, FL

5. Tie between making Top 16 with Mythic at TCQ Orlando and building a healthy Magic community at Florida Tech nearly from scratch

6. Favorte Standard Deck: Lorwyn/Time Sprial UW Reveillark Blink (also liked Mythic and RUG a lot)

7. Anything that wasn't Faeries

8. Faeries (also Kithkin was about 50/50)

9. Standard (because I won) and EDH (overall the most fun)

10. Thrun, the Last Troll

FM: Round 1 - Noah Senzel vs. Chris Pear

2011-04-25T15:48:00.004-07:00

The Invitational began inauspiciously, with just the Top 8 themselves and no other observers but yours truly. Soon enough, the pairings called for two best friends to square off in a matchup they were both quite familiar with.

Noah Senzel was playing a modified version of his blue/black Tezzeret deck that had earned him a third-place finish in Block Wars, while Chris was playing his long-time Standard deck: mono-white Knights. Chris opened his Invitational with a roll of one, and Noah chose to play first, as both players were satisfied with their opening seven.

Both players led with nonbasic lands; Noah had an Inkmoth Nexus while Chris had Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Chris played the first spell of the game in the form of White Knight on turn two, but Noah countered it with Mana Leak. Chris went for an Accorder Paladin on his next turn, but it met the same fate.

Noah had no plays on his fourth turn, but he bashed in with his Inkmoth Nexus (20-20 life, 0-1 poison). Chris finally resolved a spell in the form of Leonin Skyhunter, but he did get his Emeria destroyed by Noah's Tectonic Edge at the end of his turn.

Noah appeared a bit flooded, and had no action yet again. Chris cast a Mirran Crusader and then enchanthed his Skyhunter with a Hyena Umbra and bashed (17-20, 0-1). Noah looked to slow the assault with a Tumble Magnet, and attacked again with Inkmoth Nexus (17-20, 0-2), passing the turn tapped out.

Chris looked to take advantage, casting a Knight Exemplar and entering combat. Noah used the Magnet's first counter to tap the double striking Crusader, but still took a hit from the Skyhunter (13-20, 0-2). Noah cast a naturally-drawn Brittle Effigy and passed back.

Chris went to attack again, but again got his Crusader tapped. Still, his other two creatures got in for six (7-20, 0-2). At end of turn, Noah chose to use his Effigy on the Crusader, exiling it. He finally topdecked some gas, slamming down a Wurmcoil Engine off the top of his library.

However, it was easily dispatched, as Chris had the Journey to Nowhere to clear the way for his attackers. Tumble Magnet's final counter tapped the Skyhunter, leaving just a swing from Knight Exemplar unblocked (5-20, 0-2). Things looked grim for Noah has Chris cast a second Exemplar after combat. Noah had a potential out in the form of Black Sun's Zenith, but it was not on top of his library and we were on to game 2.

Chris Pear 1, Noah Senzel 0

Both players kept their openers again, and Noah led off with a sideboard specialty in the form of second-turn Ratchet Bomb. But, it was immediately removed by Chris's sideboarded Divine Offering, though Noah shrewdly sacrificed it in response to prevent Chris from gaining the life. Noah spent his next turn casting Trinket Mage, which fetched up an Elixir of Immortality.

Chris began applying pressure, casting Student of Warfare and levelling it twice. After Noah had no plays but the Elixir, Chris cast both Honor of the Pure and Leonin Skyhunter on his next turn. He attacked with Student of Warfare, and it was chumped by Trinket Mage. Chris passed the turn, and his Skyhunter was removed by Noah's Go for the Throat at end of turn.

Noah still had no action, apparently flooded on lands again. He did, however, counter an Honor of the Pure with his Stoic Rebuttal, and gained 5 life off his Elixir (25-20). Chris took a chunk of that back with Student of Warfare (21-20). Noah still had no spells, but got in with an Inkmoth Nexus (21-20, 0-1).

Chris continued on the Student of Warfare path, casting a second one and then levelling the first one to 7. Upon swinging with his 5/5 double striker, Noah chose to sacrifice his other Inkmoth Nexus, as he had plenty of other lands anyway. He cast another Trinket Mage, finding and casting Brittle Effigy, and then passed back, hoping he was prepared for the next onslaught.

Chris went for a big attack, exiling the Trinket Mage with Journey to Nowhere, levelling his second Student to two, and then attacking with both for a potential 14 damage. However, the remaining Inkmoth Nexus blocked the big Student, mitigating most of the damage (17-20, 0-1). On the next attack, Brittle Effigy dealt with the double-striking Student, but Noah still had no answer to the other one (13-20, 0-1). Chris cast White Knight and levelled his remaining Student to 4.

Noah hoped to stop the bleeding with Tumble Magnet, but Chris cast the first planeswalker of the Invitational: Ajani Goldmane. Ajani's second ability pumped all of Chris's creatures and gave them vigilance. Vigilance didn't help Student of Warfare against Tumble Magnet, but White Knight got in unmolested (9-20, 0-1). All Noah had was a Ratchet Bomb on his next turn, and that looked to be too slow given the board state.

Chris leveled Student to 5 and cast Mirran Crusader, using Ajani's second ability again. Noah used Tumble Magnet to stop Student of Warfare again, but White Knight brought him one hit from lethal (4-20). Noah put a counter on his Ratchet Bomb at end of turn, but after finding yet another land on top, he extended the hand, lamenting the lack of Tezzeret draws for his Tezzeret deck in both games.

Chris Pear 2, Noah Senzel 0

FM: Round 2 - Joe Hammond vs. Michael Carney

2011-04-25T15:48:00.003-07:00

I had an interesting perspective as I watched these two players brew throughout the week for this event. In the end, both players asked me separately to borrow many of the same cards, despite having somewhat different decks.

Both players were playing a red/green ramp strategy. Carney's was creature based, relying on traditional creature beatdown to finish the job. While Joe's deck used many of the same ramp spells, he was playing the powerful combo of Primeval Titan and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. Joe won the roll but had to mulligan to 6, while Michael was happy with his first seven.

Red/green dual lands hit the table in a hurry, and Carney had a turn-two Overgrown Battlement to get things started. Joe used an Explore to get to 4 lands on turn 3, including 2 Valakut. Carney surprisingly had no play on his third turn, but Joe had an equally unexciting fourth turn to even things up.

Carney finally went on the war path, casting a second Overgrown Battlement and then Koth of the Hammer, who animated a Mountain into a 4/4 Elemental, which got an attack in (16-20). Joe fired back with Primeval Titan, who grabbed two Mountains out of Joe's library, since he already had 2 Valakuts in play.

However, Carney threw a wrench into that strategy by removing one Valakut with Tectonic Edge. He then used two Lightning Bolts to bring down the Titan, and put Koth to 5 loyalty to attack again with a 4/4 Mountain (12-20). Joe had a second variety of Titan, however, this time an Inferno Titan, who brought Koth down to 2 loyalty upon entering the battlefield. Joe also cast an Overgrown Battlement of his own before passing.

After a long trip to the think tank, Carney chose to use Koth as a mini-Garruk, untapping a Mountain to let him cast a Wurmcoil Engine. Joe then made an interesting play, animating his Raging Ravine twice and attacking with it and Inferno Titan, killing Koth and putting two +1/+1 counters onto the Ravine with one swing. Carney chose to trade his Engine for the Inferno Titan (12-26), and chumped the Ravine with one of his Battlements. After combat, Joe played his sixth Mountain and used his Valakut trigger to kill the 3/3 deathtouch Wurm.

On his next turn, Carney had his own Inferno Titan, which domed Joe since it had no other targets (9-26). Joe played an Evolving Wilds and declined to attack. Carney then went on the offensive, attacking with his Wurm token and Inferno Titan, doming Joe again (6-26). It was time for Joe's Battlement to chump, while he animated his Ravine to block the Wurm (6-29). After combat, Carney used Slagstorm to kill the Ravine, but the 3 damage it dealt to his Titan let Joe pop his Evolving Wilds for a Mountain and kill it with Valakut.

Joe had an opening, but all he could do was play another Valakut and pass. That was immediately removed by another Tectonic Edge, and Carney's Ravine attack put Joe near the brink (2-29). However, Joe drew Green Sun's Zenith, and cast it for X = 6, finding another Primeval Titan, which brought along another Valakut and a Mountain. He used his two Valakut triggers to shoot Carney's last Overgrown Battlement, and played a Mountain from his hand to dome Carney for six (2-23). However, the game came to an anticlimactic end when Carney revealed the Lightning Bolt he could've cast last turn if he had tapped his mana correctly.

Michael Carney 1, Joe Hammond 0

Joe elected to play first in game two, and both players kept their starting hands. This time Joe had turn two Overgrown Battlement, while Carney had an Explore. Joe played a Lotus Cobra and followed it up with a land and a Harrow, floating more mana to cast Viridian Emissary.

Carney tried to keep up by casting another Explore and his own Overgrown Battlement. But, it was futile, as Joe had the turn 4 Primeval Titan, which grabbed Valakut and Mountain from Joe's library. He got in for a couple points of damage, attacking with both of his 2/1's to Carney's lone 0/4 blocker (20-18).

Carney tried to recover with Koth of the Hammer, who he used to ramp into a kicked Goblin Ruinblaster, which took down a Valakut. Still, Joe was far ahead, casting Inferno Titan to join his green one, killing both Koth and the Ruinblaster, and another Primeval Titan swing brought out a Valakut and a Mountain (20-15), plus Joe's squad of attacking creatures all got in as well (20-5). Carney took a look at his top card and packed it in.

Michael Carney 1, Joe Hammond 1

Carney went first in game 3, and had turn 2 Overgrown Battlement. Joe countered with Lotus Cobra, while Carney had a second Battlement. Joe cast his first one, passing back.

This time it was Carney's turn for turn 4 Titan, and his Inferno Titan hit Joe for 2 and disposed of Lotus Cobra (20-18). Joe just had a Valakut, and appeared unable to reach the critical six-mana threshold.

Carney cast Goblin Ruinblaster to kill the Valakut, but Joe responded by sacrificing it to Harrow. Still, Carney had a good board position, swinging his Inferno Titan (20-15) and Ruinblaster. The 2/1 was nullified by the 0/4 wall, but Inferno Titan connected (20-9).

Joe had another Valakut to replace the one lost to Harrow, and tapped out for a Wurmcoil Engine, which looked like enough to stop Carney's assault of red creatures. But, Carney had a clutch Tumble Magnet, and once Belugatron was tapped, no amount of protest from its blowhole could stop Inferno Titan from cleaning up shop for the day.

Michael Carney 2, Joe Hammond 1

Draft Recap

2011-04-25T15:48:00.001-07:00

Honestly, I didn't see much of the draft and subsequent matches, as I was busy running Magic Jeopardy!, but I have some general knowledge. Here were the records leading into it:

2-0: Carney, Jordan

1-1: Smith, Joe, Chris, Jason

0-2: Hunter, Noah

In the draft, most players tried to settle into what they were used to playing in Scars of Mirrodin block. Jason found a Flesh-Eater Imp and went straight into Infect, and was rewarded with a Skithiryx later on. Jordan did the same thing as the previous week as well, taking burn and Signal pest, moving into red/white aggro. Michael Smith again followed the control route, drafting blue/red and finding a Koth of the Hammer in pack 3. Noah drafted a blue/black deck featuring unblockable creatures, which was strangely reminiscent of his Standard deck. Carney drafted something he couldn't really explain, and I forget what Hunter and Chris drafted (sorry!). Oh, and of course, Joe drafted a mill deck. Unless you've been hiding under a Magic-shunning rock for three years, you shouldn't be surprised.

The pairings were done independently of the Standard results, setting up a rematch of the Fall Invitational final, but this time with Hunter's tournament life on the line facing Carney. The result was the same, and Hunter was the first player eliminated from Top 4 contention. Joe was quickly felled by Noah, who took advantage of his opponent's severe mana issues, while Smith knocked Jordan from the ranks of the unbeaten. Jason's poison attack also pushed him to 2-1.

I pretty much entirely missed round 4, but I remember that Carney took his first loss to Smith, and Chris was eliminated from contention in this round by Hunter, who still kept playing his best despite not having a chance to advance. He had a chance to eliminate a second player in round 5, but Joe's mill deck was able to grind and shriek a place into the Top 4. Jason won a match he had to win game Carney, but Carney still moved on via tiebreakers. Smith's win over Noah made him 3-0 for the draft and the number 1 seed going into the finals. Unfortunately, despite a last round win and a 3-2 record, Jordan's tiebreakers did not advance him to the Top 4.

FM: Semifinal #1 - Jason D'Mellow vs. Joe Hammond

2011-04-25T15:47:00.004-07:00

After a several-week absence from competitive Magic, it seemed Jason D'Mellow had returned to form, and sought to chase down yet another victory with his mono-green Elf deck. Sitting across from him was Joe Hammond, who was already in prime form, having taken full advantage of his win last week in the Qualifier to make the elimination rounds of the Invitational. Only one would advance to the finals.

Joe won the roll and both players chose to keep. Jason had a first turn Llanowar Elves, which he followed up with Elvish Archdruid after Joe cast a turn 2 Lotus Cobra. Joe cast Explore into a Viridian Emissary on his third turn, who represented a nice road block for the Elf onslaught.

Jason missed his third land drop, and after some debating chose to tap out for Asceticism, keeping his creatures safe from burn. However, Joe was prepared to attack from a different angle, using a Harrow to ramp big with his Cobra and cast Green Sun's Zenith for 6, finding a prolific turn 4 Primeval Titan. The Titan found a Valakut and a Mountain, dealing 3 to Jason (17-20) before his 2/1's also rolled into the red zone (13-20).

Jason hoped to recover with Joraga Treespeaker and Arbor Elf, and then tapped his Archdruid for 4 mana to cast Nissa Revane. He put her up to 3, searching out a Nissa's Chosen. Joe seemed undeterred, swinging with his Titan and Emissary and finding another Valakut and another Mountain, doming Jason once with a Valakut and sending the other trigger to Nissa (10-20). Jason declined to block (2-20), but then drew his card and scooped, apparently citing made some sort of play mistake along the way.

Joe Hammond 1, Jason D'Mellow 0

Jason chose to play first, and this time both players took a mulligan before keeping on six. Jason again opened on Llanowar Elves, which he followed up with a Nissa's Chosen and an attack for one (20-19).

Joe stymied the assault with an imposing Overgrown Battlement. Jason could only attack through for one again, as Llanowar Elves got through but the Battlement stopped Nissa's Chosen (20-18). Joe had a second Battlement and a Lotus Cobra before passing back.

Jason's pressure was all gone, and he had no way to add to it on his turn. Joe then cast Harrow, cashing a Forest in for two Mountains and then casting a Green Sun's Zenith for 6, finding Primeval Titan, who in turn found 2 Mountains. Using Lotus Cobra mana, Joe cast an Explore, and then played a Terramorphic Expanse, killing Llanowar Elves with a Lightning Bolt off another Cobra mana.

Jason again had no plays, and Joe poured on the burn with another Green Sun's Zenith for Primeval Titan. A Mountain and a Valakut cleared most of Jason's field, and a swing from the original one threatened to do the rest of the damage. Upon realizing that Joe could rack up Valakut triggers faster than Charlie Sheen could rack up disorderly conduct citations, Jason conceded and Joe was on to the finals.

Joe Hammond 2, Jason D'Mellow 0

FM: Semifinal #2 - Michael Carney vs. Michael Smith

2011-04-25T15:47:00.003-07:00

Not that you'll need me to tell you after reading more than a couple sentences, but thanks to Skye for featuring this match for us.

What an exciting day this has been, full of Magic and mystery and intrigue, all at the hands of yours truly! Well, okay. It’s really all thanks to the magnanimous Dominic Casali for bringing us together for this fine occasion. By this point, we have reached the semifinal round of the FITSSFF Magic Invitational of 2011.

This first match pits the roguishly handsome Michael Smith vs. the equally attractive Michael Carney. But keep your hands to yourselves, boys and girls! These two fine chaps are already taken! For now, settle yourselves with some intense Michael on Michael action. Let the Magic duel of the century begin!

Oh, by the way, did I mention Smith was playing white? Ugh… I shudder in revulsion. From what I’ve been told, Smith’s deck is a modernized form of Alara’s Bant-colored “Mythic” deck, which pretty much just plays every money card in those colors. Carney, on the other hand, is playing some kind of Red/Green deck, the details of which were shrouded in mystery. Isn't that so much more awesome than playing white cards?

Smith wins the initial die roll and opts to make the first play. He happily keeps his opening hand while Carney ships his off. With a grimace, he decides to send back his 6-card hand as well.

Already at a sizeable advantage, with opening hand sizes of 7 against 5, Smith opens the game with a Razorverge Thicket, rolling into a Birds of Paradise. Carney draws his card and lays down an unassuming Copperline Gorge before passing the turn.

Smith throws down a Lotus Cobra, then plays a Seachrome Coast, electing to end his turn rather than make use of his snake-borne mana. Things are already looking dire for our hero, as Smith has prepared what could be a lethally explosive start. Carney draws his next card and plays a Tectonic Edge. Unfortunately, that was all he was able to do, and passed the turn back to Smith.

The very same Smith who proceeded to play a second Seachrome Coast, making sure to float White mana just for me, in order to cast the most despicable of all high-end backbreakers – a Baneslayer Angel! Carney anxiously picked up the top card of his library. For his first main phase, he played… another Tectonic Edge. Well, so much for colored mana. Still unable to cast his spells, Carney ended his turn.

Smith confidently untaps his lands, plays an Island and, after floating some Blue mana, casts a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. This was enough to draw a concession out of Carney, and they were quickly shuffling up for game 2.

Smith – 1 Carney – 0

After a bit of sideboarding, both players shuffle up and start their second game. Carney decides to play first and, after seeing his opening hand, decides to keep. This time it is Smith’s turn to mulligan, though he decides to do so only once.

Carney starts things off simply with a lone Forest before ending his turn. Smith sees his Forest, and raises him a Llanowar Elves.

Not to be outdone, Carney quickly throws down another Forest, casting Explore to draw an extra card and ramp into a Tectonic Edge. Smith plays a Misty Rainforest, pops it for an Island (-1), and casts a Sword of Feast and Famine with the help of his elf. (20-19)

Carney draws for his turn, casts a Cultivate with his three lands, grabbing two Mountains, one of which comes into play tapped, the other of which Carney immediately plays. It looks like Carney is about to set up for something big of his own, albeit in a more budget-friendly way. Smith starts his turn off by popping a second Misty Rainforest (-1) for yet another Island. He taps an Island and his Forest to equip the sword to his elf. Carney doesn’t like this plan, and attempts to Lightning Bolt the critter before the sword lands, but Smith has the Mana Leak to defend, though he had to tap his elf in order to cast it. With no more mana and a lazy elf polishing his shiny new toy, Smith passes back to Carney. (20-18)

Carney casually drops an Acidic Slime onto the table and pops the sword before ending his turn. Smith tries to keep on the pressure by summoning the mighty Garruk Wildspeaker to assist him. Garruk goes down to 2 loyalty in order to bring out a 3/3 Meowth token, that grizzly beast! Then, the turn is over.

Carney doesn’t seem to phased by the opposing planeswalker, and chooses to attack Smith with the slime and ignore Garruk entirely. Well, that is until he reaches his second main phase, where he casts a timely Inferno Titan, scorching Garruk and the Llanowar Elves as it makes its grand entrance. All Smith has in play now is his beast token (who decided to let the slime through) and a bunch of lands. For his turn, all he could do was play a Seachrome Coast, which regrettably came into play tapped. (20-16)

Carney charges in with the slime and the titan, exploding Smith’s beast token in the process (-8) and follows up the traumatic blow by ruining Smith’s freshly played Seachrome Coast, courtesy of the turn 2 Tectonic Edge. On Smith’s turn, he casts a Jace, the Mind Sculptor, bouncing the titan, but Carney sends a Lightning Bolt over Jace’s way, and Smith ends the turn with nothing but lands on the field. (20-8)

Without a moment’s hesitation, Carney untaps his lands and throws down a Koth of the Hammer, sending a very angry Mountain and Acidic Slime into the red zone. At a precarious 2 life, Smith lays down a last-ditch defender in Lotus Kitty and, realizing he has no way to survive the next turn, concedes the game.

Smith – 1 Carney – 1

Michael and Michael do a little bit of re-sideboarding and prepare themselves for their climactic battle. Smith elects to play first, and mulligans his first hand. Carney keeps, and the duel commences. Smith opens with a Stirring Wildwood and passes. Carney plays a Forest and passes back.

On his second turn, Smith plays a Seachrome Coast and passes the turn with counterspell mana at the ready. Carney lays down a Mountain and attempts to fast-forward his mana with an Overgrown Battlement, but Smith is ready with a Flashfreeze to counter it. Smith untaps and plays a Forest before passing the turn, threatening another counterspell. Carney’s only move for his turn is to play another Mountain.

Finally ready to start some action, Smith plays an Island, taps all his lands for mana, and throws down Thrun, the Last Troll. Not wanting to be completely left in the dust, Carney plays a Rootbound Crag and taps out for a kicked Goblin Ruinblaster to destroy Smith’s Seachrome Coast.

Smith untaps his three lands and swings in with Thrun before playing another to replace his W/U dual land. Despite being at a very healthy 20 life, Carney decides to block the troll with his goblin, and Smith ends his turn having missed what was probably a very important land drop. On his turn, Carney plays a Forest and attempts to cast an Acidic Slime to further ruin Smith’s mana base, but Smith is ready to defend himself with a timely Mana Leak.

Smith swings in for an uncontested 4 damage, and ends his turn still stuck on 3 lands. Carney can only play a forest and pass the turn back, seeming to have no relevant plays available. (20-16)

At last, Smith draws into another mana source – a Birds of Paradise. He plays it, then swings in for another 4 with Thrun. Carney plays a Tectonic Edge and then casts a very intimidating Wurmcoil Engine, which threatens to turn the game around. (20-12)

Or so it would have seemed. If only Carney had been able to kill the mana-bird, because Smith’s next play is Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which unsummons the Wurmcoil and allows Thrun another potshot at Carney. Once Smith passes the turn, Carney drops down a Forest, recasts his Wurmcoil Engine, and uses his Tectonic Edge to take out Smith’s Stirring Wildwood, tragically dooming the Wurm to be returned to the AEther next turn. (20-8)

Smith does exactly that, and knocks Carney down another 4 points before casting a Stoneforge Mystic and searching out a Sword of Body and Mind. Carney recasts his Wurmcoil Engine and tries a final Lightning Bolt on Jace to keep his blocker and stay alive, but Smith has a second Flashfreeze to protect his mighty planeswalker. (20-4)

Smith bounces the wurm for the third turn in a row, swings with Thrun against an empty field for fifth turn in a row, wins the game, and the match.

Great job to both players for making it this far, and good luck to Smith in the finals! Of course, I say that, but I really hope he dies a horrible, fiery death by the hands of his sworn nemesis, Joe Hammond, who will meet him in the final round with a Red/Green Valakut deck, which is supposedly very strong against Smith’s Mythic concoction. No offense, Mikey – it’s just that, you know, you’re playing White, and I’m as intolerant as the most stalwart of mono-White tyrants or bigots. Hmm… I smell hypocrisy.

- Skye Kutner

FM: Finals - Joe Hammond vs. Michael Smith

2011-04-25T15:47:00.001-07:00

After six rounds of Magic, it had all come down to this. Joe Hammond had emerged victorious in the Qualifier, and despite long odds to be anywhere near this position just a week ago, was suddenly in the finals of the Invitational after a day of grinding, hard-fought matches. After losing his opening round against Joe's Valakut deck, Michael Smith had won five matches in a row, defeating the defending champion in the Semifinals to reach this last match. Only one would emerge as Spring 2011 Invitational champion.

Joe won the die roll and chose to play first, keeping his opening seven. Smith, however, looked hard at his opener, showed me his one-lander of two drops, and sent it back for six. Both players traded land drops one turn one before Joe's second-turn Overgrown Battlement, a card that had been a stalwart in multiple decks throughout the day. Michael Smith responded with the one-card combo that had gotten Joe into the Invitational to begin with: Stoneforge Mystic, tutoring up a Sword of Feast and Famine.

Undeterred, Joe cast an Oracle of Mul Daya, flipping up a Mountain and getting a second land drop for the turn, giving him a chance at the prolific play of fourth-turn Primeval Titan. Smith appeared to have no way to stop it, playing a land and ending his turn. However, Joe apparently had no lands in hand, and when the top of his library gave him no help, all he could do was attack with his Oracle (20-18) and play a second one. Smith put the Sword into play with his Mystic at the end of the turn.

On his next turn, Smith gave the Sword to his Mystic, and attacked in undeterred (17-18). Joe discarded yet another copy of Oracle, while Michael untapped his lands, but had no further plays. Joe drew his card, flipped over the top card of his library...and missed again, revealing Thrun. He decided to cast a Green Sun's Zenith for 2, to get a mana producer and a shuffle, but Michael countered it with a Mana Leak. Deciding the shuffle was more important, he cast a second copy, which resolved and shuffled back into his deck. In a cruel twist of fate, he flipped up Green Sun's Zenith and still couldn't find his land.

Since they couldn't block anyway, Joe attacked with both Oracles (17-14) and ended his turn. Michael used a Misty Rainforest (17-13) to find an Island and then attacked with his Mystic (14-13). Joe discarded a Lotus Cobra, and Smith apparently had nothing to do with his plethora of extra mana, so he passed back. Joe finally hit a land in the form of Evolving Wilds, and used it to fetch a Mountain and try for a second land, but this time he hit a Lightning Bolt on top. He attacked with both Oracles, but one was crushed by an animated Stirring Wildwood (14-11).

Smith attacked again with his Mystic (11-11), and this time Joe was forced to discard the Primeval Titan that the mana gods just hadn't given him fair chance to play. Upon Smith casting Wurmcoil Engine, Joe knew the Lightning Bolt atop his deck wasn't going to cut it, so he packed it in and got ready for game 2.

Michael Smith 1, Joe Hammond 0

The pregame logistics were identical to game 1, as Joe chose to play and kept his opener, while Smith mulliganed down to 6. The openings were quite different, however, as Joe used a turn two Explore to ramp his mana. Smith tried to equal it with a Lotus Cobra, but Joe immediately dispatched the snake with a Lightning Bolt.

Joe cast another Explore on his next turn, but did not have the extra land in his hand to take advantage of it. Smith cast a Birds of Paradise on his next turn. Joe followed up with a Harrow and yet another Explore, this time hitting on his extra land. The players continued with rampy green spells, as Smith cast Garruk Wildspeaker, but chose to make a 3/3 Beast token instead of more mana. But, Joe had another Lightning Bolt to take care of Garruk before he could do any more damage.

Joe continued setting the world on fire, casting an Inferno Titan and choosing to kill the Birds of Paradise and hit Smith for 2 rather than removing the token (20-18). Smith had other plans, using a Verdant Catacombs to get a fourth land (20-17), replacing Garruk with a second copy, and untapping two lands to cast Journey to Nowhere, removing the Inferno Titan. He attacked with his Beast (17-17) and passed.

On his next turn, Joe pulled a timely Nature's Claim, destroying Journey to Nowhere (17-21) and using his Inferno Titan's return to the battlefield to finally destroy the Beast token. Instead of replacing it, Smith used Garruk to untap two lands so that he could cast Jace, the Mind Sculptor off of his single blue source. After a Brainstorm with Jace, he used another fetch land to shuffle (17-20), and cast Stoneforge Mystic to find the infamous Sword of Feast and Famine. He finished his extensive turn by using his last land to Oust the Inferno Titan (20-20).

Joe regrettably had no plays on his next turn, and Smith cast and equipped the Sword to Stoneforge Mystic, and attacked. Joe took the hit and discarded Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (17-20), shuffling his graveyard back into his library, but also sending back his Inferno Titan. Smith took full advantage of his extra mana this time, casting a Baneslayer Angel and equipping it after another Brainstorm with Jace.

On his turn, Joe was only able to cast a Green Sun's Zenith for 2 to find an Overgrown Battlement. Smith used Jace to Unsummon it, and then activated Garruk's ultimate, giving his creatures a free Overrun. A full swing, including Stirring Wildwood, put Joe to the brink (1-30) and made him discard the Overgrown Battlement. When the top card of his library wasn't a miracle, he extended his hand, making Michael Smith the Spring 2011 Invitational winner.

Michael Smith 2, Joe Hammond 0

Invitational Final Results

2011-04-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

The final standings for the Invitational are as follows:

1. 6-1 Neo-Mythic by Michael Smith

2. 4-3 Valakut Ramp by Joe Hammond

3. 3-3 Elves by Jason D'Mellow

4. 3-3 Red/Green Ramp by Michael Carney

5. 3-2 Mono-White Aggro by Jordan Arnold

6. 2-3 Blue/Black Tezzeret by Noah Senzel

7. 1-4 Black/White Control by Hunter Garrett

8. 1-4 Knights of the Old Republic by Chris Pear

Congrats to Michael Smith and to all of our Top 8 on what was an excellent semester of Magic, possibly the best we've had in my four years at Florida Tech. Thanks to everyone who participated throughout the semester and I hope everyone who isn't graduating keeps coming back next year!

- Dom

Qualifier Swiss Rounds Recap

2011-04-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

An unfortunately small pool of players without byes arrived for the first round of the Qualifier. However, players were still in high spirits, glad to be playing Magic and hoping for the chance to earn the final spot in the Top 8. Some players at this event had been gone for a while and were hoping to return to form. Alex Kerns, who had missed the last few events, put up an impressive win in the first round with one of my old favorites: mono-green Treefolk.

However, it turned out to be newcomer Garrett Zynca who seemed to be en route to playing spoiler. Despite having never played in a FITSSFF Magic event before, Garrett's mono-white soldier deck was serving him well and led him to back-to-back wins to open the tournament. Another mono-white deck, Joe Hammond's Sun Titan/Flickerwisp concoction, also earned him a second round win following his first-round bye.

As round three began, the favorites, each with two byes began their matches. Two players immediately earned a spot in the playoff rounds, becoming the only players paired at 9 points. Dane Newton, fresh off a strong appearance at the recent PTQ, defeated Liz's Jund deck with his blue/black reanimator combo, using Makeshift Mannequin and Rise from the Grave on targets like Empyrial Archangel, Woodfall Primus, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. John Kreinbring revamped his Naya deck that earned him runner-up in block wars, and also earned a spot in the playoff after a hard-fought match against Garrett.

Other players had to wait until the last round to earn a trip to the playoffs. Kevin Hoover advanced after picking up a win with his mono-black control deck. Liz defeated Joe in the fourth round, but both advanced, as Joe had been paired down at 3-0. Another player moving on was Max Kruger, whose mono-blue artifact deck had lost in the first round, but had won three consecutive games to back into the elimination rounds. Who would earn the coveted 8th spot in the Invitational? I'll tell you by way of the feature matches below...

FM - Quarterfinals: Kevin Hoover vs. Liz DiGangi

2011-04-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Both Kevin and Liz posted 3-1 records, earning them a place in the quarterfinals. Kevin was wielding a mono-black control deck that was effective at trading life for cards and then recovering the life with lifelink creatures. Liz was piloting Jund, the grinding black-red-green midrange deck focused around incremental card advantage and the cascade mechanic.

Liz won the roll and elected to play first, but had to take a mulligan to 6. Kevin kept his opener. Liz had the first nonland play in a turn 2 Putrid Leech, while Kevin summoned a Nantuko Shade. Liz applied some fast pressure with a hasty Boggart Ram-Gang, sending both of her creatures into the red zone. Liz pumped her Leech, and Kevin declined to make any blocks (13-18). Kevin then looked to stabilize with a Vampire Nighthawk, leaving his shade back to block.

Liz had other plans, however, disposing of the Nighthawk with a Maelstrom Pulse and repeating her attack from the last turn. Kevin had to protect his life points, and chose to block the Leech with Nantuko Shade. Liz pumped her Leech to allow it to survive combat (10-16). On his next turn, Kevin attacked Liz's hand with a Duress, but whiffed after the Jund mage revealed only three creatures in hand.

Liz then cast a second Boggart Ram Gang and attacked with her team. Kevin disposed of the Leech with Go for the Throat, but took the rest (4-16). However, he managed to clean the field on his turn with a Black's Sun Zenith for 3. Liz drew yet another Ram Gang on her turn, casting it and attacking, putting Kevin to the brink (1-16). Kevin killed the Ram-Gang with another Zenith, but Liz peeled a Lightning Bolt, sending us to game 2.

Liz DiGangi 1, Kevin Hoover 0

Kevin chose to play first and kept his seven again, while Liz needed a mulligan. After two turns of land-go, Kevin cast a Duress on turn 3, taking Blightning. Liz cast a Putrid Leech on her third turn. Kevin continued attacking Liz outside the battlefield, casting Sadistic Sacrament on his next turn, exiling Stillmoon Cavalier, Great Sable Stag, and Sword of Feast and Famine from her library.

Liz, however, still had cards in her hand to play, summoning Bloodbraid Elf and cascading into a Blightning (17-20). Kevin discarded Grave Titan and Phyrexian Rager. She then pumped her Leech hand attacked with it and the Bloodbraid Elf (10-18). Kevin took a Lightning Bolt with another Duress, and then played a Phyrexian Rager (9-18).

Liz cleared it out of the way with a Maelstrom Pulse and repeated her previous attack, pumping the Putrid Leech again (2-16). Kevin was down to his last chance. He drew his card and conceded, revealing two Wurmcoil Engines that he lacked the mana to cast.

Liz DiGangi 2, Kevin Hoover 0

FM - Semifinals: Joe Hammond vs. Dane Newton

2011-04-20T09:29:00.001-07:00

Both Joe and Dane took advantage of their byes and fought their way into the Final Four. Joe was piloting a mono-white deck that revolves around incremental card advantage gained from Sun Titan and creatures with enter-the-battlefield ability. Dane was playing a more direct strategy - blue/black Reanimator, where his goal was to dump a powerful creature into the graveyard and bring it back to play cheaply.

Joe won the die roll and chose to play first, and both players were not satisfied with their opening seven. Both kept on six, and Joe had the first play with a second-turn Stoneforge Mystic, which found a Sword of Feast and Famine from his library. Dane chose to dispose of the Mystic with an evoked Shriekmaw, and the board was back to being clear.

That didn't last long, however, as Joe cast a Kitchen Finks, gaining him 2 life upon its entrance to the battlefield (22-20). Dane had no plays, and Joe pushed his board by casting a Sword of Feast and Famine and attacking with his Finks (22-17). Dane again had no plays on his turn. Joe went to equip the Sword, but Dane killed it in response with Agony Warp...until it Persisted (24-17) and Joe equipped the 2/1 Finks.

Dane cast a Clone to copy the Kitchen Finks (24-19), but Joe attacked anyway, realizing that Dane's Finks couldn't block because Joe's had protection from Green (24-15). Dane discarded Sphinx of the Steel Wind after being hit by the sword, setting up a pretty daunting reanimation target. Joe cast a second Finks (26-15) and passed. Dane drew his card and passed back.

After fetching a fifth plains with Arid Mesa (25-15), Joe cast a Baneslayer Angel and attacked again with the Sworded Finks (25-11), forcing Dane to discard a land. Joe equipped the Baneslayer and passed. At end of turn, however, Dane played Makeshift Mannequin on his Sphinx and then Agony Warped the Finks, causing it to persist...and change shape into a second Sphinx.

The pair of Sphinxes were still no match for a 7/7 Baneslayer with Protection from Black, and Dane was only able to summon Cunning Lethemancer before passing. Joe swung in with the Baneslayer (32-4) and then cast Day of Judgment, clearing the board except for his Persisted Finks (34-4). After using an Arid Mesa (33-4) to get another land, he equipped the 2/1 Finks with the sword and passed. Dane drew his card and then scooped.

Joe Hammond 1, Dane Newton 0

Dane chose to play first in game 2, and both players again had to mulligan. Joe kept on 6, but Dane had to go down to 5. He led with a Halimar Depths, and the first play was again Joe's Stoneforge Mystic for Sword of Feast and Famine. Dane did nothing the next two turns, while Joe put the Sword into play with his Mystic. When he went to equip it, however, Dane was ready with an Agony Warp. However, Joe had a second Mystic, and used it to find Sword of Body and Mind.

Dane decided to Clone the enemy Stoneforge Mystic, but failed to find an equipment. His four-mana Squire wasn't too impressive, and it had to chump Joe's mystic after it picked up the Sword of Feast and Famine. On his next turn, Joe cast Sword of Body and Mind after using a fetch land (19-20) and then attacked with the Mystic (19-17). Joe made a Wolf token, while Dane discarded Empyrial Archangel and cast a Mulldrifter on his turn to refill his hand.

However, Joe simply equipped the second sword to his mystic, and swung in undeterred thanks to his protection from blue (19-12). Dane attacked back with his Mulldrifter (17-12) and evoked a second one before passing. Joe retaliated with his Mystic and wolf token (17-5), making a second wolf, and it was clear he was winning the race. He added a Flickerwisp to his board, threatening more than lethal next turn.

Dane knew he had to act quickly, and used Rise from the Grave to recur his Empyrial Archangel. However, Joe's full swing of four creatures meant that the Angel would take 8 damage, so Dane blocked a Wolf and the Flickerwisp with his Angel and Mulldrifter, but his Angel bit the dust. Joe reinforced his commanding position by casting a Sun Titan, recurring Flickerwisp, which in turn flickered Sun Titan, who then brought back Stoneforge Mystic, fetching a Mortarpod. Confusing, no?

Dane made a last ditch effort by Cloning Sun Titan and bringing back a milled Merfolk Looter, but it proved to be too little, too late, as Joe used Path to Exile on both of his blockers and swung in for lethal.

Joe Hammond 2, Dane Newton 0

FM - Finals: Joe Hammond vs. Liz DiGangi

2011-04-19T20:09:00.001-07:00

After six rounds of Magic, it all came down to this last match. Joe and Liz played well against talented opponents to reach their spot in the finals, perhaps drawing on their experience from last semester's Invitational. However, this time around, only one of them would qualify for in the Top 8.

Despite not having a single identical card in their lists, both players' decks attacked the opponent in similar ways. Liz's Jund deck has spent time as an infamous menace of last year's Standard format and this year's Extended format, with its grinding midrange approach. Joe's mono-white deck attacked in a similar way, using trades and long-term card advantage to slowly wear the opponent down. Who would endure the battle in this final match?

Joe won the roll and elected to play first, but both players would have to hold their horses and take a mulligan. Both players kept their six and just had lands on turn 1. Joe cast a second-turn Mortarpod, while Liz had Sygg, River Cutthroat. Joe cast Pilgrim's Eye on his third turn to grab a Plains, and Liz fired back with Kitchen Finks (20-22).

Joe happened to have a Finks of his own (22-22), and swung in with his flying Pilgrim's Eye (22-21). On Liz's turn, she first used a Maelstrom Pulse to remove the Mortarpod, but Joe got a poke in by sacrificing his Germ token in response (22-20). Liz then attacked with Sygg and her Finks. Joe chose to block Sygg with his Finks, which Liz chose to kill in response with Lightning Bolt. Joe's Finks persisted (24-20), but then he took 3 from Liz's Finks (21-20), and Liz drew a card thanks to Sygg's ability.

Joe barreled in with his Thopter again (21-19), and got to reuse it after casting a Flickerwisp. Liz cast Bloodbraid Elf on her turn, and the Cascade Lottery was good to her, revealing her second Kitchen Finks (21-21). Liz attacked with Bloodbraid Elf and the first Finks, and Flickerwisp traded with the hasty Elf Berserker (18-21). Her 3 damage netted Liz another card.

However, after using an Arid Mesa to find a sixth Plains (17-21), Joe took a commanding board presence with a Sun Titan, which recurred a Flickerwisp, which in turn reset the persisted Finks (19-21). Liz continued the stream of hasty creatures, casting a Demigod of Revenge and attacking with it and both of her Kitchen Finks. Joe used Flickerwisp to chump the Demigod, and his Sun Titan and Finks to block the two incoming Finks from Liz. After the battle, one Finks persisted for Joe and both did for Liz (21-23).

On his next turn, Joe dealt with the Demigod thanks to an Oblivion Ring, and cast a Wall of Omens to draw a card. He then attacked with Pilgrim's Eye and Sun Titan, recurring a Flickerwisp and blinking Wall of Omens. Liz took the one in the air and blocked Sun Titan with one of her 2/1 Finks (21-22). Liz had nothing but a land on her turn.

As if this state of semi-infinite Kitchen Finks weren't bad enough, Joe cast his second one (23-22) and repeated his attack from the previous turn - this time bringing Mortarpod back with his Sun Titan. Liz's remaining Finks blocked Sun Titan and Liz hit the Pilgrim's Eye with a Lightning Bolt. However, it was clear that she was low on resources.

She did, however, draw a second Demigod, though it didn't bring back the first one since it was in Oblivion instead of the graveyard. She attacked, but Joe blocked with the 5/4 with his 3/1 Flickerwisp and then shot it for the fourth point of damage with his Mortarpod's Germ token. Joe then launched his most aggressive attack, swinging with 2 Finks and Sun Titan (recurring Flickerwisp on the Wall of Omens). The long forgotten Sygg blocked Sun Titan (23-16), but things were getting out of hand as Joe's steady stream of advantage had finally run Liz out of steam.

After Liz had no play on her next turn, Joe went in for another big hit, equipping his Titan with a newly found Sword of Feast and Famine. He attacked, flinging the Flickerwisp with Mortarpod (23-15) and then bringing it back again. Liz couldn't block (23-7) and discarded a land. She drew yet another one and then packed it in.

Joe Hammond 1, Liz DiGangi 0

Liz chose to play first, but drew poor opening hands and had to mulligan twice, putting her 5 cards at a serious disadvantage against Joe's 7. Joe summoned a Burrenton Forge-Tender on turn one, and had Stoneforge Mystic for Sword of Feast and Famine on turn two, though it ate a Lightning Bolt. Liz removed the pro-red Kithkin with Maelstrom Pulse, but Joe followed it up with a Mirran Crusader, showing his plethora of protection creatures from the sideboard. However, Liz had another Lightning Bolt to stop it.

Liz then went aggressive, casting a Thoughtseize and taking Joe's Sun Titan (20-18). Joe cast Sword of Feast and Famine but had nothing to equip. Liz killed it with another Pulse just to be safe, but Joe had both Burrenton Forge-Tender and another Mystic, this time fetching Sword of Body and Mind. After Liz could only summon Sygg, Joe put the Sword into play, and, after an Arid Mesa activation (19-18), got in with his sworded Forge-Tender (19-15), milling 10 cards and making a Wolf token.

Liz summoned a Boggart Ram-Gang on her next turn and attacked with it, and Joe allowed her to get in the 3 damage and draw a card. However, on his next turn, he played a Kitchen Finks (18-15) and attacked again with his BFT (18-12), making a second Wolf. Liz had no plays, and Joe got in with the 3/3 yet again (18-9). He pressed his board further by blinking Kitchen Finks with a Flickerwisp (20-9).

Liz went for one last assault, casting Bloodbraid Elf and cascading into a second Ram-Gang, attacking with all three. However, Joe had an army of Wolves to block with, and once he cast a Flickerwisp to bounce Sygg, the path was clear for his lethal damage.

Joe Hammond 2, Liz DiGangi 0

Qualifier Final Results & Invitational Preview

2011-04-19T20:04:00.001-07:00

Following the playoff rounds, the final standings of the Qualifier were:

1. Mono-White Flicker by Joe Hammond

2. Jund by Liz DiGangi

3. UB Reanimator by Dane Newton

4. Naya Aggro by John Kreinbring

Congrats to Joe for taking the last spot in the Invitational. I hope lots of people will come on Sunday, as there will be lots of fun for everyone, even those not in the top 8. The Top 8 will play 2 rounds of Standard, 3 rounds of Draft, and then a Top 4 Playoff in Standard.

Side events will begin with a 3-round Standard event at 10 A.M. After a brief break, we will have a couple fun and exciting new events. First, around 1 P.M., I will host the inaugural Magic Jeopardy! event, where you can test your knowledge of Magic against your peers and see who is the nerdiest planeswalker of them all. After Jeopardy! is over, we will attempt to play the largest multiplayer game in FITSSFF history, doing a Chaos EDH game. The winner will receive one pack for each player in the game.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you Saturday!

- Dom

Draft Results & Final Spring Standings

2011-04-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Despite the unfortunate failure of the U.S. Postal Service to get us the assorted booster packs we intended to use for the Uber Draft to my house on time, 14 players came out for an impromptu draft of the block du jour, Scars of Mirrodin. Some added excitement came from the group of people in the race for the top 7. Nearly everyone ranked between 4th and 12th was in attendance, trying to earn automatic qualification for the Spring Invitational. There was also supposed to be drama among the top two players who were to be fighting one last time for the semester points lead, but unfortunately Hunter was unable to attend the event due hasty homework beats, and thus Michael Carney has become the final semester points leader, so congrats to him.

To add some excitement and parity to the players trying to qualify, we decided to put all the players near the bubble at the same table. This made for an exciting event, as players only played against their own tables in the first two rounds. In the end, however, yours truly finally pulled out of his Magic slump and got to do his two favorite things - tap Islands and draw cards:

4/11/11 Top Finishers: SOM/MBS Draft

1. 4-0 UR Control by Dominic Casali

2. 3-1 GB Infect by Mike Mooty

3. 3-1 Rw Aggro by Jordan Arnold

4. 2-1-1 BGW Midrange by Bryant Benson

Among the bubble players, we saw the return of Jason D'Mellow, who came out of his Magic hibernation to earn three league points and secure his spot in the Invitational. Skye Kutner, the player sitting in eighth place at the start of the event, had an uncharacteristically large number of Plains in his deck, and despite Dispensing some Justice, he was unable to pass any of the players in front of him. The same went for John and Kevin, who had rocky drafts and were unable to put multiple wins together.

Thanks to an unusual number of matches ending in draws, me, Mooty, and Jordan were the only players at 2-0 after the second round. The third round saw me use a slow, grinding approach with Vedalken Anatomist and Steel Hellkite to escape Mooty's impressive poison onslaught, which included Skithiryx and Phyrexian Crusader. Jordan's "limited Kuldotha Red" deck stormed by Kevin's poison deck to join me at 3-0.

In the finals, I lost a very anticlimactic game one after a mulligan to five while Jordan opened on turn 1 Kuldotha Rebirth, turn 2 Contested War Zone. In game 2, Jordan was the player taking the mulligans, and I stymied an early Goblin onslaught and put nine power of flyers into play with a Sky-Eel School and two Serum Rakers. However, Jordan summoned a Hoard-Smelter Dragon and stopped my flying assault. But, eventually I was able to trade two flyers for the dragon and soon afterwards clean up with Steel Hellkite. Game three was the best game of the match, with Jordan applying pressure with Concussive Bolts and a Kuldotha Flamefiend. However, after Turning the Flamefiend to Slag, Steel Hellkite came down just in time to save the day yet again, and when Jordan couldn't forge a removal spell, my dragon soon took down the match.

So, the Top 7 is set, as are the byes for Sunday's Invitational Qualifier. Here are the final League Standings with some extra annotations to indicate byes and the like:

1***. 73 - Michael Carney (18)

2***. 67 - Hunter Garrett (13)

3***. 58 - Michael Smith (14)

4***. 48 - Jordan Arnold (10)

5***. 44 - Chris Pear (15)

6***. 43 - Noah Senzel (15)

7***. 42 - Jason D'Mellow (7)

8**. 39 - Skye Kutner (11)

9**. 38 - Bryant Benson (9)

10**. 37 - John Kreinbring (12)

11**. 36 - Liz DiGangi (10)

12**. 35 - Kevin Hoover (13)

13**. 35 - Dane Newton (7)

14*. 32 - Scott Record (7)

15*. 30 - Joe Hammond (11)

16*. 30 - Mike Mooty (5)

17*. 25 - Kevin Crowley (7)

18. 16 - Roy Mustang (9)

19. 14 - Hannah Sharp (6)

20. 12 - Helen Croce (2)

21. 11 - Max Kruger (5)

22. 11 - Will Sturges (4)

23. 10 - Anna Hallahan (4)

24. 9 - Michael Cambata (4)

25. 9 - Haren Lalchand (3)

26. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

27. 7 - Steven Nelson (5)

28. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

29. 6 - Tyler Deforge (5)

29. 6 - Joe Kozlowski (5)

31. 6 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

32. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

33. 5 - Richie Harper (4)

34. 5 - Nick Catalfano (3)

34. 5 - Emile Paul (3)

36. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

37. 3 - David Jacobsen (2)

38. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

39. 2 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

39. 2 - Luke Glesener (1)

39. 2 - Will Siu (1)

42. 1 - Zach Barton (1)

42. 1 - Gus Bora (1)

42. 1 - Kyle Coleman (1)

42. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

42. 1 - Dan Gorelik (1)

42. 1 - Dan Hooghkirk (1)

42. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

42. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

42. 1 - Christina Termini (1)

42. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

* = Player has earned 1 bye in Qualifier

** = Player has earned 2 byes in Qualifier

*** = Player has automatically qualified for Invitational

As I mentioned last week, the Qualifier will be Extended format, this Sunday beginning at 2:30 (registration begins at 2; try to be there by 2:15 if you have no byes, 3:15 if you have 1 bye, or 4:00 if you have two byes). There will be some alternate activity for the Top 7 players to do (probably just some EDH matches), and that will also be announced later in the week, but it will not be a draft as previously announced, as I had to use extra packs for this draft instead. I'll figure something out and include it in the next email.

The long-lost, infamous 2-day shipping box arrived today (a week after shipping), and the Uber Draft will be on the last study day, which is Friday, April 29 at 1 P.M. Thank you all for your patience and understanding regarding this scheduling change.

Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully see many of you on Sunday!

- Dom

Details for Extended Qualifier and Spring Invitational

2011-04-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

The semester is approaching its conclusion, and it will soon be time to finish it off with some very exciting events. Some of the logistics and scheduling are fairly detailed and perhaps a little confusing, so I'm going to walk you through everything one step at a time. When you're done reading this, hopefully everything will make sense, but if not you can always contact me with any questions.

This Sunday, April 10, will be the Uber Draft - the last event for Spring League Points. After the Uber draft, I will post the final spring standings, and the top 7 players in the standings will qualify for the Spring Top 8 Invitational (and will get to draft with me during the Qualifier), which will take place on Saturday, April 23. I know what you're thinking..."but Dom, how come only 7 people qualify for the Top 8 Invitational? It is, after all, called the Top 8 Invitational. Why don't you just call it the Top 7 Invitational, then?"

Despite what popular rumors might claim, being able to count is a prerequisite for entry into the chemical engineering program. What I've decided to do is have one last tournament with the final spot in the Invitational on the line - primarily because there are about 14-17 people that are really close to the top 7-8, and they've all worked very hard for their points this semester. So, I want to give the people that fall just short one last chance to qualify.

To reward them further for their diligence throughout the semester, the players near the top of the standings will be awarded byes for the early rounds of the Qualifier, which will be an Extended tournament on Sunday, April 17. Players in the Qualifier with more than 35 League Points will be awarded two byes in the Swiss rounds, while players between 25 and 35 League Points will receive one bye. Players with fewer than 25 League Points will receive no byes, but may enter the event and can still win it the "old-fashioned way" by starting at the beginning. This event will include 5 Swiss rounds followed by a cut to the top 8. All participants must pay the full entry fee ($2 for entry or $5 for an entry plus a pack) regardless of the number of byes awarded to them.

As mentioned before, the winner of the Qualifier will receive the last spot in the Invitational (and there will be the usual set of prizes just like there would be for any other event). The top 8 will then face off in their own separate event on Saturday, April 23. It will consist of 2 rounds of Standard and 3 rounds of MBS-SOM-SOM draft, followed by a cut to Top 4. The Top 4 will then play two rounds of single-elimination Standard to determine the Spring Invitational champion. There will be a $12 Invitational Fee assessed to each player to cover product and prize costs.

Those who do not qualify for the Invitational, however, will still have plenty of Magic to play. While the Invitational is going on, I will be running side events much like I did last year. This time, the side events will include a Standard event, a draft, and 4-man chaos Commander (EDH) pods. All of these will have different entry fees and prizes that will be announced by the time the Qualifier rolls around.

Check the Upcoming Events in the upper right section of the screen for more detailed scheduling and other details. Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys at the Uber Draft on Sunday!

- Dom

Block Wars Results & Big Standings Update

2011-04-04T14:19:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the newly-created Magic committee for running the Block Wars event while I was out of town. Since I wasn't there, I obviously can't write a summary of it, but if anyone else wants to do that I'll upload it to the site. Here are the results:

1. 4-0 Allies (Zendikar) by Scott Record

2. 3-1 Naya (Shards of Alara) by John Kreinbring

3. 3-1 Tezzeret (Scars of Mirrodin) by Noah Senzel

4. 3-1 Goblins (Onslaught) by Michael Smith

Here's the first standings update in a couple weeks. It includes Block Wars, Relay for Life, and the events in Orlando:

1. 69 - Michael Carney (17)

2. 67 - Hunter Garrett (13)

3. 58 - Michael Smith (14)

4. 43 - Chris Pear (14)

5. 42 - Noah Senzel (14)

6. 42 - Jordan Arnold (9)

7. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

8. 38 - Skye Kutner (10)

9. 36 - John Kreinbring (11)

10. 36 - Liz DiGangi (10)

11. 35 - Dane Newton (7)

12. 34 - Kevin Hoover (12)

13. 33 - Bryant Benson (8)

14. 32 - Scott Record (7)

15. 30 - Joe Hammond (11)

16. 25 - Kevin Crowley (7)

17. 23 - Mike Mooty (4)

18. 16 - Roy Mustang (9)

19. 14 - Hannah Sharp (6)

20. 12 - Helen Croce (2)

21. 11 - Max Kruger (5)

22. 11 - Will Sturges (4)

23. 10 - Anna Hallahan (4)

24. 9 - Michael Cambata (4)

25. 9 - Haren Lalchand (3)

26. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

27. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

28. 6 - Tyler Deforge (5)

28. 6 - Joe Kozlowski (5)

30. 6 - Steven Nelson (4)

31. 6 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

32. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

33. 5 - Richie Harper (4)

34. 5 - Nick Catalfano (3)

34. 5 - Emile Paul (3)

36. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

37. 3 - David Jacobsen (2)

38. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

39. 2 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

39. 2 - Will Siu (1)

41. 1 - Zach Barton (1)

41. 1 - Gus Bora (1)

41. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

41. 1 - Dan Gorelik (1)

41. 1 - Dan Hooghkirk (1)

41. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

41. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

41. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

41. 1 - Christina Termini (1)

41. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

A post about the Uber draft and the Invitational Qualifier will be up by Tuesday night. Have a good week!

- Dom

Legacy Swiss Rounds Recap

2011-03-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

A somewhat modest number of 12 players showed up to sling some of the the most powerful cards in Magic's history - or at least proxies of some of the most powerful cards in Magic's history. After a long delay due to several people failing to correctly operate alarm clocks, printers, and scissors, we finally began our venture into the vast domain of the Legacy format.

After testing a mono-blue High Tide combo deck all week, I decided on Friday night to switch to Dark Horizons, Legacy's Rock deck that is named after a one-of, Horizon Canopy. It seemed like a good switch after a fairly uneventful 2-0 win, while Emile, who was borrowing the High Tide deck, only scraped out a draw against Skye's Standard-legal Kuldotha Red deck. Jordan also picked up a first round win in the days first episode of Dragons vs. Hydra, where his Dragonstorm combo deck proved to be faster than Carney's Natural Order/Progenitus combo.

My good start came to a startling halt, however, after narrowly losing to Hunter's Goblin Welder/Metalworker deck due to some sort of fusion of me being a bad player and being unable to understand Goblin Welder's obnoxious Oracle text, which sounds like it was written in a courtroom. Michael Smith also quietly moved to 2-0 with his red/blue/green Counterburn deck, which seemed to be well-suited against the combo-heavy metagame.

A couple players emerged from the middle of the pack in round 3 to reach 2-1, including Joe Hammond, who was piloting some sort of hybrid concoction between Ad Nauseam Tendrils and Imperial Painter, the deck which took him to the top 4 in the previous Legacy event. Smith became the lone 3-0 player after a close match against Hunter. Another player, Noah, had also moved to 2-1 after beating me with a nearly identical Metalworker list, setting up an interesting mirror match in the final round of Swiss.

In round 4, Hunter narrowly edged out the Metalworker mirror, winning a tense third game where he drew the land he needed just before Noah could find the finisher his mana-heavy draw lacked. Carney won an equally tense match with Joe that you can read about below. Michael Smith remained undefeated after a win against Jordan's storm deck, but by solidifying Jordan's tiebreakers in the process, little did he know that he would be in for quite the Gruesome Encore in the top 4, which was used instead of top 8 due to the fairly low number of players...

FM - Round 4: Michael Carney vs. Joe Hammond

2011-03-22T18:16:00.001-07:00

[Skye will edit this in when he is done with the report]

FM - Semifinals: Hunter Garrett vs. Michael Carney

2011-03-22T18:15:00.002-07:00

As the abridged playoff rounds got underway, the two points leaders squared off with the semester points lead on the line. Both players went 3-1 in the Swiss; Carney was playing his Bant Natural Order deck while Hunter was playing the Goblin Welder/Metalworker deck - two decks that can be described by the uncommon blend of aggro and combo strategies. After a pair of prolific die rolls that gave Hunter a 3-2 win, he chose to play first and both players kept their starting hands.

Hunter tried to go big right from the start, first playing a Wasteland and then casting Mox Diamond by discarding a Great Furnace. He tapped his two mana sources to cast a Grim Monolith, which he immediately tapped to play Voltaic Key and potentially untap the Monolith, but Carney decided that was enough for one turn and countered the Key with Force of Will, exiling a Spell Pierce (20-19). Carney was content to take a more modern turn of Misty Rainforest, which he sacrificed for a basic Forest (20-18), carefully playing around Hunter's Wasteland, and then passed.

Hunter played a Great Furnace on his turn, tapping his three available mana sources for a Metalworker. Carney had no turn two plays, content to lay down a Tropical Island and ship the turn back. Hunter immediately shot it down with Wasteland after untapping, using his Metalworker to power out a Kuldotha Forgemaster. However, it soon met a Swords to Plowshares from Carney (23-18), which he cast off a Tundra.

Undeterred, Hunter used his Metalworker again to cast a Lodestone Golem and pass. Carney peeled a second Swords to Plowshares, which he chose to use to dispose of the Metalworker (24-18) before it could power out any more fatties. The Lodestone Golem, however, made its presence felt, getting in for 5 since Carney surprisingly controlled no creatures (24-13). A Verdant Catacombs for a Tundra solved that (24-12) and allowed Carney to cast a 3/4 Tarmogoyf.

However, Lodestone Golem doesn't afraid of anything, so he charged into the red zone again. Carney elected to trade his Goyf for it. The reasoning for this attack became apparent in the second main phase when Hunter cast Goblin Welder before ending his turn. Carney played a Brainstorm on his turn, using Windswept Heath (24-11) to shuffle away two unwanted cards, and then played Green Sun's Zenith for 2 to search up a Qasali Pridemage, but couldn't use its ability yet because he had no mana remaining.

Hunter played a Voltaic Key and used it to finally untap the Grim Monolith he had played on turn one. He then tapped it immediately to play Crucible of Worlds, and played a Wasteland from his graveyard, removing Carney's Tundra. Carney played a Noble Hierarch on his next turn and then attacked with the Pridemage for four thanks to double Exalted (20-11) before sacrificing it to destroy the Crucible. Hunter responded by Welding it into Lodestone Golem.

Hunter appeared to be setting up another big play on his next turn, using Voltaic Key to untap Grim Monolith and cast a Metalworker, but his line of play changed course when he sacrificed it to Goblin Welder to bring back the Crucible, obviously trying to keep Carney off of Natural Order by using his Wasteland from the graveyard to destroy a Tropical Island, leaving Carney with just Forest and Savannah along with his Hierarch. Hunter beat down with the Golem (20-6) and passed.

Carney played a new Tropical Island and stopped the Golem's assault with a 9/9 Knight of the Reliquary. However, Hunter had Wurmcoil Engine on his next turn, and things began to look grim for the Bant deck. He Brainstormed into a Dryad Arbor and traded his Knight for the Wurmcoil (26-6), but this became moot quite quickly, as Goblin Welder brought the Wurmcoil right back. The trio of angry wurms was enough to earn a concession.

Hunter Garrett 1, Michael Carney 0

Carney chose to play first in game 2, but had to take a mulligan, while Hunter was content with his starting hand. Carney led with a Tropical Island and no action, while Hunter played a Wasteland, but chose to cast a Voltaic Key instead of taking the land destruction path again. Carney played a forest and a Green Sun's Zenith for 1, grabbing a Noble Hierarch from his library.

Hunter played a City of Traitors, which he immediately tapped to cast a Grim Monolith, using the Monolith to cast Trinisphere. Carney used his next turn to cast the ever-popular three-mana Ponder and play a Misty Rainforest. Hunter destroyed Tropical Island with his Wasteland at the end of the turn, but had no play on his own turn. Carney played a Dryad Arbor on his turn, lamenting the fact that it is the only land in the history of Magic with summoning sickness and wondering why he had it in his deck. However, he did have Green Sun's Zenith for 2, finding Qasali Pridemage, but only after using his two fetch lands (20-18).

Hunter had another turn of nothing, and Carney pulled the trigger on Natural Order, sacrificing his (apparently) useless Dryad Arbor and turning it into everyone's favorite Hydra Avatar, Progenitus. Since the 10/10 apparently wasn't good enough, he swung with his Pridemage for four as well (16-18). On his turn, Hunter finally had a play in Lodestone Golem and then Chalice of the Void for 1, but it was little help against a 10/10 with protection from everything. That 10/10 soon became 12/12 after two exalted triggers (after all, who wouldn't exalt Progenitus?), and Hunter's time was soon running out (4-18). After drawing his card, Hunter conceded and we were on to game 3.

Hunter Garrett 1, Michael Carney 1

The battle for the points lead and a spot in the finals came down to one game, which Hunter chose to play first in. However, both players took an excursion to Paris, with Hunter going down to 6 and Carney going down to just 5. Hunter led with a Great Furnace, which he used to cast Sensei's Divining Top. A Mox Opal gave him turn 1 metalcraft, allowing him to spin the Top. Carney led off with a Tropical Island and a Ponder, choosing not to shuffle.

Hunter spent his turn 2 Wasting the Tropical Island and casting Chalice of the Void for 1. The play appeared useful, as Carney had no play other than Windswept Heath. Hunter developed his mana further with a Mox Diamond (discarding Ancient Tomb) after using the Top during his upkeep. He then drew a card with the Top, putting it on top of his library. He cast a Phyrexian Revoker naming Qasali Pridemage and passed. Carney used his Heath at end of turn (20-19), finding a basic Forest to steer clear of Wasteland.

On his turn, Carney played a Tundra and cast a relatively weak Tarmogoyf, who was only 2/3 courtesy of lands and sorceries. Hunter had no play on turn 4, and Carney used his turn to cast Green Sun's Zenith for 1 to find a Noble Hierarch before attacking with his Exalted 'Goyf (17-19). Strangely, Hunter again had nothing to add to his board, and settled for just attacking with the Revoker (17-17). Carney used a Misty Rainforest to find Tropical Island (17-16) and cast a Ponder, only to find it countered by the Chalice.

Carney then paused and regrouped from his mistake, attacking again with Tarmogoyf (14-16) and then playing a 5/5 Knight of the Reliquary. Hunter played a Trinisphere and passed, but that seemed to be fairly irrelevant at this point, as Carney had plenty of mana to cast Green Sun's Zenith for 3 and find a Rhox War Monk. He attacked through with his Knight (8-16) before ending his turn.

Hunter dropped a Metalworker and passed, possibly giving him a shot at a big turn if he could survive Carney's next attack. Carney swung with Goyf, Knight, and War Monk, earning a chump block from the Revoker on the Knight (3-19). Carney added Qasali Pridemage to his board via Green Sun's Zenith after combat, and Hunter had to act immediately.

He first tapped the Metalworker for 8 mana, casting Kuldotha Forgemaster and Duplicant, which exiled Knight of the Reliquary. However, now with Revoker off the field, Qasali Pridemage was able to take out the Forgemaster, and with artifact and creature now in graveyards, the team of Tarmogoyf and Rhox War Monk was enough to push 3 damage through one blocker.

Michael Carney 2, Hunter Garrett 1

FM - Finals: Michael Carney vs. Jordan Arnold

2011-03-22T18:15:00.001-07:00

The finals of the Legacy tournament featured a rematch from round 1, pitting Carney's Bant Natural Order deck against Jordan's mono-red Dragonstorm - dubbed by me earlier in the day as Hydra vs. Dragons. Both players had teamed up to win the Emperor Draft a few weeks ago, but who would emerge victorious when they were on opposite sides of the table? There was only one way to find out, so the players shuffled up and prepared to start the final match. Carney won the roll and chose to play, as both players kept their opening seven.

Carney started with a Misty Rainforest, which he popped for a Tropical Island after Jordan played a Mountain and passed (19-20). Carney used Verdant Catacombs to find a Savannah (18-20), and ramped his mana by using Green Sun's Zenith for 1 to put a Noble Hierarch into play. Jordan played a second Mountain and cast Pyretic Ritual, but it met Force of Will, exiling Spell Pierce (17-20).

With his opponent set back, Carney set off his own combo, casting a third-turn Natural Order, turning his Hierarch into Progenitus after finding another Tropical Island with Windswept Heath (16-20). Jordan drew a card and passed, and the game was over shortly after it had began. After Carney added on a Tarmogoyf for good measure and attacked with Progenitus (6-20), Jordan packed it in.

Michael Carney 1, Jordan Arnold 0

Both players kept again in game 2, and Jordan was on a mission to end it even faster than the first game ended. He played two Rites of Flame, followed by Seething Song and Pyretic Ritual, which wasn't enough for Dragonstorm, but was good enough to cast Empty the Warrens for 10 Goblins. Carney had the rather underwhelming play of land, Ponder before passing.

Jordan swung with all his Goblins (10-20) and decided that was enough for his turn. Carney drew and played a second Ponder, which met Pyroblast from Jordan. It was already time for game 3.

Michael Carney 1, Jordan Arnold 1

"I wonder if they're going to play Magic this game," an onlooker joked as they shuffled up for game 3. Jordan took a mulligan to 6 while Carney kept his opener and led with a Tundra. Jordan played a Spinerock Knoll and suspended a Lotus Bloom. Carney used Windswept Heath to find a Savannah (19-20) on his next turn, but still had no other plays. Jordan also added nothing to the board, but prepared for a big future turn by playing Molten Slagheap and suspending a second Lotus Bloom.

Carney finally had a play in the form of Qasali Pridemage, along with laying down a Verdant Catacombs but choosing not to activate it just yet. Jordan put a storage counter on his Slagheap, but had no plays after untapping. Carney popped the Catacombs for a Tropical Island (18-20) and used Brainstorm at the end of Jordan's turn. After untapping, he played two Noble Hierarchs and beat down with his thrice-exalted Pridemage (18-15). Jordan was content to put a second storage counter on his Slagheap.

On his next turn, Jordan's first Lotus Bloom was cast from suspension, and it resolved. Jordan then removed the two storage counters from his Slagheap to make two mana and cast Desperate Ritual, but it met a Spell Pierce. Jordan used a Ricochet Trap to make the Spell Pierce counter the Trap instead of the Ritual, but Carney just played another Spell Pierce following a fetch land activation (17-15), and this one stopped the Ritual. Jordan had to pass the turn back.

Carney again attacked with his Pridemage, who represented a fast clock (17-10), but he had no further plays. Jordan's second Lotus Bloom resolved. Jordan then went big, casting a Seething Song off his three lands and then sacrificing both Lotus Blooms. He then cast a Dragonstorm, and even though he got only three Bogardan Hellkites instead of the ideal four, he was able to clear Carney's field and put a big dent in his life total (6-10). Carney had Swords to Plowshares for one Dragon (6-15), but was unable to find an answer to a second one, and that was all she wrote.

Jordan Arnold 2, Michael Carney 1

Finally Legacy Results & Standings Update

2011-03-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

After factoring in the Top 4 Playoff results, here are the final standings:

1. Dragonstorm by Jordan Arnold

2. Natural Order by Michael Carney

4. Counterburn by Michael Smith

4. Metalwelder by Hunter Garrett

Here are updated League Standings, which include FITCON events and the Legacy tournament:

1. 60 - Michael Carney (14)

2. 58 - Hunter Garrett (11)

3. 44 - Michael Smith (12)

4. 40 - Jordan Arnold (8)

5. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

6. 38 - Skye Kutner (10)

7. 36 - Chris Pear (12)

8. 34 - Kevin Hoover (12)

9. 34 - Liz DiGangi (9)

10. 33 - Noah Senzel (12)

11. 33 - Bryant Benson (6)

12. 29 - John Kreinbring (10)

13. 28 - Dane Newton (7)

14. 27 - Joe Hammond (10)

15. 25 - Kevin Crowley (7)

16. 24 - Scott Record (6)

17. 23 - Mike Mooty (4)

18. 16 - Roy Mustang (9)

19. 12 - Hannah Sharp (4)

20. 11 - Max Kruger (5)

21. 11 - Will Sturges (4)

22. 10 - Anna Hallahan (4)

23. 10 - Helen Croce (1)

24. 9 - Haren Lalchand (3)

25. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

26. 7 - Michael Cambata (3)

27. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

28. 6 - Tyler Deforge (5)

28. 6 - Joe Kozlowski (5)

30. 6 - Steven Nelson (4)

31. 6 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

32. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

33. 5 - Richie Harper (4)

34. 5 - Emile Paul (3)

35. 4 - Nick Catalfano (2)

36. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

37. 3 - David Jacobsen (2)

38. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

38. 2 - Will Siu (1)

40. 1 - Zach Barton (1)

40. 1 - Gus Bora (1)

40. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

40. 1 - Dan Gorelik (1)

40. 1 - Dan Hooghkirk (1)

40. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

40. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

40. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

40. 1 - Christina Termini (1)

40. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

Thanks to those who came out for Legacy and I hope to see lots of you at Relay, where there will be $5 8-man constructed events throughout the night! Also, good luck to everyone playing in Orlando this weekend!

- Dom

Invitational Qualification Changes & Game Day Standings Update

2011-03-08T21:41:00.000-08:00

I first want to announce that there will be an exciting twist to qualification for the invitational. Since so many people are competing hard for the top 8 spots, I've decided that it is only fair to give everyone who misses one last shot at qualifying for the invitational. So, now only the top 7 players will automatically qualify for the invitational, and the last spot will be given to the winner of a tournament that will take place one week before the invitational (this will be the weekend of April 16-17 and the format will probably be Extended).

To reward the people that come close to the top 7 but fall just short, some automatic byes will be awarded to players with more League points, but anyone will be eligible to enter as long as they have played in at least one event previously. I will post more specifics once the event gets closer.

I unfortunately wasn't able to attend Mirrodin Besieged Game Day, but several other players did and I hear it was a fun event. Congrats to Skye for finishing second and to several others from our group who also made top 8. I am proud that our group usually performs well at off-site events, and this was no exception. Here are the updated League Standings accounting for this event:

1. 53 - Michael Carney (12)

2. 53 - Hunter Garrett (9)

3. 39 - Michael Smith (11)

4. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

5. 37 - Skye Kutner (9)

6. 35 - Chris Pear (11)

7. 34 - Liz DiGangi (9)

8. 33 - Bryant Benson (6)

9. 32 - Kevin Hoover (11)

10. 31 - Noah Senzel (11)

11. 28 - Dane Newton (7)

12. 26 - Joe Hammond (9)

13. 26 - Jordan Arnold (6)

14. 25 - John Kreinbring (9)

15. 25 - Kevin Crowley (7)

16. 24 - Scott Record (6)

17. 23 - Mike Mooty (4)

18. 16 - Roy Mustang (9)

19. 12 - Hannah Sharp (4)

20. 11 - Max Kruger (5)

21. 11 - Will Sturges (4)

22. 10 - Anna Hallahan (4)

23. 10 - Helen Croce (1)

24. 9 - Haren Lalchand (3)

25. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

26. 7 - Michael Cambata (3)

27. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

28. 6 - Steven Nelson (4)

29. 6 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

30. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

31. 5 - Tyler Deforge (4)

31. 5 - Richie Harper (4)

33. 4 - Joe Kozlowski (3)

34. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

35. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

36. 3 - David Jacobsen (2)

37. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

38. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

38. 2 - Will Siu (1)

40. 1 - Gus Bora (1)

40. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

40. 1 - Dan Gorelik (1)

40. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

40. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

40. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

40. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

The events at FITCON have been posted in the Upcoming Events section, so if you're in town try to make at least one of those. Hopefully I'll see you there!

- Dom

Commanders vs. Cancer - Swiss Rounds Recap

2011-02-27T18:47:00.003-08:00

It looked like a usual scene: students scattered about the rows of gray tables of Crawford 403, waiting for the professor to start the day's lesson. But, today's lesson was one of Legendary and sometimes Mythic creatures, a lesson of dragons, beasts, elementals, and, of course, one very tall treefolk. 18 students were eager to engage in the day's lecture on Commander, with the dual purpose of raising money for the FITSSFF Relay for Life team.

After the first couple Swiss rounds went into the books, it looked like it might be a big day for big creatures. John and Bryant both started out strong at 2-0 courtesy of Naya Commanders - Mayael, the Anima and Uril, the Miststalker. Hunter was also going for big green creatures, and he had picked up two wins as well courtesy of Om-Nom-Nom-Nath, Locus of Mana.

Uril took down Omnath in the third round, and two other players joined Bryant at 3-0. Jordan Arnold, a long-time proponent of Savra, Queen of the Golgari, arrived at the event with a mono-red deck with Ashling, the Pilgrim at the helm. With his commander that some of his opponents had to read, Jordan moved to 3-0 after a win over John's Mayael deck. Joining them at 3-0 was Mike Mooty, whose commander was the infamous Zur the Enchanter, who easily puts the opponent into a nearly unstoppable lockdown after just a couple of attacks.

Zur took Mike to 4-0 in the fourth round, leaving him alone in first with an easy draw into the top 8. Another slew of players emerged from the pack at 3-1, primed for a shot at the top 8. Among these were Scott, who was also playing Uril, and Michael Smith's land-destruction deck primed around artifact-based mana sources and the land-ravaging ability of his commander, Numot, the Devastator. Also pulling into 3-1 after a narrow fourth round win was your friendly tournament organizer, playing everyone's favorite treefolk - Doran, the Siege Tower.

Most of the top 8 was decided, but one last spot was up for grabs in a match that pitted Skye, playing Intet, the Dreamer, against Liz, who was playing Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. Liz's commander prevented Skye from using his, since Karrthus takes control of all dragons when he enters the battlefield. After some additional mana problems from Skye, Liz took the match and became the first person to advance to the top 8 of an event despite not arriving at the tournament until after the first round. The top 8 was set - Mooty, Scott, Bryant, Smith, me, Hunter, Liz, and Jordan - and we were off to Chili's and then the top 8.

FM - Quarterfinals: Scott Record vs. Liz DiGangi

2011-02-27T18:47:00.001-08:00

Many thanks to Skye Kutner for doing all of the feature match reports.

This is “Master of Fools” Skye Kutner reporting in from FITSSFF Open Game Day. Here we are in the first round of Top 8 matches for today’s philanthropic Magic event, Commanders Against Cancer. Our first feature match is quarterfinal showdown between Liz “Dragonmaster” DiGangi and Scott Record, who, while having no real nickname, shall henceforth be referred to as Scotty-O’s. Liz’s deck is commanded by the fearsome Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, while for Scott’s deck we see the Naya superhero Uril, the Miststalker fighting solo, being one of the only creatures in the deck. The match started off with a bit of friendly banter as the combatants prepared their decks with a few quick shuffles.

“Don’t go stealing my dragons,” says Scott.

“Eh, well… no guarantees.” Noncommittal to the extreme, Liz is clearly ready to rock out.

Scott wins the die roll and elects to play first. They cut each other’s decks and draw their starting seven. Liz doesn’t seem thrilled with her hand but offers, “It’s interesting. Considering the deck I’m facing, I need to keep this.” Similarly, Scott mentions that his hand was risky but he decides to keep as well. With a flash and a bang, the game was opened with a steaming bowl of Scotty-O’s and an Ancient Tomb powering out a turn one Gruul Signet (38-40). Liz draws her card, calmly plays a Blood Crypt tapped, unphased by the large amount of mana Scott will inevitably produce, and passes the turn.

Scott plays Skarrg, the Rage Pits, and uses it with the signet to cast a Sylvan Scrying. As he was looks through his library, he flicks past a bunch of color-producing lands until he finds Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion. While his only source of colored mana was his signet, I could tell by the way his brows were furrowed that only one thought was passing through his mind right then: Uril with double strike is freakin’ awesome. He takes the Sunhome, not realizing that would mean he has no white source to activate it or even to cast Uril next turn. “Oh wait…” he starts, as soon as he realizes. “Too late, I guess.”

Liz quietly untapps her Ravnica dual land, plays a Tainted Wood - chirping happily when it is verified that her Blood Crypt counts as the swamp she needs for the Wood to produce green mana - and casts a Gruul Signet of her own before passing the turn. Scott draws his card, shaking his head in disdain upon failing to see a white source. He plays an unintimidating mountain to his otherwise intimidating set of lands and passes the turn back.

Liz readies her best poker face. “I see your Skarrg, the Rage Pits and raise you a Skarrg, the Rage Pits.” Having played her land for the turn, she then tapps out for a Wickerbough Elder and ends her turn. Scott shows her one up by playing the Sunhome he searched for on turn two, but that is his only play.

On Liz’s turn, she plays a Sakura-Tribe Elder, instantly sacrificing it for a mountain. She passes the turn without swinging with the Wickerbough Elder or removing its -1/-1 counter to destroy Scott’s only source of green. This is wonderful news for Scott, as it allows him to cast a Birds of Paradise. While it is his only move this turn, it should allow him – assuming it lives – to start casting more threatening spells, such as his commander. That said, a turn three Uril would have been far more terrifying (and lethal).

On her turn, Liz casts a Rampant Growth to fetch another mountain, then swings for 3 with her Wickerbough Elder (35-40) and passes her turn. Scott plays a Fire-Lit Thicket, happy to be able to make some colored mana, and casts Uril off the tomb, using his birds to produce the white (33-40), then enchants it with a Shield of the Oversoul, which Liz promptly destroys with a Krosan Grip when Scott tries to end his turn. Had the shield stuck, Uril would have been a 9/9 flying monstrosity. Poor Scotty-O would have to settle for a 5/5… for now.

Liz immediately goes on the counteroffensive by playing an Ancient Ziggurat and tapping all but a forest to summon Karrthus and swinging for a very hasty 7 points of damage. (26-40) [7 Karrthus]

Scott untaps, sets down a Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, and casts a Sterling Grove to protect his next batch of auras. He then tries to enchant Uril with a Snake Umbra. Liz uses her final point of mana and her Wickbough Elder’s -1/-1 counter to destroy the grove, but Scott just sacrifices it in response to fetch out another aura. He looks through his deck for a little while, eventually deciding on a Gaea’s Embrace. Satisfied with his first truly productive turn, he swings for 8. Liz tosses her treefolk in the way of the attack and, being the dutiful, wizened creature that it is, explodes into a thousand splinters, all for the greater good.

“Well, that’s nifty,” said Liz after drawing her card for the turn. Liz taps several of her lands, then untaps them, then taps them again until she has a certain six mana floating in her pool. In an instant that mana shapes itself and takes the form of a menacing Primeval Titan, which fetched a Raging Ravine and a Shizo, Death’s Storehouse. Karrthus then tears unopposed through a large swath of Scott’s life total. (19-40) [14 Karrthus]

With only one turn left on the clock, team Scotty-O’s untaps and bravely slams the Gaea’s Embrace down onto the table, making Uril a 13/13 trampling ophidian with super-shroud. The great beast charges forth, but Primeval Titan’s selfless act of sacrifice to preserve its master’s life shows us all one thing: 6/6's make for great meat shields. (19-33) [14 Karrthus, 7 Uril]

While Liz has several ways to get around Scott’s Birds of Paradise to deliver the killing blow, including activating either Skarrg for +1/+1 and trample or Shizo for fear, she instead chooses to end the game with a dramatic Diabolic Tutor, searching her library for a Terror, which scares the poor birds to death. Soon after, Karrthus swoops in for the kill, sending Liz to the semifinals. (12-33) [21 Karrthus, 7 Uril]

FM - Semifinals: Mike Mooty vs. Dominic Casali

2011-02-27T18:46:00.002-08:00

On the way to the semifinals, we take a look at the other side of the bracket. The villainous Michael Mooty and the magnanimous Dominic Casali square off for a shot at the title. Whose cuisine will reign supreme? Our two planeswalkers prepare the kitchens as the sidekicks for their culinary Chef de Cuisine. In the first corner, we have Chef Zur, an enchanter with a twisted sense of taste; he fell long ago to the dark side of cooking, brandishing wicked, wicked things such as cilantro, mango salsa, and raspberry vinaigrette. In the other, cleaner and more brightly-lit corner, we have Doran Doran, the Siege Tower Man, whose unique style utilizes many earthy roots and herbs, combined with the natural too-good-to-be-true sweetness of honey, harvested from the hive settling beneath his own boughs.

Not wanting their commanders to get their hands dirty before preparing their meals, Sous-Chefs Mooty and Dom roll to see who would take the first pickings. Mooty wins the initial roll and set to gathering only the freshest of ingredients. Neither player is satisfied with their opening hands of musty lands and soggy creatures, so they both take their free mulligans. Not liking what he found in his next seven either, Mooty exasperatedly sighs, “Really?” and reveals his entire hand to Dom.

“You can just pretend to take a normal mulligan by exiling all seven of your cards,” Dom replies.

“Hmm. I guess I shouldn’t have shown you my whole hand.” Mooty pitches five of his cards and draws a fresher four. After shuffling and cutting Mooty’s deck, both players seem satisfied to begin.

On his first turn, Mooty plays a succulent island and passes the turn. Dom draws his card and sets a very sour Seijiri Steppe onto the grille. “I give Skye protection from White until end of turn.”

“You bastard!” I cry, having risen to my feet before I realize I’ve even moved.

Dom innocently counters with, “But don’t you want protection from white?”

Confused and slightly ashamed, I sit quietly again and let the two continue. Mooty sets down another island, this one a more tangy sort, and taps out for a smooth and creamy Marble Diamond. Dom, for his part, lays out a fairly bitter Verdant Catacombs and passes the turn.

Here, Mooty picks up the pace by playing a Terramorphic Expanse and a Coldsteel Heart naming blue. Dom responds by popping his catacombs for a Murmuring Bosk, while Mooty, without hesitation, pops his expanse for a swamp. Now we’re really cookin’ with fire! (40-39)

Dom lays down a savory swamp, and Doran makes his grand entrance. Despite the Wooden Chef boldly sauntering into the kitchen, Dom appears worried. “I don’t know what I’m going to do here,” he mutters. Hopefully Doran will have a better plan than buckwheat pancakes, because those things are nasty.

Mooty draw and thinks for a while. He sets down an Esper Panorama, as if wondering how it might cleanse the palette in preparation of the first course, and thinks some more. “Take your time,” Dom offers. “It’s an untimed round. Obviously there is some option to consider other than casting Zur.”

As if tempted, or double-dog-dared to do so, Mooty summons the reviled Zur, the Enchanter. In the words of my great uncle… Allez cuisine!

Dom plays a plains and swings for 5 and brings some pain. Be careful not to bite your tongue, silly Frenchman! (35-39) [5 Doran]

Dom then anxiously taps out for a Magus of the Disk, hoping to set Zur’s toque aflame. However, Mooty was ready with a fire extinguisher in the form of a Condescend for 1, which let him scry for 2 and place one the cards he saw on the bottom of his library. “I had to try,” Dom said, then dejectedly muttered under his breath, “I need another land…”

Unfazed by the attempt to sully Zur’s garments, the dastardly duo enchants the head chef with a Vanishing before playing an Orzhov Basilica and returning the panorama to hand. Zur then charges across the kitchen to slap Doran with a fish. What will it be? Salmon? Mahi-mahi? No! It is a Diplomatic Immunity to give himself shroud! Thanks to Doran’s ability, Zur’s 4 toughness makes him hit much harder than usual. (35-35) [5 Doran, 4 Zur]

Dom untaps, beats Zur back to his side of the kitchen stadium with a rolling pin, then casts the mighty meat tenderizer better known as a Behemoth Sledge. Unfortunately, he has no land for the turn and must pass his turn with no further action. (30-38) [10 Doran, 4 Zur]

Mooty casts a Phyrexian Arena and sends Zur across the room once again, this time finding a Solitary Confinement. Oh, what a delicious combo! (30-31) [10 Doran, 8 Zur]

Fortunately for the good guys, Dom topdecks an Eiganjo Castle, which he quickly plays, then casts Krosan Grip to destroy the confinement, making Mooty vulnerable once again. With a quick 1-2, Doran delivers another devastating blow. If this keeps up, Zur might be eating nothing but hospital food for a while. (25-31) [15 Doran, 8 Zur]

Mooty draws two cards and loses a life, thanks to the arena, then sends Zur to the other side of the kitchen, this time to fetch a Story Circle naming green. Is Zur a cook or an errand boy? Either way, Mooty is well-protected once again. (24-27) [15 Doran, 12 Zur]

Dom draws a much-needed land, but it was a Terramorphic Expanse, and the forest he immediately fetched with it entered the battlefield tapped, so, after taking a long, weary look at the white enchantment, Dom passed his turn with no action.

Mooty draws another two cards, then swings with Zur to find an Empyreal Armor, which threatens a lethal blow by granting the enchanter +5/+5 (one boost for each of the 5 cards in his hand). A Rootgrapple from Dom attempts to stem the bleeding, but Mooty is prepared with a Rune Snag. It looks like Doran will be needing a sap transplant soon. Quickly now! Someone fetch up a jar of sugary maple goodness! (23-19) [15 Doran, 20 Zur]

Dom casts a last-ditch Gideon Jura to buy him a turn, but that is all he can do. Mooty draws two more cards and swings at the white planeswalker, fetching a Steel of the Godhead. Gideon has a sudden change of heart as his loyalty drops into the negatives and POOF!! He’s outta here! The Godhead aura’s lifelink sends Mooty’s life total skyrocketing. (32-19)

Team Awesome is standing on its last legs as Dom slowly peels the top card off his library as if it were the Holy Grainana. Unfortunately, a Profane Command isn’t nearly enough to finish off his opponent or even to take down the obscenely beefy Zur. “It’s too late,” Dom says. “Would’ve helped a few turns ago.” He casts a Linvala, Keeper of Silence, and passes. It will do him no good, though, as Zur is currently unblockable.

Mooty draws another two cards, and Zur closes up shop for the night. Mooty has once again tasted sweet, sweet victory, advancing to the finals. But he’d best watch his back: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

FM - Finals: Mike Mooty vs. Hunter Garrett

2011-02-27T18:46:00.001-08:00

And here we are, folks! The end of the end. The battle to decide all battles forevermore. (until the next tournament, of course.) Standing face-to-face in a pit of agony and death where so many have fallen before them, we see this night’s boogeyman, Michael Mooty’s seemingly undefeatable Zur the Enchanter set against Hunter Garrett’s mighty Omnath, Locus of Mana in a battle to the death. I was about to ask if Hunter was nervous coming into what would prove to be a vicious bloodbath when he began laughing and said, “I’ve gotten so lucky to make it this far. I don’t think this deck is half bad, but it shouldn’t be this good.” He looked over at Mooty and added, “You’re right where you should be, though.”

Mooty once again wins the die roll and decides to make the first move. I notice Mooty looking over at my screen on occasion in an attempt to find out what I’m writing about him. I tell him he shouldn’t look because I might be writing sensitive information about either side and don’t want to give him any clues as to what the right play might be. He responds by claiming that I might be talking smack about him or writing nonsense that has nothing to do with the truth of the matter. I relent, but decide to punish him get at him in a different sort of way…

The two shuffle their decks and make their cuts. Hunter fumbles with Mooty’s cards and spills them across the table, some face-up. “I guess you need to shuffle again,” Hunter jokes. As Mooty reshuffles his deck he looks over to my screen, only to find the words “MOOTY, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, GO [insert inappropriate action to be performed with an obscure animal]” Mooty bursts into hysterics.

“I’ll keep writing these throughout the match so that you stop reading my screen,” I say.

Bryant pops over and says, “No, he’ll keep reading them and laugh.”

“Then he’ll be distracted,” I reply, “and Hunter will have the edge!”

Mooty gives me a hurt look. “You’re on his side?!”

I give him a look that plainly matches my retort: “Duh. You’re the villain here!”

Once both players have drawn their cards, Mooty decides to keep while Hunter mutters, “I’m not really a fan of this hand, so I’m going to mulligan. I had a Kozilek, but…” before trailing off. Earlier in the tournament, Hunter took a very quick victory off the back of a turn 4 Kozilek. He would need a similar miracle to win here. So Hunter takes his free mulligan. Then, not happy enough with his new hand, he sets three cards aside and draws two more. At last, the battle commences.

Mooty plays first turn Marsh Flats and instantly sacrifices it for a plains. (39-40)

Hunter starts off by playing a forest and casting a Birds of Paradise. This could mean something exciting is waiting in the wings.

Mooty plays a Scaldimg Tarn and, before ending his turn, sacrifices it for an island and then casts a Sky Diamond. (38-40)

Hunter, for his turn, plays another forest and casts Omnath.

Mooty untaps, then casts a Prismatic Lens and a Sphere of the Suns. “We both missed our land drops,” Mooty comments.

Hunter gives him a level gaze and responds, “No, that was only my second turn.” Whoops.

Ready to take his turn, Hunter untaps, then plays another forest and taps all of his mana sources for 4 green mana. Omnath swings in for 5 before Hunter spends the mana to cast a Cultivate and suspend a Search for Tomorrow. Hunter ends his turn with Omnath once again an unassuming 1/1. (33-40) [5 Omnath]

Mooty stares at his landless hand for a while, then draws his card and, with a mix of disappointed surprise and matter-of-factness, says, “Really.” He casts an Everflowing Chalice, kicked twice, and ends his turn. Hunter untaps, plays another forest, then taps all his lands and his birds to swing for what would have been 6 damage… if not for Mooty’s interfering Path to Exile targeting the commander. Hunter’s mana dissipates harmlessly (Oh, mana burn, how we miss you so!) and he passes his turn.

Mooty decides to be boring and play a Drowned Catacombs. Then he decides to be a jerk and casts Zur, the Enchanter before ending his turn. Hunter untaps again, then during his upkeep casts Search for Tomorrow off of suspend. “Counter?” Hunter asks curiously.

Mooty just laughs. “No.” Hunter searches for a forest, then in his main phase casts Strata Scythe. Mooty laughs again and says, “Yeah, that’s okay.” Hunter promptly exiles a forest and equips the scythe to the birds. Mooty’s eye bugs out when the colorful mana-maker bashes in for 7. “I wasn’t expecting you to equip it to that thing.” (26-40)

Zur swings on Mooty’s turn and, after much deliberation, finds a Diplomatic Immunity. “I was thinking of trying something different, like Declaration of Naught naming Omnath.” (26-39) [5 Omnath, 1 Zur]

Hunter casts an Explore, plays his first forest of the turn, then casts Land Grant by revealing his hand so he can find another forest. In doing so, he revealed a Rampaging Baloths, a Green Sun’s Zenith, and a Baru, Fist of Krosa. He casts Baru, and then sends the birds charging in with its gigantic scythe in its beak. Unfortunately for Hunter, his birds decide to take the scythe to the farmland as Mooty shows him a Swords to Plowshares. (26-48)

Mooty untaps, then swings and finds a Solitary Confinement to invalidate any realistic form of offense Hunter might try to muster. (26-47) [5 Omnath, 2 Zur]

On his turn, Hunter attempts to recast Omnath, but is foiled by a Thoughtbind. He equips the scythe to Baru and passes. During his upkeep, Mooty discards an Eel Umbra to Solitary Confinement, then swings and fetches an Ophidian Eye so that he can have extra cards to pitch to the Confinement. (26-46) [5 Omnath, 3 Zur]

Hunter casts Omnath for the third time this game, and he resolves. Having nothing else to do, he passes the turn. Mooty discards a Skycloud Expanse to the Confinement, then swings. Hunter taps 4 mana, presumable to make Omnath bigger, as Zur fetches a Phyrexian Arena. “Hmm… you have no nonbasic lands,” Mooty mutters. (26-45) [5 Omnath, 4 Zur]

“Is that relevant?” Hunter asks. At this point, Mooty finally looks over at my screen again and sees, in giant letters, “MOOTY, YOU’RE GONNA LOSE,” and, “MOOTY YOU’RE GOING TO RECEIVE A PACKAGE IN THE MAIL… A BOX OF FAIL.”

Hunter casts a Green Sun’s Zenith for 4 and Mooty taps some lands. “Umm…” Mooty starts.

“That’s probably a counterspell,” Hunter says.

“That’s probably a Cloudthresher,” Mooty replies.

“For four?” We all have a good laugh at Mooty’s expense. He gets the last laugh, though, as he casts Cancel to counter it. Hunter then settles to “just” have a Rampaging Baloths, then plays a forest to make a 4/4 beast token. Unfortunately, he still has no way to punch through the Confinement and passes the turn.

Mooty draws a card off of the Arena, then discards an Arcane Sanctum. He swings with Zur once again, and while he’s searching for his enchantment, a comment from the peanut gallery convinces him to play more conservatively than he was otherwise planning to. He decides to take a Greater Auramancy. The only thing Hunter can do on his turn is equip the Strata Scythe to Omnath. (25-44) [5 Omnath, 5 Zur]

Mooty draws another card from the Arena, then discards a Power Sink –

“Because I’ll just be able to pay for it,” Hunter suggests.

“Erm… yeah, exactly.”

Mooty casts a land tax, then swings at Hunter yet again, this time fetching Steel of the Godhead. Hunter flashes in a Cloudthresher and jokes, “In response, block.” On Hunter’s turn, he casts a Mosstodon and a Whispersilk Cloak, but ultimately passes his turn without any relevant action. (25-40) [5 Omnath, 8 Zur]

On Mooty’s upkeep, he uses the Land Tax to search for two islands and a plains, then discards a plains for the Confinement. He swings and and searches out a Daybreak Coronet, then passes his turn. (30-33) [5 Omnath, 14 Zur]

On his final turn of the game, all Hunter could do was equip his Whispersilk Cloak to Omnath. Like most people throughout the day, there really wasn’t anything they could do to fight back. After dealing with all of his upkeep shenanigans, Mooty swung in and grabbed an Emypreal Armor to finish off his hapless opponent.

Congratulation, Michael Mooty! You are our champion, our shining star, our traveller of the multiverse who will bring joy and healing to all the sick peoples of our many worlds! Or so we’d say, but playing broken cards won't cure cancer. Oh well. Maybe next year…

Final Commander Results & Standings Update

2011-02-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

After factoring in the Top 8 Playoff results, here are the final standings:

1. Zur the Enchanter by Mike Mooty

2. Omnath, Locus of Mana by Hunter Garrett

3. Doran, the Siege Tower by Dominic Casali

4. Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund by Liz DiGangi

5. Uril, the Miststalker by Scott Record

6. Uril, the Miststalker by Bryant Benson

7. Numot, the Devastator by Michael Smith

8. Ashling, the Pilgrim by Jordan Arnold

It's looking like we might have another two-horse race for the regular season points title this semester, but it's neither of the two who were in it last semester! Here are the updated League Standings:

1. 53 - Michael Carney (12)

2. 50 - Hunter Garrett (8)

3. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

4. 36 - Michael Smith (10)

5. 34 - Liz DiGangi (9)

6. 33 - Chris Pear (10)

7. 33 - Bryant Benson (6)

8. 32 - Kevin Hoover (11)

9. 32 - Skye Kutner (8)

10. 30 - Noah Senzel (10)

11. 28 - Dane Newton (7)

12. 26 - Joe Hammond (9)

13. 26 - Jordan Arnold (6)

14. 25 - John Kreinbring (9)

15. 25 - Kevin Crowley (7)

16. 24 - Scott Record (6)

17. 19 - Mike Mooty (3)

18. 16 - Roy Mustang (9)

19. 12 - Hannah Sharp (4)

20. 11 - Max Kruger (5)

21. 11 - Will Sturges (4)

22. 10 - Anna Hallahan (4)

23. 10 - Helen Croce (1)

24. 9 - Haren Lalchand (3)

25. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

26. 7 - Michael Cambata (3)

27. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

28. 6 - Steven Nelson (4)

29. 6 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

30. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

31. 5 - Tyler Deforge (4)

31. 5 - Richie Harper (4)

33. 4 - Joe Kozlowski (3)

34. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

35. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

36. 3 - David Jacobsen (2)

37. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

38. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

38. 2 - Will Siu (1)

40. 1 - Gus Bora (1)

40. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

40. 1 - Dan Gorelik (1)

40. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

40. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

40. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

40. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

Thanks to everyone who came out for the event. We raised $45 for the FITSSFF Relay for Life team, and also exposed many people to Open Game Day that hadn't been to one before. Now that many of you have gotten to try going to one, I'm going to try my best to avoid scheduling any more Magic events on OGD's so that people can go and enjoy everything else they have to offer (I didn't even want to do it this time, but there were no other alternatives). See you at Mirrodin Besieged Game Day next week (rides will be available; I'll explain it in an email)!

- Dom

Emperor Draft Results

2011-02-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the work of our former U.S. presidents, 18 players met at the SUB to spend some dead presidents on colored pieces of cardboard. In defiance of our history as a democratic society, we decided to go back to the Middle Ages and bust out some generals and emperors. Teams of three dueled in a variety of complex situations that involved owners, controllers, lines of sight, and a proliferation of other rules quandaries.

I'm too busy and time-constrained to write anything else creative, so here's who won:

2/21/11 Top Finishers: MBS-MBS-SOM Emperor Draft

1. 3-0 Jordan Arnold, Bryant Benson, & Michael Carney

2. 2-1 Hunter Garrett, Mike Mooty, & Scott Record

3. 2-1 Kevin Hoover, Skye Kutner, & Dane Newton

I promise for a much, much better write up after Commanders vs. Cancer next weekend. Here are the updated league standings:

1. 51 - Michael Carney (11)

2. 41 - Hunter Garrett (7)
3. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

4. 32 - Michael Smith (9)

4. 32 - Chris Pear (9)

6. 30 - Kevin Hoover (10)

7. 29 - Skye Kutner (7)

8. 28 - Dane Newton (7)

9. 28 - Bryant Benson (5)

10. 27 - Noah Senzel (9)

11. 27 - Liz DiGangi (8)

12. 25 - Joe Hammond (8)

13. 25 - Kevin Crowley (7)

14. 23 - Jordan Arnold (5)

15. 22 - John Kreinbring (8)

16. 18 - Scott Record (5)

17. 15 - Roy Mustang (8)

18. 12 - Hannah Sharp (4)

19. 11 - Max Kruger (5)

20. 11 - Will Sturges (4)

21. 10 - Anna Hallahan (4)

22. 10 - Helen Croce (1)

23. 9 - Haren Lalchand (3)

24. 9 - Mike Mooty (2)

25. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

26. 7 - Michael Cambata (3)

27. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

28. 6 - Steven Nelson (4)

29. 6 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

30. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

31. 5 - Tyler Deforge (4)

32. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

33. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

34. 3 - Richie Harper (3)

35. 3 - Joe Kozlowski (2)

35. 3 - David Jacobsen (2)

37. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

38. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

38. 2 - Will Siu (1)

40. 1 - Gus Bora (1)

40. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

40. 1 - Dan Gorelik (1)

40. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

40. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

40. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

40. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

I hope to see lots of you at the Commander event Saturday! Note that it will be in Crawford 402 and not in the Hartley Room, as Open Game Day had to be moved due to extenuating circumstances. Have a great week!

- Dom

Pauper Results & League Standings Update

2011-02-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

A total of 15 players put aside their rares and mythics and broke out the commons for the weekend's Pauper event. It was an event filled with mild synergies, gimped mana bases, and overcosted finishers, but despite the reduction in power it seemed like most of the players found it extremely fun:

2/13/11 Top Finishers: "Old-Extended" Pauper

1. 4-0 RG Ramp/LD by Liz DiGangi

2. 3-1 UW Ninja Turtle Control by Dominic Casali

3. 3-1 Pauper Jund by Michael Smith

4. 3-1 Esper Aggro by Chris Pear

A slightly lower turnout required only four rounds of Swiss, and halfway through the event there were four decks sitting at 2-0. Liz, who was playing red/green ramp and land destruction, was paired up against Noah, who was piloting green/white aggro, and Michael Smith, with a common variant of Jund, was paired up against yours truly, who was playing a blue white control deck Hunter produced the clever moniker of "Ninja Turtles" for, as the deck was sporting Calcite Snapper and Ninja of the Deep Hours.

After Liz and I advanced to the final round, we dueled in an extremely long first game filled with lands and 1/4's. Eventually, Citanul Woodreaders and Convertible Turtles were trumped by the appearance of Ulamog's Crusher from Liz's side of the table. Eventually, with some annihilator triggers and the help of an incorrectly tapped Plains, the Crusher was able to bring down the first game. Following my mulligan to four in the second game, the event was over shortly thereafter.

Here is the latest standings update, including both Pauper and the Beginner's Draft:

1. 42 - Michael Carney (10)

2. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

3. 34 - Hunter Garrett (6)

4. 31 - Chris Pear (8)

5. 29 - Michael Smith (8)

6. 25 - Kevin Hoover (9)

7. 25 - Joe Hammond (8)

7. 25 - Noah Senzel (8)

9. 24 - Liz DiGangi (7)

10. 24 - Skye Kutner (6)

10. 23 - Dane Newton (6)

12. 22 - Kevin Crowley (6)

13. 20 - John Kreinbring (7)

14. 19 - Bryant Benson (4)

15. 14 - Jordan Arnold (4)

16. 13 - Roy Mustang (7)

17. 12 - Hannah Sharp (4)

18. 11 - Scott Record (4)

18. 11 - Will Sturges (4)

20. 10 - Max Kruger (4)

20. 10 - Anna Hallahan (4)

22. 10 - Helen Croce (1)

23. 9 - Haren Lalchand (3)

24. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

25. 7 - Michael Cambata (3)

26. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

27. 6 - Steven Nelson (4)

28. 6 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

29. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

30. 5 - Tyler Deforge (4)

31. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

32. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

33. 3 - Richie Harper (3)

34. 3 - Joe Kozlowski (2)

34. 3 - David Jacobsen (2)

36. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

37. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

37. 2 - Will Siu (1)

39. 1 - Gustavo Bora (1)

39. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

39. 1 - Dan Gorelik (1)

39. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

39. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

39. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

39. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

Thanks for reading and check back in the coming days for information about Emperor draft, Commander, and the schedule of events for March!

- Dom

Updated Commander (EDH) Rules and Ban List

2011-02-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

Here are the updated Commander (formerly called Elder Dragon Highlander or EDH) rules and banned cards:

1. To make your EDH deck, first choose a Legendary creature to be your commander.

2. You may only play cards in your deck that are contained in your commander's color(s) or are colorless. This means you may only play hybrid symboled or multicolored cards in your deck if your commander contains all of those colors. For example, if your commander is Wrexial, the Risen Deep (blue/black), you can play Memory Plunder and Agony Warp, but you cannot play Unmake or Terminate.

3. You may play cards that have activated abilities that are not in your commander's colors. For example, if your commander is Omnath, Locus of Mana (green), you can play Cavern Thoctar in your deck even though its ability costs red mana (this is a change from previous rules).

4. You cannot generate mana outside of your commander's colors. Any mana of disallowed colors that would be generated produces colorless mana instead. For example, if your commander is Kaervek, the Merciless (black/red) and you sacrifice a Composite Golem, you would add 3BR to your mana pool instead of WUBRG.

5. Your deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including your commander. You may use a different colored sleeve for your commander so that you can keep it separate from your deck, but keep a sleeve of the color of the rest of your deck handy in case your commander gets shuffled into your deck or bounced to your hand (see rule #7).

6. You may cast your commander at sorcery speed from your command zone, which is where it begins the game. However, your commander will cost two additional mana each time you cast it from the command zone. For example, if your commander is Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile (mana cost 2WW), she will cost 4WW the second time you cast her, 6WW the third time you cast her, and so on.

7. If your commander would be exiled or put into a graveyard, you may choose to have it returned to the command zone instead (this is a replacement effect). Note that this does not apply to having your commander returned to your hand or put into your library.

8. This is a singleton format - i.e. you may only have one copy of each card in your deck except for basic lands.

9. Players start at 40 life. A player wins the game if his or her commander deals 21 or more combat damage, or by any of the other usual methods, such as reducing the opponent's life total to zero, using an alternate win the game clause such as Test of Endurance, or milling the opponent's library such that they cannot draw a card when required to do so.

10. Matches will only consist of one game, so conventional sideboarding will not occur. However, you may bring a 15 card sideboard if your deck plays cards that search for "card(s) you control outside the game," such as Glittering Wish and Spawnsire of Ulamog.

11. Players will receive one free mulligan per game, though they may choose to waive this and proceed directly to the Paris mulligans if desired. Afterward the free mulligan, they will be required to use the Paris mulligan style, which involves exiling X cards from the hand and then drawing (X-1) cards from the library any number of times, followed by shuffling the exiled cards back into the library.

12. Players may not proxy cards (this is a change from previous rules).

13. All cards are legal except for the ones in Unhinged and Unglued, plus the following cards, which are banned:

Banned Commanders (these can be played in decks, just not as commanders):

- Braids, Cabal Minion

- Erayo, Soratami Ascendant

- Memnarch

- Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

- Vendilion Clique

Banned Cards:

- Ancestral Recall

- Balance

- Biorhythm

- Black Lotus

- Channel

- Chaos Orb

- Coalition Victory

- Crucible of Worlds

- Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

- Falling Star

- Fastbond

- Felidar Sovereign

- Gifts Ungiven

- Intuition

- Karakas

- Kokusho, the Evening Star

- Library of Alexandra

- Limited Resources

- Lion's Eye Diamond

- Mana Crypt

- Metalworker

- Mind Twist

- Mindslaver

- Mox Emerald

- Mox Jet

- Mox Pearl

- Mox Ruby

- Mox Sapphire

- Necropotence

- Painter's Servant

- Panoptic Mirror

- Protean Hulk

- Recurring Nightmare

- Sensei's Divining Top

- Serra Ascendant

- Shahrazad

- Sol Ring

- Staff of Domination

- Sundering Titan

- Sway of the Stars

- Test of Endurance

- Timetwister

- Time Walk

- Time Vault

- Tinker

- Tolarian Academy

- Upheaval

- Worldgorger Dragon

- Yawgmoth's Bargain

- Anything with the word "Ante" in it (such as Tempest Efreet)

I am using a fairly extensive ban list because this is supposed to be a fundraising event that is fairly casual should be a lot of fun for players, and I don't want people to build something obnoxious that is not fun to play against. Time is also a major concern with this list, as these games tend to go long, which is why cards that are not particularly overpowered, but make the game take significantly longer, like Shahrazad, Sensei's Divining Top, and Sway of the Stars are banned.

Commander is supposed to be a social format that exhibits relatively low-key competition when compared to other constructed formats like Standard and Legacy, so keep this in mind while building your deck. The Commander event will be Saturday, February 26. Let me know if you have any questions.

- Dom

Pauper Event Rules

2011-02-08T20:02:00.001-08:00

These are the rules for our "Old-Extended" Pauper event this weekend. It's pretty simple, really. Decks must contain a minimum of 60 cards, all of which are of the common rarity, and all of which are legal in Old Extended. Old Extended includes the following sets and blocks:

- Core Sets: 9th Edition, 10th Edition, Magic 2010, Magic 2011

- Kamigawa Block: Champions, Betrayers, and Saviors of Kamigawa

- Ravnica Block: Ravnica, Guildpact, and Dissension

- Time Spiral Block: Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight

- Cold Snap

- Lorwyn Block: Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, and Eventide

- Alara Block: Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn

- Zendikar Block: Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi

- Scars Block: Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged

For legality purposes, a card is considered common if it is printed as a common in at least one set that is legal in Old Extended. For example, Act of Treason was printed as an uncommon in M10 and as a common in M11. Since Act of Treason is common in a set that is legal for the event, Act of Treason may be played. Conversely, Tanglebloom was a common in Mirrodin but uncommon in 9th Edition. Since Tanglebloom was not printed as a common in a set that is legal for this event, Tanglebloom may not be played.

Finally, Timeshifted cards (from Time Spiral) are considered common if and only if they were common in their most recent printing prior to Time Spiral. For example, Disenchant was printed as a common in 7th Edition, which is the last time it was printed prior to Time Spiral. Therefore, Disenchant may be played in this event. On the other hand, Craw Giant cannot be played because it was uncommon in its most recent printing (5th Edition), event though it was a common when it was printed two years earlier in Chronicles.

That should be everything, if you're not sure if something is legal or not, just send me an email. I hope to see many of you this weekend!

- Dom

Two-Headed Giant Sealed Results

2011-02-06T19:40:00.000-08:00

Back by popular demand, 26 players arrived at the SUB to commemorate the release of Mirrodin Besieged and to embark on a mythbusting quest to discover whether two heads really are better than one. After splitting into 13 teams of 2, we did battle over the course of four rounds of Swiss using combined 8-pack sealed pools of half Scars of Mirrodin and half Mirrodin Besieged.

An early contender emerged in the team of Kevin Hoover and newcomer Jason Navarro, who had just met a few minutes before opening their pool, pulled a slew of chase rares and mythics in their packs, earning the ire of some other teams. They started with a stunning defeat of the daunting pair of the fire extinguisher and snack rack. I asked Kevin how his team achieved this victory, and he explained, "it wasn't really as bad as it sounds - in fact, it felt strangely like a bye." A more conventional win in the second round put them into the third round undefeated.

However, the defending champions had something to say about that, and the winners of the last Two-Headed Giant event, Bryant and Helen, put a stop to Kevin and Jason's bid in a whirlwind of poison counters. But it was ultimately Hunter and Kevin Crowley, backed by the combined power of blue and black suns and a guest appearance by a fellow known as Koth of the Hammer, who were the lone team at the end of the day with a 4-0 record. The top finishers are shown below:

1. 4-0 Kevin Crowley & Hunter Garrett

2. 3-1 Bryant Benson & Helen Croce

3. 3-1 Skye Kutner & Dane Newton

4. 3-1 Joe Hammond & Alycia Johnson

5. 3-1 Anna Hallahan & Will Sturges

Sorry for not having their decks next to their names like I usually do, but it's sealed. You play your rares and removal spells and hope your opponents get mana screwed...I kid, but I was busy losing most of the day and didn't have time to track down what they were all playing. I'll try to remedy this at future limited events, but I must say that it's a lot easier to describe a constructed deck (as I can say something like "blue/white control" or "goblins" or "Valakut ramp" and you know exactly what I'm talking about - describing a limited deck is much harder since they're obviously going to be less streamlined and synergistic). Add in the fact that sealed events are the most challenging to run to begin with, and once you throw in the 2HG rules questions and such, it can easily get hard to manage.

Anyhow, this event has given us yet another League Points shakeup, and it looks like the battle for the top 8 is going to be much more intense than it was last semester! Here are the latest standings:

1. 39 - Michael Carney (8)

2. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

3. 32 - Hunter Garrett (5)

4. 24 - Chris Pear (6)

5. 23 - Joe Hammond (6)

6. 22 - Kevin Hoover (7)

7. 22 - Kevin Crowley (6)

8. 22 - Dane Newton (5)

9. 21 - Michael Smith (6)

9. 21 - Noah Senzel (6)

11. 19 - John Kreinbring (6)

12. 19 - Bryant Benson (4)

12. 19 - Skye Kutner (4)

14. 14 - Liz DiGangi (5)

15. 13 - Jordan Arnold (3)

16. 11 - Roy Mustang (5)

17. 11 - Scott Record (4)

18. 10 - Max Kruger (4)

19. 10 - Will Sturges (3)

20. 10 - Hannah Sharp (2)

21. 10 - Helen Croce (1)

22. 9 - Anna Hallahan (3)

23. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

24. 7 - Michael Cambata (3)

25. 7 - Alycia Johnson (1)

26. 6 - Steven Nelson (4)

27. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

28. 4 - Tyler Deforge (3)

29. 4 - Haren Lalchand (2)

29. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

29. 4 - Ethan Pepmiller (2)

32. 4 - Jason Navarro (1)

33. 3 - Joe Kozlowski (2)

34. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

35. 2 - Richie Harper (2)

36. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

36. 2 - David Jacobsen (1)

36. 2 - Will Siu (1)

39. 1 - Gustavo Bora (1)

39. 1 - Joao Alberto de Faria (1)

39. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

39. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

39. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

39. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

With only 5 points separating 4th and 13th, I think this is going to be a pretty interesting race. I'll post some details about the Pauper format for next week as well as rules and the banlist for Commander (a.k.a. The Artist Formerly Known as EDH). We'll also have the Beginner's M11 Draft next week, so let me know if you're interested in either playing or helping the newer players. It should be a fun weekend coming up. Have a great week!

- Dom

Prerelease Standings Update

2011-02-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

Below are the latest standings update that includes League Points earned for attending prerelease events. Note that the Two-Headed Giant parity rules are not based on this version of the standings, but the previous one that you can find here: http://fitssffmagic.blogspot.com/2011/01/final-standard-results-standings-update.html. For more details, see my email about the 2HG event. Here are the standings through 7 events:

1. 39 - Jason D'Mellow (6)

2. 36 - Michael Carney (7)

3. 22 - Chris Pear (5)

4. 20 - Hunter Garrett (4)

5. 19 - Noah Senzel (5)

6. 18 - Kevin Hoover (6)

7. 18 - Michael Smith (5)

8. 17 - John Kreinbring (5)

9. 16 - Joe Hammond (5)

10. 13 - Dane Newton (4)

11. 13 - Jordan Arnold (3)

12. 11 - Liz DiGangi (4)

12. 11 - Scott Record (4)

14. 10 - Kevin Crowley (5)

15. 10 - Max Kruger (4)

16. 10 - Skye Kutner (3)

17. 9 - Roy Mustang (4)

18. 9 - Bryant Benson (3)

19. 8 - Alex Kerns (3)

20. 7 - Hannah Sharp (1)

21. 6 - Alex Siphom Chi (2)

22. 5 - Michael Cambata (2)

23. 4 - Tyler Deforge (3)

23. 4 - Steven Nelson (3)

24. 4 - Haren Lalchand (2)

24. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

24. 4 - Will Sturges (2)

27. 3 - Anna Hallahan (2)

27. 3 - Joe Kozlowski (2)

29. 2 - Richie Harper (2)

30. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

30. 2 - Ethan Pepmiller (1)

30. 2 - Will Siu (1)

33. 1 - Gustavo Bora (1)

33. 1 - Joao Alberto de Fario (1)

33. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

33. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

33. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

33. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

If you don't feel you received the correct amount of points, please send me an email and tell me what you feel you should've gotten so that I can compare it to my records and make sure you receive the correct amount. See you Sunday!

- Dom

2-Headed Giant Sealed Scheduling Change

2011-02-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

The 2-Headed Giant event for this weekend will now be on SUNDAY, Feb. 6, not Saturday 2/5 as stated in the previous schedule and email I sent out yesterday. Sorry for the late notice, but I just found out a couple hours ago that I will be out of town with my family on Saturday.

Also, the event will begin at 12:30 PM instead of 11:30 AM, though you can arrive and start opening your packs as early as noon. The entry fees, format, and other Magic-related details are still the same.

Dom

February Events

2011-02-01T19:53:00.001-08:00

First off, let me mention that I have most of the Prerelease points update done, but I'm missing data from one of the stores and I'll have an updated standings posted later in the week.

I have posted the February events on the Upcoming Events section of the site, which you can see in the top right corner of the page. This weekend will be our first Mirrodin Besieged limited event - the return of the wildly popular phenomenon known as Two-Headed Giant Sealed. Note that the parity rule from last semester will still be in effect, so players with 10 League Points or more cannot team up with another player with 10 points or more. The standings used for this requirement can be found here: http://fitssffmagic.blogspot.com/2011/01/final-standard-results-standings-update.html.

Next weekend will be the beginner's draft and this semester's Pauper (all commons) event. The legal sets are going to be what I call "Old Extended." This refers to what would have been legal in Extended had Wizards not changed the format last summer. The legal sets include Kamigawa Block, 9th Edition, and everything printed since (including Cold Snap). I'll post more information about this next week.

The third weekend of the month we will have an event on President's Day (2/21), as I will be spending Saturday and Sunday in Columbia visiting the University of South Carolina. This will be an all-inclusive Limited day, where we will have groups for draft, sealed, and any other oddball limited format you might want to play.

The last weekend of the month will be this semester's Relay for Life fundraiser, which I'm going to market as "Commanders vs. Cancer." Commander is the new name for EDH, and I'll post lots of details on this fun format in the coming weeks. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope we have a great month of February!

- Dom

Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Information

2011-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

The Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease events will take place this weekend, January 29 and 30. There will be no on-site FITSSFF event this weekend to encourage people to attend the Pre-Releases. However, if you can, please try to schedule your Prerelease attendance around Open Game Day, which is also on January 29 throughout the day.

For those of you who have never played in a Prerelease event before, it is a special event where you can play in Limited events with cards from the new set a week before it is officially released. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to receive league points and a foil promo alternate-art mythic rare from the next set.

Normally, there is only one Prerelease promo, but this time there are two. The one you get is dependent on the faction you choose before the event starts. If you choose the Mirran faction, you will get a promo Hero of Bladehold (and your Mirrodin Besieged packs will be aligned with the Mirrans), and if you choose the Phyrexian faction, you will get a promo Glissa, the Traitor (and you will get Phyrexian-aligned Besieged packs).

I have decided to award more League Points this time for attending events, since there has been some League Point "inflation" due to the increased attendance at events. You will receive 2 points for the first event you attend at each store, and 1 additional point for attending another event at the same store. So, you will still be rewarded for supporting multiple stores in our area, but you will also receive more points for attending even just one event. The schedule of events for each store is as follows:

Wizard's Wall:

Saturday, January 29 @ Noon: $10 Unhinged Draft (this is just for fun, nothing to do with Besieged, but I'll still give you points for going)

Saturday, January 29 @ 5 P.M: $25 Sealed

Sunday, January 30 @ Noon: $25 Sealed

Dogs of War:

Friday, January 28 @ Midnight: $25 Sealed

Saturday, January 29 @ 1 & 4 P.M.: $12 Draft*

Saturday, January 29 @ 7:30 P.M.: $25 Sealed

Sunday, January 30 @ Noon: $12 Draft*

Sunday, January 30 @ 4 P.M.: $25 Sealed

Get Your Fun On:

Friday, January 28 @ Midnight: $25 Sealed

Saturday, January 29 @ Noon: $25 Sealed

Saturday, January 29 @ 3 & 7 P.M.: $12 Draft

Sunday, January 30 @ 3 P.M.: $25 Sealed

Sunday, January 30 @ 7 P.M.: $12 Draft

*Dogs of War is not giving out promo cards for participating in drafts.

To get credit for attending events, ask the tournament organizer for the FITSSFF Sign-In sheet. They should be at each of the three stores for the weekend. After the weekend is over, I will collect these sheets and award points based on the names that appear on them. Therefore, if you do not sign in, you will not receive league points for attending these events, so make sure you do so. I will remind the tournament organizers at each location to offer the sheet to you before the event starts, but you should take the responsibility upon yourself in case they forget.

If you have any questions about the Prerelease, feel free to call or email me and I'll do my best to help you out. After Prerelease weekend, I'll post FITSSFF events for February. I can tell you that the first weekend of February will be the format that everyone but me seems to enjoy: Two-Headed Giant Sealed. I'll post everything else in a few days. Have a great week and good luck at the Prereleases!

- Dom

Standard Event Recap - Swiss Rounds

2011-01-24T16:18:00.002-08:00

On the weekend following the largest constructed event in over two years, nobody really knew what to expect next. Would as many people come this week? Would poison finally have its breakthrough weekend? Would justice be dispensed? Would we have to call security again because nobody unlocked the second floor of the SUB? Would Brett Favre unretire and sign with the Dolphins? Many of these questions were about to be answered as the Standard event began to unfold.

Following a 25-player turnout for Extended, I was thrilled to see just one fewer player arrive for Standard, giving us a second consecutive event requiring 5 rounds of Swiss. We were nearly two players fewer than the previous event, but at the last second newly elected FITSSFF President and one of the top players from last semester, Haren Lalchand, decided to enter his first event of the spring just to give us an even number. However, as seems to routinely happen to people that enter at the last second, Haren started the event hot with two 2-0 wins, including a second round event over yours truly, handing my RUG deck its first loss in its last three tournaments.

A couple other players were making some noise. After spending the week testing a blue/black control deck, Michael Smith returned from his previous weekend's absence with a deck that caught many people off guard - Grixis Vampires, featuring the best black Vampires and utility cards from blue and red, including Mana Leak, Lightning Bolt, and the boogey-man himself, Jace the Mind Sculptor. Not to be forgotten, the previous week's winner, Jason D'Mellow, was still wielding Elves with success, and also was high on the leaderboard early.

Some new faces found their way up the ranks in the third round, including one player who made a 180 degree turnaround from the previous week. Kevin Hoover finished dead last among the 25 players in last week's event, but with his re-worked his poison/proliferate deck, he became the first person in 11 rounds of Magic to solve Jason's Elf deck. Joining him and Michael Smith at 3-0 was Noah Senzel, piloting a green/white deck featuring a variety of token generators including Garruk, Elspeth Tirel, and Kazandu Tuskcaller. Just behind them at 2-0-1 was Hannah Sharp, who was playing in her first FITSSFF event with a derivative of the prolific Quest White Weenie deck that splashed red for Cunning Sparkmage, a creature that combos extremely well with the Basilisk Collar already played in the deck.

Going into round four, a variety of players were left jockeying for position to try to crack the elusive top 8. Still within striking distance entering the fourth round of play were eight other players, including Roy Mustang, with a mono-black version of Vampires; Scott Record, with green/white landfall; and Kevin Crowley, playing proliferate control. Several other players sat at 1-2, still mathematically alive, but in need of some draws and other help from the group above them.

However, that help was not to be found. Some tight fourth round matches vaulted several players from the middle of the pack to a group at 9 points, including John Kreinbring's mono-white Aura deck, employing some unloved rares (such as Umbra Mystic and Kor Spiritdancer) and the often-forgotten Totem Armor mechanic from Rise of the Eldrazi, and Michael Carney's blue/white token control deck featuring Emeria Angel and Elspeth Tirel. I also managed to pull out a fourth round win to move to 3-1.

Following the fourth round, exactly eight players were sitting on 9 points or more, meaning that they could all intentionally draw in round five to make the top 8. However, the remaining players showed their Magic pride and duked out a fifth round for pride and the extra League Points that they might be able to earn with an extra win. Two players stood out from this group in the final standings - Dane Newton ended up 3-2 and in ninth place with his Shape Anew combo deck, which promises to become even better with the upcoming release of Blightsteel Colossus. Also having a pretty good day was Michael Cambata, whose blue/white control deck was very resilient on the day, but unfortunately was routinely battling the time limit, finishing 2-1-2 on the day.

With that, the top 8 was set, and food plans were set shortly afterwards. The top 8 players in the Swiss were Hannah, Michael Smith, Kevin Hoover, Noah, John, Jason, Michael Carney, and myself, and we prepared to do single elimination battle after completing the quest for foods...

Feature Match - Quarterfinal #1: Dominic Casali vs. Hannah Sharp

2011-01-24T16:18:00.001-08:00

Much thanks to Skye Kutner for doing the coverage for this match and helping me cope with the awkwardness of writing about myself in the third person.

The first feature match of the Top 8 involved FITSSFF Magic's wonderful, caring, responsible, organized, knowledgeable, and obviously exceptionally humble tournament organizer himself, piloting his trademark red/blue/green Titan ramp deck. His opponent, however, was no slouch, as Hannah Sharp had proven herself more than deserving of finishing atop the Swiss standings, being the only player to go undefeated in the early rounds, having rattled off four consecutive wins following an opening round draw. Her weapon of choice? The relentless white aggro deck featuring Quest for the Holy Relic and Argentum Armor, with the slightest touch of red for access to the Cunning Sparkmage/Basilisk Collar removal package.

Dom won the roll, and excitedly chose to play first after lamenting his previous string of lost die rolls during the Swiss rounds. Both players kept their starting hands, and after Dom rearranged his top cards with a Halimar Depths, Hannah started off with a trademark first turn play - Quest for the Holy Relic. Dom had a second-turn Lotus Cobra, but Hannah was able to cast three creatures on her second turn - two Ornithopters and a Stoneforge Mystic, which fetched up a Basilisk Collar.

Dom needed a quick answer to the Quest, but he had it on his third turn, using a Scalding Tarn to find an Island and float two green mana off of the two landfall triggers (19-20). He then tapped his three lands and cast Acidic Slime to destroy the Quest. He then passed the turn, not wanting to offer a trade of his mana-producing Snake. However, Hannah gave him no choice in the matter, using Arid Mesa to fetch a Mountain (19-19) and cast Cunning Sparkmage, whose haste allowed Hannah to dispose of the Lotus Cobra before Dom could untap.

The loss of the Lotus Cobra stunted Dom's development, but he tried to recover by casting an Oracle of Mul Daya. However, the Oracle came up empty, revealing a Preordain, and all he could do was attack with his deathtouching Ooze, who was chump-blocked by an Ornithopter. Hannah then used her turn to play and equip Cunning Sparkmage with the Basilisk Collar, who shot down the Oracle, and attacked in with her Stoneforge Mystic (18-19).

Dom fought back, using a Misty Rainforest (17-19) to find a second green source, which he used to cast another Acidic Slime, this time destroying the Basilisk Collar. He bashed in with the first Slime, which took down the remaining Ornithopter. Not to be outdone, Hannah cast a second Sparkmage, and used both of them together to destroy an Acidic Slime. She then cast Kor Skyfisher, bouncing and replaying a Plains, and attacked in with her Mystic (16-19).

Dom began his next turn with a Preordain, filtering his draws to try to find a game-ending threat that he was nearing the right amount of mana to cast. He then used a Lightning Bolt to dispatch the Skyfisher and attacked again with Acidic Slime, who connected this time (16-17). In his second main phase, he played Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and used the planeswalker's second ability to Brainstorm.

Hannah reinforced her field with another Skyfisher and a Memnite, and used her Sparkmages and Stoneforge Mystic to take down Jace. However, Dom had the trump card on his following turn, an Avenger of Zendikar, who created seven 0/1 Plant tokens. They all immediately became 1/2's after Dom laid down a Copperline Gorge. Hannah had little further action on her turn, attacking with the Skyfisher (14-17) and then passing.

On his next turn, Dom had a Halimar Depths on his turn to make the Plants into 2/3's. Hannah responded to the Avenger's landfall trigger by using her Sparkmages to take down a Plant token, leaving six plants and the Avenger himself. However, Dom had Lightning Bolts to dispatch the two remaining blockers (Stoneforge Mystic and Memnite), and had exactly 17 damage upon turning Avenger and friends sideways (14-0).

Dominic Casali 1, Hannah Sharp 0

Both players did some sideboarding, and after some shuffling they were on to the second game. Hannah was happy with her starting hand, but Dom immediately sent it back. His six-card hand was at least considerable, but after a long, pensive stare at the six, he again sent it back, eventually keeping his five-card hand.

Hannah started off strong, playing a Memnite and then returning it to her hand to cast a first turn Glint Hawk. The hawk bashed in for 2 (18-20), and was soon joined by a Kor Skyfisher, who bounced the same Memnite back to Hannah's hand. Dom played a Scalding Tarn on his turn and passed. Hannah sent both her creatures into the red zone (14-20), and then played two more creatures: a Kor Duelist and a Stoneforge Mystic, who this time searched up a Sword of Body and Mind.

Dom finally had to take action to prevent being overwhelmed by the white creature swarm. He used his Scalding Tarn to find an Island (13-20), and it joined the Mountain on his side of the table. He then cast Pyroclasm, which brought all of Hannah's assault but the Kor Skyfisher to a fiery halt, but did miss his third land drop. Hannah continued her aggro strategy, bashing with the Skyfisher (11-20) and casting the Sword of Body and Mind.

Dom found a Preordain atop his library, and used it to find a Misty Rainforest before passing the turn back. Hannah had a burn-resistant creature in the form of Kor Firewalker, and also had enough mana to equip the Skyfisher with the Sword. Dom used his Rainforest to find a basic Forest (10-20), and then cast a Nature's Claim to destroy the Sword (10-24). However, he had no answer to the Skyfisher itself, so he still took two damage from its attack (8-24).

Dom was running out of time and needed to get back in the game quickly. However, the top of his deck only provided a Raging Ravine, whose tapped entrance to the battlefield stranded his two four-mana spells in hand. Hannah attacked with both of her creatures (4-24), and also cast a Squadron Hawk. Dom had a Mana Leak for the Hawk, but when the top of his deck did not provide any refuge from the lethal damage sitting across the table, he conceded the game.

Dominic Casali 1, Hannah Sharp 1

Dom chose to play first and kept his starting hand for the final game, but this time Hannah had to mulligan to six. Dom led off with a Halimar Depths, rearranging his top 3 cards, while Hannah had a first-turn Memnite. Dom then used a Scalding Tarn to find a Mountain (19-20) and used a Mana Leak when Hannah attempted a Stoneforge Mystic. She sent the Memnite into the red zone (18-20) and passed the turn back.

Dom Preordained on his turn and kept both cards, drawing and playing a Forest before passing. Hannah spent her turn casting a Glint Hawk, bouncing the Memnite and keeping it in hand for the time being. Dom used another Preordain on his next turn, played another land, and again had no play. Hannah found a Mountain with Arid Mesa (18-19) attacked with the Glint Hawk (16-19), then played Kor Firewalker and Memnite before passing back.

With three creatures across from his empty board, Dom needed to take action soon. He used his turn to cast Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Brainstorm, passing back with one mana open. Hannah then attacked Jace with the Glint Hawk and Memnite while attacking Dom with the Firewalker. A Lightning Bolt dealt with the Glint Hawk, sending Jace to 2 loyalty (14-19). Hannah cast a Sword of Body and Mind and passed the turn.

Dom first put Jace down to 1 loyalty to bounce Kor Firewalker. He then used a Misty Rainforest (13-19) to find a sixth mana source, and then cast an Inferno Titan, destroying Memnite and burning Hannah for 2 (13-17). Hannah replayed the Kor Firewalker, but had to pass back, not having enough mana to equip the Sword to her Kor.

Dom went for a swim in the think-tank, finally concluding that his best line of play was to sacrifice Jace to bounce the Firewalker again, as allowing a creature with protection from red to also gain protection from blue and green seemed extremely dangerous for the RUG deck. He then used his two red sources to pump Inferno Titan to an 8/6, and attacked, dealing 3 more to his opponent for a total of 11 damage (13-6). He cast a Lotus Cobra and passed.

Still stuck on three lands, Hannah decided to cast a Kor Duelist and equip the Sword. This actually allowed the Duelist to trade with Inferno Titan on its next swing, but when the Titan attacked, Dom used all three points of his Inferno Titan's attack-triggered Arc Lightning ability directly on Hannah (13-3). The Inferno Titan fell, but the Lightning Bolt in Dom's hand was just enough to finish the job (13-0) and send him to the semifinals.

Dominic Casali 2, Hannah Sharp 1

Feature Match - Quarterfinal #2: John Kreinbring vs. Noah Senzel

2011-01-24T16:17:00.002-08:00

Much thanks to Chris Pear for contributing to coverage of this match.

Both John Kreinbring and Noah Senzel have become regular fixtures of the FITSSFF Magic community, and both have gone about it in the same way, primarily playing green and white on the way to most of their successes. Each of them put together a solid day in the Swiss rounds to go 3-1-1 and reach the top 8 - John playing a mono-white Aura brew and Noah playing a green/white aggro deck centered around tokens. John won the roll and kept his opening seven, while Noah was not satisfied with his opening hand and mulliganed down to 6.

John opened on Emeria, the Sky Ruin, an innocuous play this early but something that could become quite relevant should the game go long. He also had the first spell of the game with a turn 2 Kazandu Blademaster. Noah spent his second turn summoning a creature from the same region of Zendikar: the fragile but powerful Kazandu Tuskcaller. John drew first blood with an attack from the Blademaster (20-18) and then summoned an Umbra Mystic, while Noah had no play but to level his Tuskcaller to 1.

John pushed on the offensive, casting Hyena Umbra on his Umbra Mystic and attacking with both (20-13). Noah again was satisfied to level his Tuskcaller, but this time he got a 3/3 Elephant out of it, as his Tuskcaller had reached level 2. John attacked with his Umbra Mystic, and Noah blocked with his Elephant, effectively trading it for the Hyena Umbra, as its Totem Armor ability prevented the Mystic from being destroyed. John then cast a Totem-Guide Hartebeest, searching up a potentially threatening Armored Ascension.

Noah tried to gain some advantage on the land front, casting Oracle of Mul Daya, which succeeded as he found a Forest on the top of his library. He then used the Tuskcaller to make another Elephant and passed the turn. John then cast his Armored Ascension on the Blademaster, giving it +4/+4 and flying thanks to the four Plains he controlled, and attacked with both of his creatures. Noah blocked the Hartebeest with his Elephant, but still took 8 damage between the Blademaster and Umbra Mystic (20-5). He found no help on top of his library and promptly conceded.

John Kreinbring 1, Noah Senzel 0

In the second game, both players switched play and mulligan, as Noah chose to play first and kept his starting seven, while John had to mulligan to six. Noah started off with a first turn Llanowar Elf, and it hit the red zone on turn two (19-20), while a Stirring Wildwood joined Noah's Forest in the land zone. Noah continued to apply pressure while John had no turn 2 plays, casting an Oracle of Mul Daya and finding a second Stirring Wildwood on top of his library.

John continued to play lands and pass, and Noah kept the beats coming with his Oracle and Llanowar Elf (16-20). He added three 1/1 Soldier tokens to his field by casting Elspeth Tirel and using her -2 ability. John finally had a play on turn 4 that made it quite clear while he hadn't played any creatures yet: a Day of Judgment, clearing Noah's field except for his planeswalker.

Noah rebuilt his field on the following turn, casting a Kazandu Tuskcaller and leveling it to 1 as well as sacrificing Elspeth to make three more Soldiers. John's retort was a Totem-Guide Hartebeest, which fetched a Celestial Mantle from John's library. However, Noah had an answer in the form of Journey to Nowhere, and swung in with his team of 1/1's (12-20).

John went back to work with a Kor Spiritdancer, which he immediately enchanted with Nimbus Wings and Hyena Umbra, making the Spiritdancer a fearsome creature and drawing a card off of each Aura. Noah leveled his Tuskcaller to 2 and used it to make a 3/3 Elephant, then he answered the Nimbus Wings with a Naturalize, bringing the Spiritdancer back to Earth.

However, the Spiritdancer was determined to evade Noah's blockers, and it immediately took to the skies again courtesy of an Armored Ascension, suddenly taking out over half of Noah's life total (12-9). Noah knew he had to act to find a solution quickly or his tournament would be over. He carefully counted up his mana and creatures, did some math, and then went all in. He had just enough mana to animate both of his Stirring Wildwoods and attack with them, the Elephant, and the three Soldiers to represent exactly twelve damage. John had no answers and they were on to the rubber game.

John Kreinbring 1, Noah Senzel 1

The mulligan pendulum swung back for game 3, as John played first and kept seven while Noah went down to six. John led with Emeria, the Sky Ruin while Noah had a first turn Birds of Paradise. John's first creature was a Serra Ascendant, passing back to Noah. Noah used his mana acceleration to cast a second-turn Beastmaster Ascension, and passed the turn back.

John cast Nimbus Wings on his Serra Ascendant and sent his flying lifelinker into the red zone (22-18). Noah had no play on the following turn but to attack for zero with his Birds, putting a counter on Beastmaster Ascension. John swung in with his Serra Ascendant again, but Noah had a Naturalize waiting for the Nimbus Wings, so he cut the incoming damage in half (23-17).

The field appeared to be heavily undeveloped, but things soon turned from benign to ominous as Noah cast Conqueror's Pledge, making six 1/1 Soldier tokens and suddenly threatening a swift resolution of his quest enchantment. John needed a Day of Judgment or way to remove the Beastmaster Ascension, and after deciding to take no action on his turn, it seemed like he had neither. Noah attacked, hoping this was the case, and found out that John had no answer to his creatures or his enchantment. His seven attacking creatures (6 tokens plus Birds) activated the Ascension, and Noah's army of now-6/6's moved him on to the semifinals.

Noah Senzel 2, John Kreinbring 1

Feature Match - Quarterfinal #3: Michael Smith vs. Michael Carney

2011-01-24T16:17:00.001-08:00

Much thanks to Alex Siphom Chi for contributing to coverage of this match.

Michael Smith and Michael Carney have become quite familiar opponents in previous events, but both were adjusting to an interesting role reversal in this event. Normally a burn or control player, Smith was being the beatdown on this day, brandishing a Grixis Vampires deck that had been dominating opponents throughout the Swiss and led him easily into the top 8. On the other hand, Carney, who had won two previous Standard events with aggro, was playing a blue/white token control deck with Elspeth Tirel as it's lynchpin. Carney's road to the top 8 was a bit more arduous, but he managed to advance to the playoff rounds at a 3-1-1 mark.

Smith won the roll, and both players took a mulligan before keeping their six-card hands. Smith led with a Duress, which removed Jace Beleren from Carney's hand. Smith followed up with a Pulse Tracker, the first creature of the match, and it got in for two damage on the following turn (20-18). Carney put out a Wall of Omens to slow the bleeding, but though Wall of Omens could block it easily, Pulse Tracker still got a point of damage through upon attacking (20-17).

Smith then went for some card advantage, casting Jace, the Mind Sculptor and using his second ability to "Brainstorm," drawing three cards and then putting two cards from his hand on top of his library. Carney had no plays on his next turn, allowing Smith to Brainstorm again and then cast Kalastria Highborn. Pulse tracker again got blocked by Wall of Omens but got a point of damage through thanks to his ability (20-16).

Carney continued to whiff, doing nothing but play lands, and Smith was content to continue Brainstorming. He then sent Pulse Tracker and Kalastria Highborn into the red zone. The Highborn got Condemned, and Pulse Tracker was blocked by the Wall yet again (22-15). Carney cast a Preordain on his next turn and put out a Celestial Colonnade that maybe could deal with Jace later on.

Smith played a second Pulse Tracker and then attacked again with the first one, but this time it got Condemned (23-14). Carney finally went for a big play, tapping out for a Wurmcoil Engine, but it was met by a Mana Leak from Smith. Smith then went on the offensive, casting a second Kalastria Highborn and an Inquisition of Kozilek, which took Negate from Carney's hand. He then attacked yet again with his Pulse Tracker, who was unsurprisingly blocked by Wall of Omens as the players continued their quest to see how many times the same attack and block can occur in the same game (23-13).

Carney animated his Celestial Colonnade and used it to finally take out Jace, but found his postcombat Wall of Omens countered by a Mana Leak. Smith animated his own man-land, a Creeping Tar Pit, and attacked with it, Pulse Tracker, and Kalastria Highborn. Wall of Omens was overjoyed to get to block something other than Pulse Tracker, but despite preventing the damage from the Highborn, he still took 5 points of damage from the attack (23-8).

Needing a way out, Carney cast a Day of Judgment, which dealt with the field but allowed Smith to drain 4 life from him with two activations of his Highborn (27-4). With his opponent now in range of lethal damage, Smith animated his Tar Pit again and attacked for 3 (27-1). "Bolt?" he asked, finally showing what the red in his deck was for, and when Carney had no counter, it was on to the second game.

Michael Smith 1, Michael Carney 0

Carney chose to play first, and both players kept their opening seven this time. Smith had the first play of the game with a Vampire Lacerator, who dealt Smith a point of damage on his next turn, but successfully got into the red zone (19-18), and this was repeated again on turn 3 (18-16). On his fourth turn, Carney cast a Wall of Omens to stop the Lacerator, which again pinged Smith on his upkeep (17-16).

With Carney sitting on just one untapped land, Smith attempted to resolve Jace, the Mind Sculptor, but had it countered by a Spell Pierce. Carney then cast a planeswalker of his own, Elspeth Tirel, and used her -2 ability to make three 1/1 Soldier tokens. After another ping from Lacerator (16-16), Smith animated his Creeping Tar Pit and used it to take down Elspeth. Carney was content to pass on his next turn, giving the turn back to Smith, who took another point from his Lacerator (15-16).

Smith cast a Bloodghast and a Pulse Tracker on his turn, but Bloodghast was quickly disposed of with a Journey to Nowhere. Smith attempted to add more to his board on the following turn (14-16) by casting a Kalastria Highborn. He then attacked with Lacerator and Pulse Tracker (14-15). Lacerator was stopped by Wall of Omens, while Pulse Tracker traded with a Soldier token. Smith used the Highborn's ability to drain 2 life upon his Pulse Tracker's death (16-13).

Carney continued to embrace his control strategy by playing draw-go, and on his next turn (15-13), Smith decided to animate his Tar Pit and attack, trying to get his opponent to 10 to stop the constant Lacerator damage, but it was Condemned (17-13). Carney finally decided to go on the offensive, attacking Smith with his Celestial Colonnade (13-13). After taking another point from Lacerator (12-13), Smith attacked with Highborn, Lacerator, and a second Tar Pit.

Carney went into the tank on how to block, eventually choosing to Condemn the Tar Pit, block Lacerator with Wall, and trade his two remaining soldier tokens for the Highborn, who drained two more life upon its death (16-11). Carney attacked again with Colonnade (12-11), and Smith took another point from Lacerator at his upkeep (11-11). Smith animated yet another man-land, this time a Lavaclaw Reaches, but it soon met its end from Carney's Tectonic Edge. Smith cast a Pulse Tracker and passed.

Carney cast a Jace Beleren on his turn, using his -1 ability to draw a card, and then passed back. Smith took his point of damage (10-11) and then cast Memoricide, which was promptly countered by a Mana Leak. Smith attacked Jace with Lacerator and Pulse Tracker (10-10). Wall of Omens blocked Lacerator and Jace went down to 1 loyalty. Carney used that last loyalty to draw another card, put down a Mystifying Maze, and cleared the field with a Day of Judgment.

Smith finally found a threatening creature in the form of Wurmcoil Engine, but Carney attacked back through the air with his Colonnade (6-10). On his next turn, Smith used a Scalding Tarn to find a land (5-10), animated a second Lavaclaw Reaches, and attacked with both. Mystifying Maze took Wurmcoil Engine out of the picture, but Carney had no answer to the Reaches, which Smith pumped 3 times (5-5). Carney had no play on his next turn.

Smith animated the Reaches again and made the same attack. Carney again used Mystifying Maze to stop Wurmcoil Engine's attack, and this time used his Colonnade on defense to trade with the Reaches, who Smith pumped to 4 power to ensure the trade. Smith cast a Vampire Lacerator and passed the turn.

Searching for answers, Carney played a Preordain, and found a Journey to Nowhere to exile the Wurmcoil Engine. He then passed the turn, needing enough mana available to activate his Maze. Smith drew Inquisition of Kozilek, and used it to take Jace Beleren from Carney's hand. He then played an unkicked Gatekeeper of Malakir and passed. Carney had nothing to play on his next turn. Smith attacked with both of his 2/2's, and Carney used his Maze to stop one of them (5-3), but when Smith revealed a Lightning Bolt, Carney had no counter and Smith was on to the semifinals (5-0).

Michael Smith 2, Michael Carney 0

Feature Match - Semifinal #1: Michael Smith vs. Jason D'Mellow

2011-01-24T16:16:00.002-08:00

Much thanks to Chris Pear for contributing to the coverage of this match.

This semifinal featured two accomplished players playing fast aggro decks, with Jason D'Mellow running mono-green Elves and Michael Smith playing Grixis Vampires. Michael won the roll and chose to play first, and both players kept their opening hands.

Both players started quickly, Michael with a Vampire Lacerator and Jason with a Llanowar Elves. Michael took one from his creature (19-20) and then attacked unblocked (19-18). Jason attempted a second turn Elvish Archdruid, but it was Mana Leaked by Michael. After taking another point from Lacerator (18-18), Michael attacked it through again (18-16) and cast a Kalastria Highborn.

Jason spent his third turn casting Nissa Revane and using her +1 ability to search for a Nissa's Chosen. After another ping (17-16), Michael cast a Bloodghast and another Lacerator, but his assault was currently halted by the 2/3 on the other side of the table. On his turn, Jason fetched another Nissa's Chosen, putting her to 4 loyalty, and cast Elvish Archdruid and Arbor Elf.

Now taking two pings (15-16), Michael attacked Nissa to 1 with his Creeping Tar Pit and passed. Jason put Nissa Revane up to 2, finding a third Nissa's Chosen from his library. With his large amount of Elves, he had enough mana to cast both an Asceticism and a kicked Mold Shambler to destroy the Creeping Tar Pit. After taking 2 more at his upkeep (13-16), Michael attacked with the Bloodghast, used the Highborn's ability after it was blocked (15-14), and returned it to play with a land, and then played a second Bloodghast.

Michael had prepared a potential path to victory down the line, but Jason had a much quicker plan in mind. He played an Arbor Elf, and then tapped his Archdruid for 8 mana. He used 3 of it to cast Ezuri, Renegade Leader, and then used the remaining 5 to activate his second ability, giving all of his Elves +3/+3 and trample until end of turn. After doing some math, Michael realized that a full swing would be lethal and thus conceded the first game.

Jason D'Mellow 1, Michael Smith 0

Both players kept their 7 card hands again, and Michael started off game 2 with a Lavaclaw Reaches. Jason had a first turn Arbor Elf, but it soon met its end to a Burst Lightning, and the stunted mana development caused Jason to miss his second turn play. Michael had a Bloodghast on turn 3, while Jason had an Elvish Archdruid across the table.

Michael had a Lightning Bolt to remove the Archdruid, and attacked in with his Bloodghast (20-18). Jason, however, had a second Archdruid to replace the first one. Michael got in again with Bloodghast (20-16) and then cast Jace, the Mind Sculptor, using his third ability to return the Archdruid to Jason's hand. Jason spent his next turn casting Asceticism to prevent future burn and bounce effects on his creatures.

Michael used his turn to Brainstorm with Jace, keeping him at 2 loyalty, and used a Scalding Tarn to grab a Mountain and shuffle away the two unwanted cards from the Brainstorm (19-16). He then attacked again with Bloodghast, who connected again since Jason's field was empty (19-14), and played a second one. Jason rebuilt his field with another Archdruid and a Fauna Shaman.

Michael attacked with both Bloodghasts, one of which was destroyed by a 3/3 blocking Fauna Shaman while the other got through (19-12). Michael then used Jace to Brainstorm and cast a kicked Gatekeeper of Malakir, causing Jason to Sacrifice his Fauna Shaman. Jason came back with a big turn, however, as he cast Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Ezuri's Archers, Fauna Shaman, and Nissa Revane, using her second ability to gain 2 life for each of the 4 Elves in play (19-20).

Michael again used Jace to Brainstorm. He then played a Kalastria Highborn, attacked his 2 Bloodghasts into blockers, and used the Highborn's ability twice (23-16), then returning the Bloodghasts to play with a land. Jason cast another Archdruid and another Ezuri's Archer's on his turn, as well as using Nissa to search up a Chosen.

Michael repeated his previous turn, using a Brainstorm with Jace, attacking his Bloodghasts into blockers, and using the life drain from Kalastria Highborn (27-12) before returning his Bloodghasts by playing a land. However, Jason had bigger plans for his next turn, using Nissa Revane to find another Nissa's Chosen, then using his Fauna Shaman to search up everybody's favorite 15-drop: Emrakul, the I Win Lols. With two Archdruids in play, Jason had enough mana to cast Emrakul immediately, prompting a concession from Michael.

Jason D'Mellow 2, Michael Smith 0

Feature Match - Semifinal #2: Dominic Casali vs. Noah Senzel

2011-01-24T16:16:00.001-08:00

Much thanks to Skye Kutner and Alex Siphom Chi for contributing to the coverage of this match.

After a close call with the Quest deck, Dom's RUG deck had advanced to the semifinals. His opponent was Noah Senzel, whose close Beastmaster Ascension-fueled victory over John Kreinbring had also secured him a spot in the top 4 with his GW Tokens deck. Dom won the roll, chose to play first, and kept his starting hand, while Noah needed a mulligan to six before keeping.

Dom led with a Misty Rainforest, though he didn't crack it immediately, while Noah started with a Forest and a Basilisk Collar. "Not that card again," Dom sighed. He played a second Rainforest, cracked both of them (18-20), and cast Lotus Cobra off of his fetched Island and Forest. Noah spent his second turn casting one of his deck's stalwarts - Kazandu Tuskcaller.

However, Dom was not in the mood to face down Elephants, so he played yet another Misty Rainforest and floated a red mana with his Cobra. He used this mana to Lightning Bolt the Tuskcaller, managing to cast the red instant despite not controlling a red land courtesy of his landfall Snake. Dom then popped the Misty Rainforest (17-20), found a second forest, and floated a blue mana. "You obviously know what's coming..." Dom teased, then surprising Noah and the onlookers by casting an Oracle of Mul Daya - not the Jace everyone in the room was looking for. He played a Raging Ravine from atop his library, beat down with his Cobra (17-18), and shipped the turn..

Noah used his next turn to cast Sylvan Ranger, finding a Forest from his library. Dom then spent his turn casting a chain of Preordains and Explores, hoping to find a fifth land and second blue source, but his quest failed despite filtering through seven cards. He attacked with Oracle (17-16) and passed back. However, Noah had little more to play on his turn, equipping Sylvan Ranger with the Collar and then passing the turn.

This time, Dom found the land he was after in the form of Scalding Tarn. He used it to float a blue mana and cast Jace, the Mind Sculptor, then also playing a Copperline Gorge from the top of his library. He then used his Scalding Tarn (16-16) and Lotus Cobra mana to cast Acidic Slime, destroying the Basilisk Collar. Dom then attacked with his Oracle, which was chumped by Sylvan Ranger.

Noah attempted to rebuild his field by casting Elspeth Tirel and using her second ability to create three 1/1 Soldiers. On his next turn, Dom found two more lands on top of his library and attacked Elspeth with both of his creatures. Noah used two of the Soldiers to chump, but soon realized the attack was just a ruse, as Dom removed Elspeth with a Lightning Bolt. Noah tapped out for a Wurmcoil Engine on the following turn, hoping to turn the tide of combat.

Dom had other ideas, playing two Halimar Depths off the top of his library and floating two mana with Lotus Cobra. He than used his Scalding Tarn (15-16) and floated a third mana upon the new Island's landfall. After using Jace to Brainstorm, he found a Frost Titan, which he could easily cast thanks to the additional three mana floating in his pool. Frosty the Snowman tapped down the Wurmcoil Engine, and Dom's army of 2/2's entered the red zone. The last soldier chumped one of the attackers (15-12). Noah attempted a Garruk Wildspeaker on his next turn, but it was countered by Mana Leak, and he then conceded after surveying the lethal army that would be bashing in next turn.

Dominic Casali 1, Noah Senzel 0

Both players kept their hands for game 2, and Noah started off with a Llanowar Elves. The Elf entered the red zone on the following turn (19-20), and Noah played a Stirring Wildwood, giving each player a man-land, as Dom had opened on Raging Ravine. Dom had no play on turn 2, and Noah beat down again with his Elf (18-20) and cast a Sylvan Ranger, finding a Plains.

Dom then cast a Lotus Cobra on his third turn before playing a Mountain, off which he floated a blue mana and cast Preordain before passing. Noah attacked with Sylvan Ranger (17-20) and cast a Wolfbriar Elemental without kicker, hoping to apply immediate pressure. However, this plan backfired, as Dom used a Scalding Tarn (16-20) and his Lotus Cobra to power out a fourth turn Inferno Titan, who took down both of Noah's Elves and also hit him for one (16-19).

Noah had no plays on his next turn, and used the Wolfbriar to chump Inferno Titan next time he attacked, though Noah was domed by the Arc Lightning triggered by the Titan's attack (16-16). Dom also cast Jace, the Mind Sculptor and used Jace's first ability to put the top card of Noah's library on the bottom. Noah again had no plays on the next turn, appearing to be short on mana, and Dom went for the throat on the following turn.

He first used Jace again to fateseal, leaving Noah's top card in place. Dom then cast an Oracle of Mul Daya, playing a Misty Rainforest from the top of his library. He then Preordained into a Mountain, which he also played, using the two red mana to pump Inferno Titan to 8/6. He then attacked with it and the Cobra, again doming Noah for 3 (16-13) and dealing 10 from the attack (16-3). Yet again, Lightning Bolt was just enough to finish the job (16-0) and send Dom to the finals.

Dominic Casali 2, Noah Senzel 0

Feature Match - Finals: Dominic Casali vs. Jason D'Mellow

2011-01-24T16:15:00.000-08:00

Much thanks to Skye Kutner for contributing to coverage of this match.

The Standard finals featured two previous event winners. Jason D'Mellow had picked up his wins recently, having won his last two events entered - the Extended event the previous week and the Standard side-event at the invitational, both of which he had won with his mono-green Elf deck. Though he had made several top 8's, Dom hadn't won an event since the Fall Extended event, which he took down with Doran Zoo back in September. This time, he was wielding his RUG Ramp deck, hoping to again go all the way after finishing 8th place in the Swiss.

Dom again won the roll, having reversed his fortune from the Swiss rounds throughout the top 8, and played first. Both players kept their opening seven. Dom started with a Halimar Depths, while Jason surprisingly had no first turn play. Dom played a Scalding Tarn and passed, while Jason had a lone Llanowar Elves. Dom played a Raging Ravine on his next turn, evidently waiting for his opponent to make the first move.

Jason obliged on his next turn, casting Nissa Revane and using her first ability to fetch a Nissa's Chosen from his library. However, Dom found a Mountain with his Scalding Tarn (19-20) and took advantage of her low starting loyalty of 2 and disposed of her with a Lightning Bolt before she could get above 3 loyalty. Dom then used his fourth turn to cast Jace, the Mind Sculptor and return the Chosen to Jason's hand. Jason decided he needed to prevent Dom from targeting his creatures anymore, so he spent his next turn casting Asceticism.

However, Dom had a more direct way around that plan, using a Misty Rainforest (18-20) to fetch a fifth land, allowing him to cast Acidic Slime to destroy the Asceticism. Jason used his next turn to re-cast the Nissa's Chosen and play a Joraga Treespeaker. Dom then used Jace to Brainstorm, finding a sixth land for his Frost Titan, which came down and tapped the Treespeaker.

Jason continued rebuilding his field, casting Fauna Shaman and Elvish Archdruid on his next turn, as well as leveling his Treespeaker to 1. However, with the Asceticism gone, Dom was able to unleash his Lightning Bolts on Fauna Shaman and the Archdruid, significantly weakening Jason's field. Dom then played a Halimar Depths and attacked with Frost Titan, keeping the Treespeaker tapped (18-14).

Jason had no plays on his turn but to keep leveling the tapped Treespeaker. Dom continued pressing his advantage by casting another Frost Titan to tap the Nissa's Chosen, and then attacked with the first one, keeping Treespeaker down (18-8). Jason found no answer atop his library, and it was time for the second game.

Dominic Casali 1, Jason D'Mellow 0

Both players kept their starting seven again, this time with Jason playing first and starting with Llanowar Elves. Dom had a rare turn one play, choosing to Preordain on the opening turn. Jason had a second turn Elvish Archdruid, but Dom had the trump card, using Pyroclasm to consume Jason's board in one fell swoop, severely hindering his mana development.

Jason cast a Fauna Shaman on his next turn, while Dom was content to cast Explore and play two lands. Jason then tapped out to cast Nissa Revane, whose first ability fetched a Nissa's Chosen from his library. He then attacked with Fauna Shaman (18-20) since he couldn't pay for its ability. However, Dom took advantage of Jason's inability to pay for Fauna Shaman, dispatching it and Nissa with a pair of Lightning Bolts whose casting required a Scalding Tarn activation (17-20).

Jason again used all his mana on the next turn, casting Asceticism, and attacked with Nissa's Chosen (15-20). However, the green enchantment met the same fate as it did in the first game, being destroyed by Acidic Slime after a Misty Rainforest activation (14-20). Jason then decided to attack with his Chosen, which Dom was happy to trade his Slime for. Jason then cast Llanowar Elves and Elvish Archdruid, but they both fell victim to a second Pyroclasm on Dom's next turn.

Jason was finally running out of gas, as he simply played a Forest and passed. Dom finally went on the offensive, casting Avenger of Zendikar for 7 plant tokens. Jason topdecked and cast Asceticism, but it was fairly irrelevant, as he controlled no creatures. Dom topdecked a Halimar Depths, which he used to make all his Plants into 1/2's, and then attacked with them and the Avenger (14-8). When Jason found yet another land atop his library, he extended his hand in defeat.

Dominic Casali 2, Jason D'Mellow 0

Final Standard Results & Standings Update

2011-01-24T15:50:00.000-08:00

After factoring in the top 8 results, these are the final standings:

1. RUG Ramp by Dominic Casali

2. Green Elves by Jason D'Mellow

3. UBR Vampires by Michael Smith

4. GW Tokens by Noah Senzel

5. WR Quest Combo by Hannah Sharp

6. UB Poison Control by Kevin Hoover

7. White Enchantments by John Kreinbring

8. UW Token Control by Michael Carney

This event caused an interesting shift in the standings (through 6 events), including giving us a new points leader:

1. 34 - Jason D'Mellow (5)

2. 32 - Michael Carney (6)

3. 18 - Hunter Garrett (3)

4. 17 - Chris Pear (4)

5. 16 - Joe Hammond (5)

5. 16 - Kevin Hoover (5)

7. 16 - Michael Smith (4)

8. 14 - John Kreinbring (4)

8. 14 - Noah Senzel (4)

10. 11 - Dane Newton (3)

11. 11 - Jordan Arnold (2)

12. 9 - Liz DiGangi (3)

12. 9 - Scott Record (3)

13. 8 - Kevin Crowley (4)

14. 8 - Skye Kutner (2)

15. 7 - Bryant Benson (2)

16. 7 - Hannah Sharp (1)

17. 5 - Max Kruger (3)

18. 4 - Roy Mustang (3)

19. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

20. 4 - Alex Siphom Chi (1)

21. 3 - Alex Kerns (2)

21. 3 - Joe Kozlowski (2)

23. 3 - Michael Cambata (1)

24. 2 - Tyler Deforge (2)

24. 2 - Richie Harper (2)

24. 2 - Steven Nelson (2)

27. 2 - Haren Lalchand (1)

27. 2 - Will Siu (1)

27. 2 - Will Sturges (1)

30. 1 - Gustavo Bora (1)

30. 1 - Joao Alberto de Fario (1)

30. 1 - Anna Hallahan (1)

30. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

30. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

30. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

30. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

Next weekend will be the Mirrodin Besieged Pre-Release events off site, and details about those will be posted soon. The next event at FIT will be 2-Headed Giant Sealed on February 5; details will be posted after the Pre-Release weekend is over. Thanks to Alex, Chris, and Skye for helping out with the Top 8 coverage, and I hope you all keep coming back to more events. Have a great week and good luck to everyone at the Pre-Release!

- Dom

P.S. Start thinking about building decks for Pauper and Commander (formerly known as EDH), as these Constructed formats will probably be coming up sometime in February. I'll have more details soon!

Extended Event Recap - Swiss Rounds

2011-01-16T21:15:00.002-08:00

FITSSFF Magic returned with a bang this weekend, with 25 players ready to do battle in the newly changed Extended format, featuring Lorwyn, Alara, Zendikar, and Scars blocks along with the two most recent core sets, M10 and M11. There were several familiar faces present, including 5 of last semester's top 8 players (Skye, Hunter, Joe, John, and Liz) along with the top 4 players in the spring standings, (Michael C., Jason, Chris, and Kevin H.). Also, to my great excitement, were several new and eager faces ready to cast spells in an organized event for the first time. Everyone was extra motivated by the opportunity to earn credits that can be turned into Mirrodin Besieged packs once the new set is released during the first week of February.

Due to the large number of players, 5 rounds of Swiss were played with a cut to the top 8. After the first two rounds, some early contenders emerged, each winning their first two matches 2-0. One of those players happened to be myself, sporting an old friend that I rode to victory in last semester's Extended event: Doran, the Siege Tower. Due to the loss of Tarmogoyf, the Doran Zoo strategy hasn't worked as well in this Extended format, so I elected to battle with a more midrange version of Doran that was more balanced. Despite starting 2-0, I wasn't even near the power level of Scott's deck, which hardcast Eldrazi Conscription twice in a row to take round two. His weapon of choice? None other than one of my old favorites, Mythic Conscription. Another undefeated was Jordan Arnold, playing the deck I almost played - Elementals - to resounding success, including a strong round 2 win over last semester's points leader, Skye.

Round 3 saw the rise of some familiar faces, in terms of both players and their cards. One of the perennial decks to play and beat is Elves, and both Joe and Jason used their prolific mana-producing abilities to move to the top of the standings - Jason with a more traditional mono-green Elf aggro build and Joe with a landfall-based variant that used Elves to power out Scapeshift and Genesis Wave to trigger Ob Nixilis and Avenger of Zendikar many times. Unlikely invitational winner Michael Carney also moved to 3-0 with his "Heavy Metal" artifact aggro deck, a deck which had also put the artifact connoisseur himself, Kevin Crowley, at 2-1 and well within striking distance of the top 8.

Three more familiar names from last semester's standings - John Kreinbring, Hunter Garrett, and Skye Kutner - overcame early losses to put themselves into position at 3-1 each after round 4, with John wielding a GW Ramp deck, Hunter playing an interesting mono-blue artifact ramp strategy, and Skye playing a slightly modified version of the red/blue/green aggro deck that put him into the finals of the Planeswalker tournament last semester. Many players also sat at 2-2, including newcomers Alex Kerns, Joe Kozlowski, and Will Siu, giving themselves a chance to crack the top 8 with a third win and some good tiebreakers. Also in this boat were Noah, who was the lone player in the field sporting Jund, Bryant with an aggressive UG ramp brew, and Liz with her latest version of poison control.

However, only one player made the jump from the middle of the pack to the top 8 in the fifth and final round of Swiss, and that was Dane Newton, who overcame early adversity in this event and a tough day at the Orlando PTQ on Saturday to take full advantage of being paired up in the final round. After winning a close match with his Esper-colored Master Transmuter deck, Dane pulled himself to the top of the 3-2 players, putting him into the playoff rounds. The fifth round also saw an incredibly exciting back-and-forth match between Hunter and Skye in a rematch of the finals of the Planeswalker event. Hunter pulled out the match at a precarious 2 life in game 3, but both players ended up advancing to the top 8, as Skye took 8th place from me by the slimmest of tiebreaker margins.

After 5 rounds of Swiss, the top 8 were decided, with Jordan, Jason, Hunter, John, Michael C., Joe H., Dane, and Skye making the cut, with me, Scott, Noah, and Kevin C. on the outside looking in. It was time for a dinner break, to be followed shortly afterwards by the top 8 playoff!

Feature Match - Quarterfinals: Joe Hammond vs. Hunter Garrett

2011-01-16T21:15:00.001-08:00

After finishing 9th in the Swiss, I had the choice of either getting angry and sulking in a corner or taking it in stride and doing feature matches of the top 8. Though the first option was quite appealing, I decided that the second was probably in the best interest of everyone else, so enjoy these feature match reports!

This featured quarterfinal match involved two players quite familiar with making top 8's: Joe Hammond and Hunter Garrett. Though both players were playing quite different decks - Joe with GB Scapeshift and Hunter with mono-blue artifact ramp - both decks actually operated on similar principles, trying to generate extra mana to cast large spells earlier than normal. After both players shuffled up their decks, Joe won the die roll and opted to go first. Both players kept their opening seven.

Joe opened the game with Llanowar Elves into Elvish Archdruid, while Hunter only had an Etherium Sculptor by the end of the second turn. Joe was content to attack with both of his creatures (20-16) and pass the turn. Hunter spent his third turn casting a Grand Architect and attacking back with his now 2/3 Sculptor (18-16). Joe again attacked with both of his 2/2 Elves, and one was inconsequentially blocked by the 1/3 Architect (18-14).

Hunter then took the offensive, using his Grand Architect to make enough mana for a Steel Hellkite, and then sending his Etherium Sculptor into the red zone again (16-14). Joe made his first play since turn 2, but made it count, tapping 8 mana to cast a Genesis Wave with X equal to 5. He revealed all relevant targets: Llanowar Elves, Elvish Archdruid, Ob Nixilis the Fallen, Acidic Slime, and a Forest. Ob Nixilis' landfall trigger dealt 3 damage (16-11), and once Acidic Slime took down the Hellkite, the field looked squarely in Joe's favor.

However, Hunter fought back, using his mana accelerators to cast a second Etherium Sculptor, a Master Transmuter, and a Wurmcoil Engine all on the same turn, still keeping two Islands untapped to represent a counterspell. Joe untapped, played a land (16-8), and then cast a potentially lethal Scapeshift. Hunter did have a counterspell in the form of Mana Leak, but Joe simply allowed it to resolve, finally tapping down all of Hunter's mana, and cast a second copy of Scapeshift, which allowed 6 more Ob Nixilis landfall triggers, which were more than enough to take the first game.

Joe Hammond 1, Hunter Garrett 0

Hunter elected to play first in game 2 after both players did some sideboarding. Joe kept his starting hand, while Hunter had to take one mulligan before keeping his six-card hand. Hunter started off with a Ponder, while Joe summoned the first permanent of the game with a Joraga Treespeaker. Both players accelerated their mana on the next turn, as Hunter cast Everflowing Chalice for 1 and Joe leveled his Treespeaker and cast Overgrown Battlement. Hunter spent his third turn casting a Grand Architect, but missed his third land drop.

To try to reduce Hunter's mana-production even more, Joe cast an Acidic Slime to destroy one of Hunter's Islands. Fortunately for Hunter, he drew a replacement Island immediately, and used it to cast a second Grand Architect, but did not attack because of the 2/2 deathtouch creature on the opposite side of the field. Joe was happy to attack with said Slime, doing the first damage of the game (20-18), and leveled his Treespeaker to 4.

Hunter then took advantage of his Grand Architects, using them to cast a Steel Hellkite. Joe sent the Slime into the red zone again (20-16) and then cast another Genesis Wave for 5. However, the results this time were much less exciting, as he found 2 lands, 2 Birds of Paradise, and a Gaea's Revenge whose mana cost was too large to play. He used one Bird to chump the Steel Hellkite on the following turn, while Hunter cast a second Chalice, this one kicked twice.

Joe gave himself access to even more mana, leveling his Treespeaker to 5 and casting a Llanowar Elves. Acidic Slime yet again got through (20-14), but Joe had nothing to do with his excess of mana and had to pass the turn back. Hunter cast a Wurmcoil Engine and forced the other Birds to block Steel Hellkite. Joe got in once again with Slime (20-12), but had nothing to add to his board but another Llanowar Elves.

Hunter turned his artifacts blue and attacked with both, dealing 7 with the Hellkite and gaining 8 with his Wurmcoil (13-20), destroying all of Joe's one-cost permanents. After Joe blanked on another draw, Hunter's artifacts got in again (6-28), destroying the rest of Joe's field. Joe looked at his top card and conceded.

Joe Hammond 1, Hunter Garrett 1

Joe chose to play first in the rubber game, and Hunter had to mulligan to 6 again. Joe led with Birds of Paradise, while Hunter started again with Ponder. Each player again spent their second turn ramping - Joe with an Overgrown Battlement and Hunter with an Etherium Sculptor. The Sculptor, however, was short-lived, as it was taken out by Acidic Slime. Hunter fought back with a Grand Architect, and after Joe spent his turn attacking with Slime (20-18), Hunter was able to cast a fourth turn Wurmcoil Engine.

Joe cast an Elvish Archdruid but then passed, obviously having no immediate answer to the Engine. Hunter traded it for the Slime (20-24), making two 3/3's upon his Wurmcoil's destruction. Joe attempted to cast Nature's Claim on the Deathtouch token at the end of Hunter's turn, but it met a Mana Leak from the blue mage. Joe had no further action on his turn, and Hunter sent Grand Architect and both Wurm tokens into battle on his next turn. Archdruid trivially blocked the Architect, while Overgrown Battlement bit the dust from the lifelink Wurm after Hunter turned them both blue (16-28).

Joe again had no action and this time was hit by both tokens after they were turned blue (8-32). Hunter added an Etherium Sculptor to his field and looked to be well ahead. Joe cast a Genesis Wave for just 3, and it producted two Llanowar Elves to block while he tried to come up with a solution. One Elf chumped a token (4-36), but Hunter played a second Wurmcoil Engine, leaving Joe a turn away from defeat.

However, Avenger of Zendikar came to save the day after fighting through a Mana Leak with Autumn's Veil, and suddenly there were four Plant tokens entering the fight. Two tokens and Birds of Paradise chumped on the following turn (4-42), and Hunter added even more to his field with a Steel Hellkite and a once-kicked Chalice.

Joe was again on the brink, but his topdeck was Nature's Claim, stopping the Hellkite before it could finish him off (4-46). Joe also cast an Ob Nixilis, hoping to somehow set up a Scapeshift to get himself back in the game. He would need it soon, as his remaining plant tokens chumped the blue Wurmcoil Engine and deathtouch wurm on the following turn (4-53). Joe cast Gaea's Revenge, which stayed back on defense.

Hunter mounted one last assault to try to finish the game, casting another Architect and attacking with Wurmcoil and both of his tokens, which forced Avenger of Zendikar, Ob Nixilis, and Gaea's Revenge all to block (4-61). Joe looked at his top card, sighed as he showed his opponent the one-turn-too-late Scapeshift, and extended his hand.

Hunter Garrett 2, Joe Hammond 1

Hunter advanced to face Jordan Arnold in the semifinals, whose mono-red Elementals deck defeated Dane Newton's Master Transmuter deck in the adjacent quarterfinal.

Feature Match - Semifinals: Jason D'Mellow vs. Michael Carney

2011-01-16T21:14:00.001-08:00

On the other side of the bracket, the top two players in the spring standings squared off. Michael Carney's Heavy Metal deck advanced by beating John's green/white ramp deck 2-1 in one quarterfinal. Jason D'Mellow's road with Elves was much tougher, narrowly winning a grinding, marathon 3-game match over Skye Kutner's red/blue/green aggro deck - a match whose game 1 was still going when the other three quarterfinal matches were already over! Jason had won his meeting with Michael fairly comfortably in the Swiss, but after talking to Michael during the dinner break, he believed he had a better sideboarding option that he hadn't considered during their first meeting, and he thought that could tip the rematch in his favor.

Jason cleaned up the die roll after Michael led with a 1, and chose to play first. Both players were satisfied with their opening hands and I soon found out why, as they both started strong. Jason led with a Llanowar Elf, while Michael cast both Memnite and Springleaf Drum. Jason had a turn two Elvish Archdruid, but Michael cut into his hand with a Tidehollow Sculler, taking Nissa Revane from Jason's hand.

On his third turn, Jason looked to set up an advantage in combat by casting Llanowar Elves #2 and Asceticism, the unorthodox enchantment from Scars of Mirrodin that had played a huge part in Jason's quarterfinal win against Skye's giant Lorescale Coatls. However, Michael looked to circumvent combat by casting a Thopter foundry. The foundry stopped Jason cold, and he had no plays on his next turn.

At the end of the turn, Michael turned his Memnite into a Thopter, gaining a life point (20-21) and giving him a clear path of attack, which he took on the following turn (19-21). He then cast Trinket Mage, fetching up another Memnite and casting it. Jason played a dangerous permanent of his own: Ezuri, Renegade leader. Michael turned his newest Memnite into a Thopter (19-22).

Michael then turned both his Thopters sideways (17-22), then casting a Ranger of Eos to find two more Memnites, which he cast along with an Ornithopter, leaving him with lots of fodder for Thopter Foundry. Jason cast Joraga Treespeaker and leveled it to 3 and passed the turn. Yet another Memnite grew wings (17-23), and the three thopters cracked into the red zone yet again (14-23). Steel Overseer and Court Homunculus from Michael suddenly made his clock much faster.

Jason had to act soon, and set up a potentially big following turn with a Fauna Shaman, passing the turn. Michael turned his last two zero-cost artifacts into Thopters (14-25), and after a Steel Overseer activation, his Thopters put Jason down to his last turn (4-25). Or so we thought. Jason counted up his mana, finding exactly 16. He used one to activate Fauna Shaman, discarding an Arbor Elf and searching up Emrakul, the I Win Lols. He then cast Emrakul and took an extra turn.

Still, Emrakul wouldn't be enough to stop the onslaught of Thopters. However, Jason drew Nissa Revane off the top of his library, and used it to gain 12 life off of his Elves (16-25). Emrakul then attacked, and Michael sacrificed 2 lands, Springleaf Drum, Trinket Mage, Ranger of Eos, and Steel Overseer to the annihilator trigger. He then took the hit (16-10) and used his last lands to make Tidehollow Sculler, Court Homunculous, and the Foundry itself into Thopters (16-13), fortunate that his opponent failed to use Ezuri's Overrun ability to threaten lethal damage. However, upon drawing his card, he realized that if there were a potential path to victory, it would have involved not sacrificing the Steel Overseer, and he promptly scooped up his cards.

Jason D'Mellow 1, Michael Carney 0

Both players kept their opening hands for game 2, and Michael chose to play first. However, he had an uncharacteristic first turn of "Darkslick Shores, go," and Jason had the first play again with Llanowar Elves. Michael used Marsh Flats to find a second land (20-19), and then cast Steel Overseer and Memnite before passing the turn. To Michael's chagrin, Jason had a second-turn Elvish Archdruid for the second time in the match and apparently the fourth time in four games they had played on the day.

Michael took the offensive, casting his deck's most powerful card, Tempered Steel, then activating his Steel Overseer's ability and attacking for 4 with his Memnite (16-19). However, Jason had access to tons of mana, and spent his third turn casting Llanowar Elves, Arbor Elf, and a kicked Mold Shambler to destroy Tempered Steel. Michael had a replacement for his lost enchantment and played a Court Homunculus after another Marsh Flats activation (16-18). He then used his Steel Overseer again and attacked with his 5/5 Memnite (11-18).

Jason stabilized on his next turn, casting Nissa Revane and searching his deck for Nissa's Chosen with Revane's first ability. He then cast the mighty Relic Crush, a 5-mana double-Naturalize from Worldwake that most decks dismiss as too expensive. However, it worked wonders for the Elf deck, destroying Steel Overseer and Court Homunculous, and leaving Michael with a suddenly unexciting side of the table.

Michael tried to deal with Nissa, attacking her with the Memnite, but it traded with Nissa's Chosen after a double block with the Chosen and Mold Shambler. Michael played another Court Homunculus and passed. Jason continued applying pressure, casting another kicked Mold Shambler, and the second Tempered Steel met the same fate as the first one. "Wow, it's like mono-green control," Hunter commented, as he was observing the match after advancing to the finals with a 2-0 win over Jordan in the other semifinal.

Jason then cast a second Archdruid and attacked with his three 3/3 mana-producing Elves (11-9). Michael knew he was way behind, and after checking his top card, he conceded, searching through his deck and showing his opponent the three Ethersworn Canonists that maybe could have slowed the Elf onslaught if he had drawn one.

Jason D'Mellow 2, Michael Carney 0

Feature Match - Finals: Jason D'Mellow vs. Hunter Garrett

2011-01-16T21:13:00.002-08:00

After seven long rounds of Magic, the finals had arrived. Hunter Garrett had found a home in the finals, making his impressive fourth consecutive appearance in them (with four different decks, I might add - this time it was mono-blue artifact ramp). On the other side was Jason D'Mellow, who had cracked the top 8 once and also won a Swiss-style Standard side-event during last semester's invitational, but had not yet played in a playoff final. Jason won the roll and elected to play first with his Elf deck. Both players kept their opening seven, and the finals were underway.

Jason opened with a Llanowar Elf on turn one, followed by two more on his second turn. He then attacked with his first Llanowar Elves (20-19) and shipped the turn. However, Hunter still had no plays. Jason then cast Asceticism on turn three, but it was met by Mana Leak from Hunter, and he had no further plays as he missed his third land drop.

Hunter finally cast a spell in the form of Everflowing Chalice for 1. Perhaps thinking he had baited the counterspell, Jason cast Nissa Revane, only to find the planeswalker countered by a second Mana Leak. He cast an Arbor Elf with his last mana and ended his turn. Hunter started developing his board, casting Ponder and two Etherium Sculptors on his fourth turn.

However, Jason retaliated strongly with a Relic Crush to kill both Sculptors, setting Hunter far behind. After a quick check from me to confirm that Jason hadn't failed to de-sideboard after the previous match (he hadn't - he actually played 2 Relic Crush main), Hunter cast a Ponder but didn't like what he saw, shuffling his deck and then passing after drawing off the spell. Jason played an Elvish Archdruid and passed back, with Hunter playing a Grand Architect on his next turn.

Jason then took advantage of his newfound mana, playing another Archdruid, a Nissa's Chosen, and a Joraga Treespeaker, which he leveled 4 times. Hunter finally put some threats onto his board in the form of Steel Hellkite and Master Transmuter, but when Jason cast his Joraga Warcaller kicked 10 times, he had far more than lethal damage on board and Hunter conceded.

Jason D'Mellow 1, Hunter Garrett 0

Hunter chose to play first in game 2, and both players again kept their opening hands. Hunter opened with Ponder while Jason had the first permanent of the game with Joraga Treespeaker. Hunter then cast Augury Owl and got to scry 3. Jason spent his turn leveling the Treespeaker to 1 and then tapping it to cast Arbor Elf and Ezuri's Archers. Both players did little over the next two turns, with Hunter just playing Islands and Jason leveling his Treespeaker to 5.

Jason finally attempted to break the stalemate, carefully casting Elvish Archdruid with 3 mana up, but it was for naught, as Hunter countered it with Cryptic Command and bounced the Treespeaker, forcing Jason to restart his mana development. Hunter then resolved a Wurmcoil Engine on his turn, while all Jason had was a Nissa's Chosen and the bounced Treespeaker.

Nissa's Chosen chumped the Wurmcoil Engine (20-26), who was joined by his brother, the pre-release foil Wurmcoil Engine who was facing the opposite direction. Jason leveled his Treespeaker to 1 and cast Elvish Archdruid before passing his turn. Hunter swung in with both Wurmcoils, which Jason declined to block (8-38). Jason cast an Arbor Elf and attempted a Relic Crush, but this time Hunter was ready for it with his sideboarded Turn Aside to save both of his Wurmcoils.

Hunter then summoned Grand Architect, turned them blue, and sent them both into the red zone. Jason chumped one with the Arbor Elf and took the other (1-52). Jason played an Asceticism and passed, then conceded a couple seconds later after realizing he could chump both Wurmcoils again, but the Grand Architect would get through for the last point of damage.

Jason D'Mellow 1, Hunter Garrett 1

The third game of the match saw the round's first mulligan, as Hunter went down to 6 before keeping. Jason, playing first, started with Arbor Elf, while Hunter had another first-turn Ponder. This time, Jason had the turn 2 Archdruid, while Hunter had no play. Jason used his third turn to cast a Joraga Treespeaker and level it 3 times.

Hunter played his first permanent in the form of Augury Owl, scrying all 3 cards to the bottom. Jason leveled his Treespeaker to 5 and cast Asceticism, passing the turn. Hunter then played Halimar Depths and cast a foil Grand Architect, sending his Augury Owl into the red zone for the first damage of the game (18-20).

Not to be outdone, Jason played an Elvish Archdruid and then summoned Nissa Revane, who searched up a foil Nissa's Chosen. He also had the mana to cast Ezuri, Renegade Leader, and suddenly had a very formidable team of Elves. Hunter Pondered and then fought back with a Wurmcoil Engine.

Jason then went big on his next turn, casting an Arbor Elf and using Nissa to fetch another Nissa's Chosen. He then tapped both of his Archdruids for enough mana to cast Emrakul, the I Win Lols. On his extra turn, Jason attacked with Emrakul (18-5), leaving Hunter with nothing but a Wurmcoil Engine and the Augury Owl. Hunter attacked with the Wurmcoil just for fun, and Jason chumped it with Nissa's Chosen (18-12), but Hunter realized it was over and extended his hand.

Jason D'Mellow 2, Hunter Garrett 1

Final Extended Results & Standings Update

2011-01-16T21:13:00.001-08:00

After the top 8 playoff results were factored in, the final standings for the event are as follows:

1. 7-0-1 Green Elf Ramp by Jason D'Mellow

2. 6-2 Blue Artifact Ramp by Hunter Garrett

3. 5-1-1 Red Elementals by Jordan Arnold

4. 4-2-1 UBW Artifact Aggro by Michael Carney

5. 4-2 GW Ramp by John Kreinbring

6. 3-2-1 GB Scapeshift by Joe Hammond

7. 3-3 UBW Transmuter Combo by Dane Newton

8. 3-3 RUG Aggro by Skye Kutner

The updated League Standings for the Spring semester through 5 events are as follows:

1. 28 - Michael Carney (5)

2. 24 - Jason D'Mellow (4)

3. 18 - Hunter Garrett (3)

4. 14 - Joe Hammond (4)

5. 13 - Chris Pear (5)

6. 10 - Kevin Hoover (4)

7. 9 - Liz DiGangi (3)

7. 9 - John Kreinbring (3)

9. 9 - Jordan Arnold (1)

10. 8 - Dane Newton (2)

11. 7 - Kevin Crowley (3)

11. 7 - Michael Smith (3)

13. 7 - Bryant Benson (2)

13. 7 - Scott Record (2)

15. 6 - Noah Senzel (3)

16. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

17. 4 - Skye Kutner (1)

18. 3 - Alex Kerns (2)

18. 3 - Max Kruger (2)

20. 2 - Roy Mustang (2)

20. 2 - Steven Nelson (2)

22. 2 - Joe Kozlowski (1)

22. 2 - Will Siu (1)

22. 2 - Will Sturges (1)

25. 1 - Gustavo Bora (1)

25. 1 - Joao Alberto de Fario (1)

25. 1 - Tyler Deforge (1)

25. 1 - Anna Hallahan (1)

25. 1 - Richard Harper (1)

25. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

25. 1 - Ryan Ripper (1)

25. 1 - Greg Voskuhl (1)

It's worth noting that if we keep having turnouts like we did this week, there are going to be relatively large amounts of league points on the line, and with a couple good performances it's not hard to shoot up the list very quickly.

Next weekend we'll be doing almost the same thing, but this time Standard instead of Extended and at 1 PM instead of 2 PM. I'll send out a reminder email in a couple days as well as everybody's Mirrodin Besieged pack receipts that can be redeemed on February 5 when the set comes out. Until then, thanks to everyone who came out and I hope we can continue to have a very active Magic community at FIT throughout this semester. Have a great week!

- Dom

January Events

2010-12-31T20:01:00.000-08:00

We have a good lineup of events scheduled for January, and they're all worth League Points! First, we'll be doing another online Scars of Mirrodin draft event on Tuesday, January 4. Email me to sign up for that. Three days later is a Standard Friday Night Magic event at Wizard's Wall, which hopefully many of you will be back in town for. Both of these events will have modified League Point payouts because not everyone has the chance to make them.

Once the semester starts, we're going to start with a focus on Extended, since that will be the focus of the upcoming PTQ season (PTQ = Pro Tour Qualifier - these are big monthly events in Orlando; if you want more info, ask me about it), plus people are getting tired of opening Scars of Mirrodin because they have most of the stuff they want. The first on-site event of the semester will be Extended on Sunday, January 16 (I won't be available that Saturday).

Strangely, that will also be the last on-site event for January. The next weekend I'll be at the Grand Prix in Atlanta, so there won't be a FITSSFF event. However, this is probably fine, since it lets everyone save their money for Mirrodin Besieged, which is coming out the first week of February. Pre-release events will be held the last week of January at all three local gaming stores, and I'll post more details about that as the time gets closer.

I'm flexible regarding future events, but the general plan is for February to focus on Scars block limited with the release of Mirrodin Besieged, and then to expand into some less conventional formats in March. There will be more polls and such to make sure we get to do everything that you all want to do. As always, email me questions and comments. Here's to a fun and Magical New Year!

- Dom

Events During Winter Break

2010-12-12T11:15:00.000-08:00

Just because it's Winter Break doesn't mean that Magic is going into hibernation! Check out the Upcoming Events column on the right to look at various events that will be going on both in Melbourne and online. I will try to update this periodically during the course of the break, but it's basically going to be a list of events I plan on attending (although I'm not 100% sure I can attend the Orlando GP Trial on Saturday). Feel free to contact me if you're interested in attending any of these events or have any questions.

- Dom

Top 8 Invitational Results

2010-12-04T18:36:00.001-08:00

The day had finally arrived. The top 8 Magic players from the fall semester were slated to do battle in an epic 7-round showdown of amazingness. Or at least, that's how it was supposed to go. When we convened at the SUB at 9:45 AM for the start of part one of the event, three rounds of Scars of Mirrodin draft, only six of the top eight players were present. I frantically started calling and searching for the missing players, Skye and Haren. Apparently, our favorite Justice Dispenser had fallen ill with an untimely cold, and Haren had been burdened with a senior design meeting at the last second.

Needing exactly eight players for the event, I was short on options. There were only two other people in the room. I was one of them, so I decided to sign myself up in Skye's spot as the points leader (since I theoretically would have had the most points). The final remaining person in the room was some random guy we found lying unconscious, hidden in the rubble of the FITSSFF office. After administering necessary CPR procedures, we revived him and told him that we needed him to play because he was the only other person available. He happened to be Michael Carney, who was 27th in points for the fall semester, but happened to be leading in points for the spring, so we decided it was worth giving him a shot so that we could proceed with the event.

*Note: Much of the previous paragraph was either grossly exaggerated or entirely untrue. But it's still awesome.

The Scars of Mirrodin draft proceeded quietly and deliberately, as many players sculpted some powerful decks, many full of commons and uncommons, as many weak rares were passed around the table. I opened the good stuff, pulling Molten-Tail Masticore and a foil Skithiryx, the Hard-to-Spell Dragon. However, I got Skittles too late to be poison. That honor went to John and Liz, who sought to spread the plague of Phyrexia throughout the rest of the Mirran drafters.

Immediate contenders emerged. First was Hunter's green/white metalcraft deck, which played 27 copies of Glint Hawk Idol, leading to the immediate destruction of my fairly weak RG metalcraft brew. After getting pummeled by 2/2 flying artifacts, I inspected his deck to figure out if it was physically possible to draft 27 Glint Hawk Idols (note: it is, but you need one in each pack, plus 3 foils), I somehow only found three, forcing me to acknowledge my deck's shortcomings.

My deck was originally supposed to be the RG dinosaurs deck, but Michael Smith prevented me from drafting it to the degree I wanted to. He rode his own prehistoric beasts to an early 2-0 record, but got buzz-sawed by Glint Hawk Idol.deck, leading Hunter to a 3-0 start, putting him in a prime position to make the top 4. Along with Michael Smith, Emile also started off 2-1 with a red/black deck with double Exsanguinate to pull off some wins. Also, Liz went 2-1 in the draft, beating me down in game 3 with a Putrefax, followed by a Corpse Cur to recur the Putrefax. After taking 217 poison counters in one turn, I was forced to concede and finish my draft at 1-2.

After an excellent lunch at Panera Bread, we returned to do battle in Standard, which comprised the second half of the event. It started off with undefeated Hunter, with red/white control, facing off against Emile, playing the absurdly original Red Deck Wins. Ultimately, Hunter pulled out the win thanks to life gain from his Wurmcoil Engines. Having seen part of the match, I think Emile's loss had to do with his obnoxious unfamiliarity with the deck, having not played it in the last 4 hours. Also to blame is that there was an exceptional weakness at the one-mana slot, as turn 1 Goblin Guides and Lightning Bolts are obviously just not the kind of cards you need to win at Magic.

Also in Round 4, Joe and Michael Carney also stayed alive in the running for top 4, both moving to 2-2. Joe's Genesis Wave Elf deck managed to overcome the assault of Michael Smith's mono-red proliferate combo deck, which looked to play Chandra Nalaar and proliferate her immediately to 8 counters so that she can resolve her ultimate and probably win the game right there. Michael Carney's re-vamped Quest White Weenie deck defeated Liz's black/white poison control, partly thanks to its newly added red splash for Cunning Sparkmage, who suddenly looks a lot more like Visara the Dreadful after he picks up a Basilisk Collar. Well, minus the giant horns and looking like it got whacked several times by an Ugly Stick.

In the final round before the cut, Hunter was guaranteed the top seed, but all but one of the remaining players (sorry John :( ) were 2-2 and playing for a spot in the top 4. Emile defeated Joe rather anticlimactically, burning out his mana sources before he could cast large creatures or Genesis Wave for value. In two extremely exciting matches, Liz defeated John in game 3 by the slimmest of margins, proliferating him to death for the last poison counter with just her Contagion Engine and four lands. Where did the rest go? They all got sacrificed to Kozilek's Annihilator ability. Talk about a close call! Speaking of which, Michael Carney advanced to the semifinals with a win over Hunter, stabilizing with an Ornithopter at 1 life and equipping it with four different equipments!

I missed most of the semifinals because I was busy finishing up the side events, but they were both rematches and both had the same result, as Michael Carney defeated Liz and Hunter defeated Emile. In the finals, Hunter stopped Michael's assault with an early Day of Judgment, but Michael activated his Quest for the Holy Relic, equipping his Cunning Sparkmage with the mighty Argentum Armor, suddenly making it able to deal much more than one damage. Though it got Condemned by Hunter, Kor Outfitter came down for Michael, equipping a second Sparkmage and ending the game shortly after. In game 2, Michael did not find the Quest early, and Hunter stabilized with two Days of Judgment, finishing the game shortly thereafter with Gideon Jura and Wurmcoil Engine. However, in the final game, after a closely fought war of attrition, Hunter's deck went on the unfortunate "Quest for the Holy...Crap Why Have I Drawn 8 Lands in a Row?", which is not particularly effective, even after being sacrificed with lots of quest counters on it. Because of the mana flood, Michael Carney was able to take game 3 home with a mere Kor Skyfisher and become the rather unlikely winner of the Fall Invitational.

Final Results:

1. 5-2 Michael Carney - UW Metalcraft and Wr Quest Aggro (Prize: Tarmogoyf)

2. 5-2 Hunter Garrett - GW Metalcraft and RW Control (Prize: Elspeth Vs. Tezzeret Decks)

3. 3-3 Liz DiGangi - GB Infect and BW Infect (Prize: Planeswalker Mystery Box, which contained Sarkhan the Mad, Chandra Nalaar, and 9x Boggart Arsonist!)

4. 3-3 Emile Paul - BR Midrange and Red Deck Wins (Prize: Chandra Nalaar Playmat)

5. Dominic Casali - RG Metalcraft and RUG Control (Prize: Nothing for your poor T.O.)

6. Michael Smith - RG Dinosaurs and Chandra Combo (Prize: Textless Harrow)

7. Joe Hammond - BR Aggro and Genesis Elves (Prize: Textless Brave the Elements)

8. John Kreinbring - GB Infect and RW Eldrazi (Prize: Giant Wurmcoil Engine Promo)

Thanks to everybody who came and made this event such a success. Finally, here is the Spring Standings, updated with the invitational and both side events. Note that players in the invitational get credit for attending two events, since it was such an extensive and time-consuming event:

1. 20 - Michael Carney (4)

2. 13 - Jason D'Mellow (3)

3. 11 - Chris Pear (4)

4. 9 - Kevin Hoover (3)

5. 8 - Joe Hammond (3)

6. 8 - Hunter Garrett (2)

7. 7 - Michael Smith (3)

8. 6 - Liz DiGangi (2)

9. 5 - Bryant Benson (1)

10. 4 - Kevin Crowley (2)

10. 4 - Emile Paul (2)

12. 4 - Scott Record (1)

13. 3 - Max Kruger (2)

13. 3 - Noah Senzel (2)

15. 3 - Dane Newton (1)

16. 2 - John Kreinbring (2)

17. 2 - Will Sturges (1)

18. 1 - Gustavo Bora (1)

18. 1 - Anna Hallahan (1)

18. 1 - Richard Harper (1)

18. 1 - Alex Kerns (1)

18. 1 - David Kim (1)

18. 1 - Megan Moreno (1)

18. 1 - Steven Nelson (1)

Thanks to everyone who made this semester a great Magic success, and I hope we can keep up the fun and excitement next semester. Check your email over the break for information about a couple fun events I'm going to try to organize through free Magic programs on the Internet. They won't be for any more league points until the spring semester starts, but hopefully it will be fun and give us a chance to play more together over the break. Have a very Merry Christmas and I'll see you all again when we start up again in January!

- Dom

Thursday 12/2 Side Event Results

2010-12-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

While the top 8 players did battle in their own invitational event, two side events were run throughout the day. First was a Scars of Mirrodin draft, where 8 players came to do battle. Some of the more bizarre decks I've seen in this format were the result, with lots of draws, some significant parity, and ultimately no undefeated players:

1. 2-1 4-Color Metalcraft by Bryant Benson

2. 2-1 Mono-Blue Mill (!) by Chris Pear

3. 2-1 ????? (I want to guess GW Aggro) by Kevin Hoover

Bonus points to Chris for playing 4 Screeching Silclaws and to Bryant for winning with rainbow. I don't remember for certain what Kevin played.

We also had a standard event with 9 players, which featured a plethora of forests and fatties and a first-time winner:

1. 3-0 Eldrazi Green by Jason D'Mellow

2. 2-1 BUG Infect by Kevin Hoover

3. 2-1 GW Landfall by Scott Record

4. 2-1 Mono-White Midrange by Chris Pear

I will post an updated spring standings after I post the top 8 coverage, which will probably be sometime tonight.

- Dom

Top 8 Details & Quick Standings Update

2010-11-27T20:25:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I wanted to elaborate a little bit on how the events on Thursday are going to work. Basically, there is going to be a continual event going on for the Fall Top 8 throughout the day. That will begin at 10 AM with a draft and 3 rounds of limited and then be followed by a lunch break and 2 rounds of standard. After round 5, half of the field will be eliminated, and the remaining players will face off in a single elimination bracket to determine the Fall 2010 Magic champion. These players will earn points toward the Spring Standings in addition to having the chance to win some cool prizes. It will cost a total of $12 per player, which includes the draft, standard, and prizes.

For everyone else, there will two separate events. There will be a Scars of Mirrodin draft at 11 AM (after the Top 8 draft), which will cost $10 per player. Space is limited, and signing up is required, so email me ASAP to sign up! At 3 PM, there will be a 3-4 round Standard tournament, which will cost $5 to enter (sign up is not necessary for this event). This will hopefully be over before the playoff rounds of the top 8 are done, so that anyone who is interested can play in this and still watch the end of that event. You can play in both side events if you'd like, and you'll get Spring League Points for both, but it will only count as one event instead of two. If anyone still has any questions about the event, send me an email and I'll try my best to help explain it better.

Also, a few people came out to the Friday Night Magic draft and we had a good time despite too many of us trying to draft Infect. A couple people also attended the Extended Grand Prix: Atlanta trial at Dogs of War on Saturday. Unfortunately, we were all rather mediocre this weekend, and both events resulted in a slew of 2-2 records for all of us, but at least we got to play Magic, even if it didn't go quite as planned for us this week. Here's the slightly updated Spring Standings, and it looks like you current Fall Top 8 are going to have to work a little bit harder to hold your places next semester:

1. 10 - Michael Carney (2)

2. 7 - Jason D'Mellow (2)

3. 6 - Joe Hammond (1)

4. 5 - Michael Smith (1)

5. 4 - Chris Pear (2)

6. 3 - Kevin Crowley (1)
6. 3 - Dane Newton (1)

8. 2 - David Kim (1)

9. 1 - Kevin Hoover (1)

9. 1 - Max Kruger (1)

9. 1 - Steven Nelson (1)

9. 1 - Noah Senzel (1)

As always, call or email me if you have any questions. I hope to see lots of you on Thursday!

- Dom

Standard Results & First Spring Standings!

2010-11-20T20:14:00.001-08:00

12 players came to do battle in the poorly air-conditioned SUB for both a chance to play Standard for the first time in nearly 3 months and an opportunity to get an early jump on the spring semester's league points. With this being the first Standard event at FIT since the release of Scars of Mirrodin, many of us wondered what kind of impact the release of Scars and the rotation of Shards of Alara would have on the format. It turned out to be quite significant, as many of the top decks were heavily based on the new set:

11/20/10 Top Finishers: Standard Constructed

1. 6-0 Quest White Weenie by Michael Carney

2. 4-2 Genesis Elves by Joe Hammond

3. 3-2 RUG Ramp by Dominic Casali

4. 3-2 Big Red by Michael Smith

It was a pretty diverse field, featuring a variety of tribes and mechanics from the last few sets, including Level Up, Landfall, Vampires, Eldrazi, and especially Infect. Three poison decks survived were in the field, and two of them survived the cut, along with the four decks listed above. However, in the end, it was more traditional damage-based strategies that made it to the top of the leaderboard. Most of my matches were quick and I actually paid attention to what everyone else was doing today (amazing, right? XD), so I have a decent write-up for you guys today.

In one semifinal, my red/blue/green landfall deck was paired against Joe's Elf ramp. Some early Lightning Bolts on mana producers and a particularly productive Oracle of Mul Daya led to a quick Frost Titan, who helped me survive a Genesis Wave by locking down a 12/12 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen to take home the first game. In game two, I resolved an Avenger of Zendikar, but could only get one land afterwards, and couldn't finish off Joe before his elephant army of Terastodon and friends took me out. Game 3 was quite anticlimactic, as I could not find a fourth land despite keeping 3 lands, Preordain, and Explore in my opening 7, and I got beat down by Terastodon and Emrakul without putting up much resistance.

The other semifinal pitted Michael Smith's Koth "Fire Truck" deck, which used expensive finishers like Wurmcoil Engine, Inferno Titan, and Destructive Force powered out by Koth of the Hammer, against Michael Carney's mono-white equipment deck, which featured several ways to cheat powerful equipment onto efficient creatures. Carney took the first game with a barrage of zero-mana artifact creatures, Glint Hawks, and Kor Skyfishers that set off Quest for the Holy Relic fairly early and got Argentum Armor online before the big red deck could get going. However, Smith's transformational "Race Car" sideboard helped him keep pace in game 2 to even the match. But in the end, Carney's sideboard reinforcements - a pair of Kor Firewalkers - helped him squeak out the rubber game.

Michael took on Joe in the finals, which immediately turned into a race situation, where Joe tried to ramp into fatties before Michael killed him with efficient flying beaters. Michael brought a team of Squadron Hawks to the race, as well as two Kor Skyfishers, who were kept in check by Joe's pair of Contagion Clasps. However, Stoneforge Mystic came down for Michael, fetching up the mighty Argentum Armor. Joe proliferated his Everflowing Chalices and passed the turn at 7 life, two mana short of casting his Emrakul. "It's over if you have Outfitter," he said warily. Michael used his Mystic to put the Armor into play, revealed the Kor Outfitter in his hand, and they were on to game 2. Game 2 featured lots of mulligans, with Joe keeping 6 and Michael keeping 5. Unfortunately for Joe, this game turned out to be scheduled during the Kor Skyfisher Thanksgiving parade, and the frequent bouncing of withered permanents made his Contagion Clasps and even Contagion Engine fairly ineffective. Michael put down an early Quest for the Holy Relic, and quickly put it up to 5 counters thanks to his Glint Hawk and Skyfishers. When a Skyfisher picked up the Armor and blew up an Everflowing Chalice, there was nothing left but the crying (and the destruction of an unlucky Contagion Clasp).

This was a fun event and hopefully a good precursor to the Standard events we'll have for the main and side events of the top 8. Standard is surprisingly diverse and I think most or even all of us have been enjoying the format. Here's the first look at the Spring Standings:

1. 7 - Michael Carney (1)

2. 6 - Joe Hammond (1)

3. 5 - Michael Smith (1)

4. 4 - Jason D'Mellow (1)

5. 3 - Kevin Crowley (1)

6. 2 - David Kim (1)

7. 1 - Kevin Hoover (1)

7. 1 - Max Kruger (1)

7. 1 - Steven Nelson (1)

7. 1 - Chris Pear (1)

7. 1 - Noah Senzel (1)

If you didn't get to earn any spring points, you will still get two more chances this semester - once at the Friday night draft next week and again at events in the top 8 invitational (which is Thursday, December 2, the first study day). However, the casual event will be rescheduled (or possibly cancelled), as I will be unavailable that Saturday. Check the Upcoming Events section of the site occasionally for more details and updates on those events. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

- Dom

Final League Standings

2010-11-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

A group of 7 of us attended the Scars of Mirrodin FNM draft at the Wizard's Wall, and collectively we did pretty well (I ended up winning with a 4-1 record and great tiebreakers) and had a good time. The point spread for this event was one point for coming and one for each match won, which was done to make it worth more than a normal off-site event but less than an on-site event. Here are the final standings:

Final Fall Semester Standings (number of events attended in parentheses):

1. 51 - Skye Kutner (11)

2. 50 - Michael Smith (12)

3. 37 - Hunter Garrett (9)

4. 34 - Joe Hammond (10)

5. 32 - Emile Paul (12)

6. 26 - John Kreinbring (13)

7. 26 - Haren Lalchand (11)

8. 21 - Liz DiGangi* (9)

9. 21 - Bryant Benson (8)

10. 21 - Dan Hooghkirk (6)

11. 20 - Michelle Karl (8)

12. 16 - Brent Kollinger (7)

13. 16 - Scott Record (4)

14. 14 - Nick Catalfano (6)

15. 14 - Helen Croce (3)

16. 12 - Will Sturges (5)

17. 11 - Alycia Johnson (4)

18. 9 - Kevin Crowley (4)

19. 9 - Jordan Arnold (1)

19. 9 - Tyler DeForge (1)

21. 8 - Stephen Kwok Choon (7)

21. 8 - Glen Parker (7)

23. 8 - Ben Monge (4)

23. 8 - Ethan Pepmiller (4)

25. 7 - Krystal Lutz (4)

26. 7 - Greg Lovell (3)

27. 6 - Michael Carney (5)

28. 6 - Anna Hallahan (4)

28. 6 - Noah Senzel (4)

30. 6 - Dan Hoekstra (3)

31. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

32. 5 - Andrew Capik (3)

32. 5 - Dane Newton (3)

34. 5 - Mike Mooty (2)

35. 4 - Steven Nelson (3)

36. 4 - Kevin Hoover (2)

37. 3 - Shawn Brabant (3)

37. 3 - Kareem Elashmawy (3)

37. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

40. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

40. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

42. 2 - John Chandler (1)

42. 2 - Aaron Macy (1)

44. 1 - Michael Cambata (1)

44. 1 - Thomas Fitch (1)

44. 1 - Max Kruger (1)

44. 1 - Bryan Lam (1)

44. 1 - Mike Sedivy (1)

44. 1 - Hannah Sharp (1)

44. 1 - Trish Vincent (1)

*8th place tie was broken based on greatest number of events attended.

Congrats to those who made the top 8 and to everyone for making this a really fun semester of Magic. A few people have asked me about my point total, and just for those who are curious, I haven't calculated it exactly but my estimate is that it's in the mid-60's. But, I have the big advantage of being able to attend every event, so that total should be taken with a grain of salt.

There are still two events left, but they will be done a little differently than all the ones we have done so far. Next weekend (probably Saturday) will be a special event for the top 8 players, as well as 8-player Draft and Standard side events. This is potentially a logistical nightmare for me, but I'm stupid enough to try to run 3 events at the same time. I'll explain how that will work later. The approximate scheduling is posted under "upcoming events," but it is subject to change if any of the top players have scheduling conflicts.

The weekend after that will be a special Magic Thanksgiving event of some kind. I'm open to suggestions as to what the format should be, but it will probably be either something heavily multiplayer or a draft of an out-of-standard set (or even a combination of the two!), as those are the only suggestions I've received. Let me know if you'd like to do something else. I will let you all know once we have something concrete set up.

Finally, I am graduating at the end of the spring semester, so I would like to teach one or a few people how to run Magic events so that they can continue after I leave FIT. Please let me know if you're interested in that, and as always, let me know if you have any questions or comments.

- Dom

Planeswalker Event Results & Standings Update

2010-11-06T18:57:00.001-07:00

Though half of them need to buy a watch, we did get 15 players to play in the Planeswalkers Against Cancer event. Despite starting a little late and the SUB being filled with random computer science majors from other universities, we all had a great time channeling ourselves into planeswalkers and playing a variant of the new Extended. There were a lot of powerful spells and planeswalker ultimates, but in the end, a group of familiar faces comprised the top four:

11/6/10 Top Finishers: Planeswalker Extended

1. Suicide Black by Faradan, Calignomancer (a.k.a. Hunter Garrett)

2. UGR Aggro by Skye, Master of Fools

3. UW Control by Dom, Arcane Illusionist

4. Cruel Control by Michael, Master of the Scroll

Hunter's aggressive and disruptive mono-black deck netted him a win for the second straight week. He also beat me, Michael, and Skye twice on his way to victory, so he definitely earned it. With just one event to go, there are still a lot of people in contention for the last spot in the top 8:

Standings through 15 events (number of events in parentheses):

1. 47 - Skye Kutner (10)

2. 46 - Michael Smith (11)

3. 37 - Hunter Garrett (9)

4. 34 - Joe Hammond (10)

5. 32 - Emile Paul (12)

6. 26 - John Kreinbring (13)

7. 26 - Haren Lalchand (11)

8. 21 - Bryant Benson (8)

9. 21 - Dan Hooghkirk (6)

10. 20 - Michelle Karl (8)

11. 19 - Liz DiGangi (8)

12. 16 - Brent Kollinger (7)

13. 16 - Scott Record (4)

14. 14 - Nick Catalfano (6)

15. 14 - Helen Croce (3)

16. 12 - Will Sturges (5)

17. 11 - Alycia Johnson (4)

18. 9 - Kevin Crowley (4)

19. 9 - Jordan Arnold (1)

19. 9 - Tyler DeForge (1)

21. 8 - Stephen Kwok Choon (7)

21. 8 - Glen Parker (7)

23. 8 - Ben Monge (4)

23. 8 - Ethan Pepmiller (4)

25. 7 - Krystal Lutz (4)

26. 7 - Greg Lovell (3)

27. 6 - Michael Carney (5)

28. 6 - Anna Hallahan (4)

29. 6 - Dan Hoekstra (3)

30. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

31. 5 - Andrew Capik (3)

31. 5 - Dane Newton (3)

33. 5 - Mike Mooty (2)

34. 4 - Noah Senzel (3)

35. 4 - Kevin Hoover (2)

36. 3 - Shawn Brabant (3)

36. 3 - Kareem Elashmawy (3)

36. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

39. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

39. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

39. 2 - Steven Nelson (2)

42. 2 - John Chandler (1)

42. 2 - Aaron Macy (1)

44. 1 - Michael Cambata (1)

44. 1 - Thomas Fitch (1)

44. 1 - Max Kruger (1)

44. 1 - Bryan Lam (1)

44. 1 - Mike Sedivy (1)

44. 1 - Hannah Sharp (1)

44. 1 - Trish Vincent (1)

Next week will be a draft in some capacity, though it may be off-site (such as at a local Friday Night Magic event) because I may not be available to run an event the weekend. However, you will still be able to earn several league points if you do well (i.e. this isn't like getting one point for attending the pre-release; you can actually earn a legitimate total). It will be the last opportunity to earn League Points for the fall semester, so make sure you attend if you're still looking to make the top 8 or reach any other personal points goal. More details on this will be posted in the near future.

The top 8 event will be the weekend of November 20 and 21, and will feature both standard and draft side events for everyone else (assuming there is enough interest). I encourage everyone to attend, especially newer players, as it will give you a good chance to play against people with relatively similar skill and experience levels as well as watch the top players play some very meaningful matches and probably learn a lot from watching them. Check back for more info very soon and have a great weekend!

- Dom

EDH Results

2010-11-01T17:57:00.001-07:00

We didn't have a huge turnout for EDH, but it was fun and we got to play a bunch of rounds. I'm a bit short on time right now, so I'm going with the short and sweet results today:

1. 4-1 Uril, the Miststalker by Hunter Garrett

2. 3-2 Intet, the Dreamer by Skye Kutner

3. 3-2 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund by Liz DiGangi

League Points Update:

Standings Through 14 Events:

1. 40 - Michael Smith (10)

2. 39 - Skye Kutner (9)

3. 32 - Emile Paul (12)

4. 29 - Joe Hammond (9)

5. 28 - Hunter Garrett (8)

6. 25 - John Kreinbring (12)

7. 25 - Haren Lalchand (10)

8. 21 - Bryant Benson (8)

9. 21 - Dan Hooghkirk (6)

10. 16 - Brent Kollinger (7)

11. 16 - Scott Record (4)

12. 15 - Liz DiGangi (7)

12. 15 - Michelle Karl (7)

14. 14 - Nick Catalfano (6)

15. 14 - Helen Croce (3)

16. 12 - Will Sturges (5)

17. 11 - Alycia Johnson (4)

18. 9 - Kevin Crowley (4)

19. 9 - Jordan Arnold (1)

19. 9 - Tyler DeForge (1)

21. 8 - Stephen Kwok Choon (7)

22. 8 - Ben Monge (4)

23. 7 - Glen Parker (6)

24. 7 - Krystal Lutz (4)

25. 7 - Greg Lovell (3)

26. 6 - Dan Hoekstra (2)

27. 5 - Michael Carney (4)

27. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

29. 5 - Andrew Capik (3)

30. 5 - Mike Mooty (2)

31. 4 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

32. 4 - Anna Hallahan (2)

32. 4 - Kevin Hoover (2)

32. 4 - Dane Newton (2)

35. 3 - Shawn Brabant (3)

35. 3 - Kareem Elashmawy (3)

37. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

38. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

38. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

38. 2 - Steven Nelson (2)

38. 2 - Noah Senzel (2)

42. 2 - John Chandler (1)

42. 2 - Aaron Macy (1)

44. 1 - Michael Cambata (1)

44. 1 - Thomas Fitch (1)

44. 1 - Max Kruger (1)

44. 1 - Bryan Lam (1)

44. 1 - Mike Sedivy (1)

44. 1 - Hannah Sharp (1)

44. 1 - Trish Vincent (1)

The Planeswalkers Against Cancer event will be Saturday at 1 PM. Please send me your planeswalker in JPEG or .mse-set format by Thursday evening. There will be free food thanks to the Homecoming Picnic, and part of the $7 entry fee will go to the FITSSFF Relay for Life team. Please make every effort to attend this event.

Also, 10th Edition is not legal in Extended anymore. I said that it was a couple weeks ago and just wanted to clarify that I was incorrect (thanks Hunter for pointing that out). If you need help making an Extended deck or a planeswalker, please let me know, as I have spares of both if you need them. Call or email me if you have any questions. The next planeswalker review meeting is Wednesday, so you should get feedback soon after that. Have a great week.

- Dom

EDH Feature Match - Hunter Garrett vs. Skye Kutner

2010-10-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

Full results will be up soon, but for now it's time for another feature match I did during my bye.

Round 4 of 5 in the EDH tournament pitted Skye's deck, which was led by Intet, the Dreamer and sitting at 3-0, against Hunter's enchantment deck, which was 2-1 and captained by Uril, the Miststalker. After a debate trying to solve the age old question of "What is the brainless animals?", we eventually admitted a distinct inability to understand the question at hand and proceeded with the Magic game. Hunter won the roll, chose to play first, and kept his opening seven. Skye shipped back his starting hand, but was satisfied following his free mulligan and avoid going below seven cards.

Hunter started off the game by playing a forest and casting an Alpha Birds of Paradise. Skye looked over the table in awe for a few seconds before realizing it was a proxy. Hunter used his second turn casting a Sterling Grove, while Skye's first action was a Thought Courier on the same turn. Hunter sacrificed his enchantment at the end of the turn to tutor up a Runes of the Deus onto the top of his library. Both players spent their third turns padding their mana bases, with Skye fetching a Breeding Pool with Farseek and Hunter planning some future shenanigans with his general thanks to Contested Cliffs.

Thanks to his Bird, Hunter was able to cast Uril, the Miststalker on turn four. Skye used his Thought Courier to discard Anger, giving his future creatures haste. This was immediately relevant, as he cast a Merfolk Looter. Hunter played his Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep to legend-rule Skye's copy of the Kamigawa land, and then had to settle for giving his Uril double strike with Battle Mastery, as he lacked the necessary mana to cast Runes of the Deus and give it trample as well. Skye chumped with his Courier and got a free Basking Rootwalla after activating it. He also disposed of the Birds with a Firespout aimed only at flying creatures.

Skye's cycling found him Nevinyrral's Disk, but the delay forced him to give Hunter a turn to draw a land and possibly blow him out. However, Hunter couldn't find the land to give his general trample, and the Rootwalla chumped Uril. Hunter did cast a Rampant Growth, threatening his Runes next turn. Skye had no plays the following turn, and chumped Uril with his last remaining creature, the Merfolk Looter, dropping Genesis into his graveyard. Skye used Genesis to recur the Merfolk Looter, and it chumped Uril again the following turn. However, Hunter generated a second combat phase with Seize the Day, finally forcing Skye to pop Nevinyrral's Disk. Hunter was then content to pass the turn back to Skye with no further plays.

Skye cast Spellbound Dragon on his next turn, while Hunter hit his seventh land and re-cast Uril. Skye attacked with the dragon and discarded Ancestral Vision to the loot effect, finally dealing the first damage of the game (37-40). He also cast a Vexing Sphinx. However, Hunter finally got to cast his Runes of the Deus, and even with the Sphinx blocking, it put through 14 points of general damage (37-26). Spellbound Dragon got in for 6 next turn, as Kodama's Reach was discarded (31-26).

Hunter enchanted Uril with a Boar Umbra and attempted to attack for lethal, but Skye bought some time with Moment's Peace. He then attacked again with the Dragon, discarding Jilt (26-26). Skye survived another turn by using Flashback on Moment's Peace, but he was approaching the end of the line. He cast Survival of the Fittest and discarded the Genesis he had returned to his hand to fetch a Trygon Predator. While this seemed like a good idea, Hunter used Contested Cliffs to destroy the Spellbound Dragon. At this point, Skye realized that he had no outs, as even if he attacked with the Predator and destroyed Runes of the Deus, he would be unable to block Uril's lethal swing. Thus, he conceded the match and prepared for Round 5, where both players would still have the chance to win the event if they could win their last match and post 4-1 records.

Scars of Mirrodin Draft #2 Results

2010-10-23T18:10:00.001-07:00

It looks like most of you took to heart what I said about prioritizing the next two events over the draft we had today, as we only had 8 players show up. This worked out perfectly, as we just drafted the one box and went on to do other Open Game Day stuff, and it seems like we still have plenty of people coming to the next two events. Here were the draft results:

10/23/10 Top Finishers: Scars of Mirrodin Draft #2

1. 3-0 BR Metalcraft by Dominic Casali

2. 2-1 GB Infect by Will Sturges

3. 2-1 BW Midrange by Emile Paul

4. 2-1 GW Aggro by Kevin Hoover

This time, I was fortunate enough to be on Hoard-Smelter Dragon's good side with my first pick. To Emile's chagrin, I immediately started going red, forcing him to play something else, as he was seated directly to my left. After opening Skithiryx, the Hard-to-Spell Dragon in pack two, I added a couple black cards along the way and ended up with the Liz-style flyers/removal/double dragon deck:

Creatures (13)

1x Embersmith

1x Iron Myr

1x Leaden Myr

1x Moriok Replica

1x Necrogen Scudder

2x Snapsail Glider

1x Blade-Tribe Berserkers

1x Oxidda Scrapmetaler

1x Clone Shell

1x Saberclaw Golem

1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

1x Hoard-Smelter Dragon

Other Spells (11)

2x Galvanic Blast

1x Horizon Spellbomb

2x Infiltration Lens

1x Contagion Clasp

1x Grasp of Darkness

1x Shatter

1x Tumble Magnet

1x Rusted Relic

1x Turn to Slag

Lands (17)

10x Mountain

7x Swamp

Relevant Sideboard (8)

1x Accorder's Shield

1x Fume Spitter

1x Goblin Gaveleer

2x Ferrovore

1x Furnace Celebration

2x Vulshok Replica

Relevant Hate Draft (2)

1x Acid-Web Spider

1x Riddlesmith

There's no real specific aggro or control strategy here; some games I was the beatdown and sometimes I was trying to contain my opponent's beatdown. I'm basically just playing lots of potential 2-for-1's and a bunch of artifacts so that I can keep metalcraft up for Rusted Relic, Snapsail Glider, etc, and turn my Galvanic Blasts into one-mana Flame Javelins, with the hope of eventually winning the war of attrition. Blade-Tribe Berserkers and Embersmith did a great job as well. I'm usually not a fan of black and red, but I have to say that this was a pretty fun deck to play and it usually got the job done.

I don't have nearly as many fun stories as I normally would, as this event was a bit short and I was a little distracted by all the other Open Game Day stuff going on. Round 1 I had a really close match with Michael Carney that I finally won off the back of double Infiltration Lens. Round 2 against John featured the metalcrafted Blade-Tribe Berserkers vs. Dissipation Field matchup, which is apparently favorable for me. In the finals I got fairly lucky when Will got mana-screwed in game 1 and then just didn't draw into big guys in game 2. Afterwards found out he had a Geth, Lord of the Vault and lots of other pretty dangerous stuff. I was also lucky not to need a mulligan all day. Sorry there's not much other than my stuff, but my matches all went long and I didn't get to see many other games.

An 8-person event isn't exactly brimming with League Points, but we had a couple decent movers, as shown by the updated standings below:

Standings through 13 events (number of events attended in parentheses):

1. 40 - Michael Smith (10)

2. 34 - Skye Kutner (8)

3. 29 - Emile Paul (11)

4. 27 - Joe Hammond (8)

5. 25 - John Kreinbring (12)

6. 25 - Haren Lalchand (10)

7. 22 - Hunter Garrett (7)

8. 21 - Bryant Benson (8)

9. 21 - Dan Hooghkirk (6)

10. 16 - Brent Kollinger (7)

11. 16 - Scott Record (4)

12. 14 - Nick Catalfano (6)

12. 14 - Michelle Karl (6)

14. 14 - Helen Croce (3)

15. 12 - Will Sturges (5)

16. 11 - Liz DiGangi (6)

17. 11 - Alycia Johnson (4)

18. 9 - Kevin Crowley (4)

19. 9 - Jordan Arnold (1)

19. 9 - Tyler DeForge (1)

21. 8 - Stephen Kwok Choon (7)

22. 8 - Ben Monge (4)

23. 7 - Glen Parker (6)

24. 7 - Greg Lovell (3)

25. 6 - Dan Hoekstra (2)

26. 5 - Michael Carney (4)

26. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

28. 5 - Andrew Capik (3)

29. 5 - Mike Mooty (2)

30. 4 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

31. 4 - Anna Hallahan (2)

31. 4 - Kevin Hoover (2)

31. 4 - Dane Newton (2)

34. 3 - Shawn Brabant (3)

34. 3 - Kareem Elashmawy (3)

34. 3 - Krystal Lutz (3)

34. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

38. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

38. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

38. 2 - Steven Nelson (2)

38. 2 - Noah Senzel (2)

42. 2 - John Chandler (1)

42. 2 - Aaron Macy (1)

44. 1 - Michael Cambata (1)

44. 1 - Thomas Fitch (1)

44. 1 - Max Kruger (1)

44. 1 - Bryan Lam (1)

44. 1 - Mike Sedivy (1)

44. 1 - Hannah Sharp (1)

44. 1 - Trish Vincent (1)

Thanks for reading and I hope to see all of you at the EDH event next weekend. See two posts below this one for details on how that event will work. Keep submitting those planeswalkers, too. You should get feedback on those within a few days of submitting them. Have a great week!

- Dom

Planeswalkers Against Cancer Event Info!

2010-10-21T19:12:00.001-07:00

So I've unofficially announced how the Planeswalkers Against Cancer (PAC from now on) event will work, but it's finally time for the actual announcement. The event will be on Saturday, November 6 at 1 PM. There will be free food provided courtesy of the Homecoming barbecue, so this should be a great event to attend. Cost is $7, and $1 per person will be donated to the FITSSFF Relay for Life team. Here's how it's going to work.

The first line on the back of Magic starter decks and similar products is "You are a planeswalker." So I thought it would be cool if YOU are a planeswalker for a day - literally. So, the point of this event is to design a planeswalker of yourself and play it in a deck that features it. Here are going to be the deckbuilding constraints:

1. Aside from your planeswalker, your deck must be Extended legal (this includes Lorwyn and everything afterwards).

2. You must play at least two copies of yourself in your deck (obviously you can play up to four).

3. You cannot play any planeswalkers in your deck other than your own. This allows for greater design capacity in your card and prevents a lot of really broken stuff.

How do you make your planeswalker? First, you need to download a program called Magic Set Editor. You can find it at http://magicseteditor.sourceforge.net/. Once you download it, open it and then click "New Set." Select Magic: the Gathering on the top bar and "Walkers" on the bottom bar, then press OK. You should see a blank image of a planeswalker card.

Start off by typing a name. I'd recommend a descriptive name along the lines of "Jace, the Mind Sculptor" or "Elspeth, Knight-Errant" rather than "Jace Beleren" or "Elspeth Tirel," but ultimately its your prerogative. Then go to the bar below the picture and type "Planeswalker - [Your Name]" (ex. Planeswalker - Dom). Click the black box to the right of that to change your rarity to mythic rare.

You can then click on the various boxes to type in the ability cost and text, as well as the starting loyalty, mana cost, and artist line. Typing in the ability costs and text should be pretty straightforward. To type the mana cost, use the following guidelines:

To make colorless mana, just type the number. For the colors:

G = Green

W = White

U = Blue

B = Black

R = Red

So, if you wanted to cost 3 colorless, a red, and a green, you would type 3RG (with no spaces). Here are a few guidelines for your planeswalker that you should avoid deviating from if you want your planeswalker to get approved (more on getting approved later):

- All planeswalkers ever printed cost exactly two colored mana. Yours will cost at least two as well (obviously if you want it to be three colors it will need three colored mana symbols).

- Most planeswalkers cost four or five total mana (only Jace Beleren costs three). It will be tough to get a three-mana 'walker approved; I recommend starting at four. There's really no cap on how much it can cost, but you do want to be able to cast it (nobody ever played Nicol Bolas!), so I'd say keeping it between four and six mana is reasonable.

- Your planeswalker will have three abilities. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is excessively powerful and, as much as I hate to admit it, probably shouldn't have been printed. Anything with four abilities will be rejected, even if you don't think they're as powerful - it's hard to use only one broken card as a guideline.

- You don't have to stick to the generic planeswalker setup of +1/2 do something okay, -1/2 do something pretty cool, -a lot do something awesome, but it's probably easier to design something like that. However, feel free to take a shot at different things - just use common sense.

Generally, the first ability should give a temporary bonus (e.g. Ajani Goldmane: gain two life; Sarkhan Vol: Pump & haste creatures this turn) that does not provide intrinsic card advantage. Conversely, the second ability (assuming it's a minus loyalty) can affect the board after the turn it's used (e.g. Garruk: make a 3/3; Gideon: kill a tapped creature). And, of course, the last (or "ultimate") ability is pretty much anything you can think of. The power of an ultimate should be proportional to how many turns it would take you to get there. Abilities that essentially win the game, like Liliana's ultimate, should take 3-5 turns to reach, whereas more conditionally useful abilities, like Elspeth Tirel's ultimate, can be reached faster. Do remember that if your planeswalker costs more to cast, its abilities can bend these rules a bit (such as Sorin Markov's first ability). I'll help you if you have trouble costing your abilities.

I'm going to give you an example that I designed for Nile, who is a very cool guy that used to play Magic in FITSSFF regularly before he transferred. He was well known for playing a black/white life gain deck, so I designed this, which is at the power level where it would be approved for use in this event and would be an effective card in a black/white midrange deck:

Sorry for not finding a picture (or a really cool name), but it can take a while and I've been busy. You can find cool pictures on various Web sites and Google Images searches. Do make sure you credit the artist, if available, even if it's just their screen name or something. People work really hard to make great pictures for us to use. Also, I hope I don't have to say this, but pick tasteful names and images. I will reject anything that others might find offensive, so don't even try.

The first ability is an adaptation of Edge of the Divinity, which would give a black and white creature +3/+3. While this makes a creature more scary for a turn, it doesn't last beyond the turn, which makes sense since it is a plus ability. It's cute but not ridiculous, which is essentially what your first ability should be aiming for.

The second ability is Mortify. Using already-existing cards as abilities is a good way to keep your planeswalker balanced. Since this flat-out kills something, it costs two loyalty. Also note that using it twice in a row after casting him will cause him to reach zero loyalty and be put into the graveyard. This is an intentional design element in the card, as I deemed it too powerful to start him at 5 loyalty and give him the possibility of killing three things over four turns.

Finally, seasoned Magic players might recognize that the ultimate is an emblem of another of Nile's favorite cards - Debtors' Knell. Since having this ability will probably end the game pretty swiftly if it resolves, it takes four turns to be able to activate this ultimate ability. Hopefully these descriptions make sense - ask me if you need some clarification on any of my reasoning.

Your planeswalker must be submitted to the Planeswalker Review Committee, which includes me and two other skilled players. We will review submissions regularly until the day before the event. To submit your planeswalker, save it as a JPEG file (using File --> Export --> Card Image) and send it in an email to me as an attachment. We'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. After your planeswalker submission is reviewed, you will get one of the following responses from one of the reviewers:

1. Approved as Worded - This means we think your planeswalker is great as is, and you're free to use it in the event.

2. Approved with Minor Changes - This means you basically have a good design, but we think you need to reword an ability or make a small change to your card (such as making it enter the battlefield with 4 loyalty instead of 5). You can then use your planeswalker with our changes, or you can rework it if you're really unhappy with the minor change.

3. Approved with Reworking - This means we have changed your planeswalker significantly, and you may use it with those changes. However, we may have changed it enough such that you may not like it and would rather make some changes of your own and submit it again.

4. Rework - This means we don't believe your planeswalker can be used as designed, but that the overall design concept is decent enough that your card may be approved if it is resubmitted with significant changes. However, we felt like we would be changing it too much to rework it ourselves, so we're going to leave that to you.

5. Rejected - This means we think your design is so overpowered or otherwise unusual that we do not believe it is salvageable and we recommend that you start from scratch with a new idea. We hope that this won't happen to anyone, and if you follow the guidelines posted above, I doubt that it will!

I believe that is everything I wanted to cover. Ask me if you have any questions or need some clarification. You can begin submitting planeswalkers as soon as you would like. Thanks for reading.

- Dom