Two-Headed Giant Format Details, Launch Party Info, and Standings Update

EDIT: SOME OF THE TWO-HEADED GIANT RULES INFORMATION BELOW IS OUTDATED. PLEASE SEE MY EMAIL FROM FRIDAY NIGHT AND SECTION 810 OF THE MAGIC COMPREHENSIVE RULES FOR UPDATES.

Hey everybody, I hope you're as excited as I am for the Scars of Mirrodin release on Friday. I've got a bunch of stuff to go over, so sit tight and let's go!

First off, the votes are in, and Two-Headed Giant (2HG) has won by a rather convincing margin of 19-4. Therefore, we will be playing 2HG Sealed this weekend. The event will be on Sunday at 2:30 PM. Sorry for the slightly awkward timing, but I won't be around at all on Saturday or early Sunday. Here's a basic rundown of how the event will work:

Start by choosing a partner. To prevent potential discrepancies in overall team skill and experience, players who have at least 10 league points may not team up with another player who has 10 or more league points. Once you have a partner, each of you will pay $15 and I will give you 4 Scars of Mirrodin booster packs. You will then open your packs independently and write down the rares, foils and any other cards of note and submit your list to me. The purpose of this is so that you and I will be able to know who opened what cards at what time so that there will be no disputes as to who owns what cards after the event. Once your cards have been recorded, you and your partner will share the contents of each player's packs and make two 40 or more card decks using your pooled cards and any number of basic land (which will be provided).

Each team takes their turns at the same time. That means teammates untap together, draw together, attack together, etc. However, 2HG matches are somewhat different than normal 1-on-1 matches because some of the usual rules are a little different. First, each match is only one game instead of best 2-out-of-3 (this means there are no sideboards, but teams can modify their decks between rounds). This is because 2HG matches usually take much longer to complete. 2HG games take longer partly because each team starts at 30 life. Each player also gets one "free" mulligan, where they can mulligan their opening hand and draw 7 cards. After the free mulligan, mulligans proceed as normal to 6 cards, then 5, 4, etc.

One critical rule of 2HG is that life is shared between the two teammates. This means that each player's life total represents half of the team's life total. This means that if me and Skye are on a team, and our team is at 30 life, each of us individually has 15 life. For example, if my team is at 40 life and my opponent uses Sorin Markov's second ability on me ("Target player's life total becomes 10"), my life total will go from 20 to 10, and therefore our team's life total will go from 40 to 30. After the ability resolves, Skye and I will both have 15 life as individuals and 30 life as a team. Conversely, if I play Blood Tithe, each of my opponents lose 3 life (for a total of 6 life lost by the opposing team), and my team gains 6 life.

Note that this rule does not apply to poison counters! This is because poison counters work differently than life totals. First off, poison counters can be given to either player on the defending team, so the same player can be picked each time poison damage is dealt. Poison in 2HG works the same way as milling does - if one player loses the game, the entire team loses the game. While this may seem like poison will be pretty easy to win with in 2HG, keep in mind that accumulating the poison counters will actually be much more difficult, since your infect creatures will have to get through twice as many blockers and removal spells!

If you have any more questions about how 2HG works, please send me an email, or come up to the SUB on Friday afternoon and I'll teach you about it in person.

I've also compiled some more off-site events you can earn League Points for. While usually not quite as exciting as the Pre-Release events, gaming stores also hold Launch Parties that are similar to the Pre-Release events. You get to play with the new cards and get a foil promo card (this time it's Steel Hellkite) just for participating. As with last weekend, I'll give you one point per store you attend an event at. Here's the list of events:

Wizards Wall:

Friday, Oct. 1 @ 7 PM: $12 Draft

Dogs of War:

Friday, Oct 1 @ 7:30 PM: $12 Draft

Get Your Fun On:

Saturday, Oct. 2 @ 7 PM: $12 Draft

Obviously, physical constraints of the universe limit you to attending 2 of the 3 events. However, keep in mind that it's much more important to me and to everyone else for you to attend the FITSSFF event this weekend, so please only attend these Launch Parties as an additional event, not a replacement for mine.

Finally, a ton of people attended the Pre-Release events and have earned themselves a few League Points. Also, nobody lied about what events they attended, which I'm also quite happy about. Keep up the good work! Note that you only get credit for one FITSSFF event for attending any number of pre-releases. Here's the latest standings:

0*. 33 - Dominic Casali (9 events)

1. 25 - Michael Smith (7)

2. 22 - Emile Paul (7)

3. 19 - Skye Kutner (5)

4. 18 - Hunter Garrett (5)

4. 18 - John Kreinbring (8)

6. 16 - Joe Hammond (6)

7. 13 - Dan Hooghkirk (4)

8. 12 - Scott Record (3)

9. 11 - Bryant Benson (7)

10. 10 - Brent Kollinger (5)

10. 10 - Haren Lalchand (6)

12. 6 - Kevin Crowley (3)

12. 6 - Liz DiGangi (5)

12. 6 - Ben Monge (2)

12. 6 - Will Sturges (3)

16. 5 - Alycia Johnson (3)

16. 5 - Stephen Kwok Choon (4)

16. 5 - Glen Parker (4)

16. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

20. 4 - Andrew Capik (2)

20. 4 - Michael Carney (3)

20. 4 - Nick Catalfano (3)

20. 4 - Helen Croce (2)

20. 4 - Michelle Karl (4)

25. 3 - Krystal Lutz (3)

25. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

27. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

27. 2 - John Chandler (1)

27. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

27. 2 - Kareem Elashmawy (2)

27. 2 - Anna Hallihan (1)

27. 2 - Greg Lovell (2)

27. 2 - Aaron Macy (1)

27. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

27. 2 - Ethan Pepmiller (2)

27. 2 - Noah Senzel (2)

37. 1 - Michael Cambata (1)

37. 1 - Thomas Fitch (1)

37. 1 - Mike Mooty (1)

37. 1 - Steven Nelson (1)

37. 1 - Dane Newton (1)

37. 1 - Mike Sedivy (1)

37. 1 - Hannah Sharp (1)

37. 1 - Trish Vincent (1)

*Does not count towards top 8 point totals for end-of-semester invitational event.

If you take a good look at the standings, you'll see why I'm not allowing people with 10 or more points to play on the same team. This should give everyone else a better opportunity to bridge the gap between the top 11 and the rest of the pack. And this should be a great opportunity, since with so many players planning to attend, a ton of points (and prizes) will be there for the taking!

Finally, if you know who you want to partner up with, send me an email. It will help me out with logistics on Sunday. Also email me if you're interested in playing but have no clue who to partner with, as I can try to arrange a teammate for you. Thanks for reading this long message and I'll see you all on Sunday!

- Dom

Scars of Mirrodin Pre-Release Info

I've been talking about this for a couple weeks now, but in case anyone doesn't know, here's a brief rundown of what a Pre-Release is and how they work.

To start simple, new Magic sets are released 4 times per year. The next Magic set is called Scars of Mirrodin, which is comprised primarily of artifact-based mechanics and the return of an alternate win condition called poison. What has been revealed of the set (about half, look here if you want to see what cards have been spoiled) looks quite diverse and fun.

A Pre-Release is an event at most card shops hold the weekend before a new set is released. Since Scars of Mirrodin will be released on the weekend of October 1-3, the Pre-Release will be the weekend of September 24-26. At the Pre-Release, you get to play limited formats (Sealed and Draft) with the cards from the new set before they are actually released the following week. You also get a shiny foil Mythic rare alternate-art promotional card, this time Wurmcoil Engine, seen here, just for participating. Furthermore, you'll also get League Points just for playing! More details on this below...

Here is a list of the local stores in our area and when they will be holding their Scars of Mirrodin Pre-Release events, as well as what format the events will be:

Wizard's Wall:

- Saturday, Sept. 25 @ 6 PM: $25 Sealed

- Sunday, Sept. 26 @ 1 PM: $25 Sealed

Dogs of War:

- Saturday, Sept. 25 @ 1 PM & 4 PM: $12 Draft*

- Saturday, Sept. 25 @ 7:30 PM: $25 Sealed

- Sunday, Sept. 26 @ Noon: $12 Draft*

- Sunday, Sept. 26 @ 4 PM: $25 Sealed

Get Your Fun On:

- Friday night, Sept. 24 @ 12:01 AM: $25 Sealed

- Saturday, Sept. 25 @ Noon: $25 Sealed

- Saturday, Sept. 25 @ 3 PM & 7 PM: $12 Draft

- Sunday, Sept. 26 @ 3 PM: $25 Sealed

- Sunday, Sept. 26 @ 7 PM: $12 Draft

*Dogs of War's Web site mentions that the promo Wurmcoil Engine will only be available if you play in Sealed. I'm not sure if this is true at Get Your Fun On, but I'll try to find out for you guys before the weekend.

Here's how League Points for this weekend will work. Regardless of how you do, I will give you one League Point per store where you attend an event. I've recently visited all 3 stores, and they all would very much like to see some of us occasionally. Regarding points, it is semi-honor system for this, but I do know all the store owners somewhere between very well and decently well, so I should be able to confirm to some extent where you went to events. Plus, if you say you played in 3 different Sealed events and can only show me 1 draft's worth of cards you opened, I'll know if you're telling the truth that way also. So have fun and be honest about the events you attended! Otherwise I won't give you any points. :P

If you want to go but don't have transportation, email me and I'll try to hook you up with a ride. I won't be around on Saturday, but I'll try to make at least one of the events on Sunday. Also, check back in a couple days for October FITSSFF events. I have a lot of good ones planned but I'm having a minor scheduling issue I need to resolve. They should be up by the end of the week. Thanks and have a great week!

- Dom

M11 Casual Draft Results

Many thanks to everyone who attended the casual Magic event! Both the mentors and the drafters did a great job, and it seemed like everybody had a lot of fun. Hopefully this event will help everybody feel more practiced and confident going into the Scars of Mirrodin limited events in the coming weeks (more on this in the near future). Since a lot of time and discussion went into the draft, the players just played two rounds for half league points. All mentors also received one league point. Here were the top finishers, with some more new names this week!

9/18/10 Top Finishers: M11 Draft #3

1. 2-0 Rb Midrange by Haren Lalchand

2. 2-0 GB Midrange by Andrew Capik

3. 1-1 UB Control by Glen Parker

4. 1-1 UB Control by Aaron Macy

I don't have winning decklists this time, but I did mentor both 2-0 finishers as they drafted, so I can tell you roughly what they were playing. Haren's deck was almost mono-red, featuring plenty of burn spells, but he was splashing black for Grave Titan and Gravedigger main and a couple other cards out of the sideboard. Andrew's deck featured a pretty even balance of green and black cards, featuring a pretty nice removal package and green fatties (including a Primeval Titan) and Nightwing Shades as win conditions. Yes, pulling titans usually does make your deck better, but don't attribute it all to luck, as they both had solid decks even if you ignore their respective 6/6 bombs.

As I mentioned previously, all the mentors and drafters who did worse than 1-1 received a league point. 1-1 records got 2 points, and 2-0 records got 3 points, which was roughly half of what would normally be awarded, since not everyone was eligible to participate. Here are the latest league standings:

0*. 31 - Dominic Casali (8 events)

1. 24 - Michael Smith (6)

2. 21 - Emile Paul (6)

3. 18 - Skye Kutner (4)

4. 16 - Hunter Garrett (4)

4. 16 - Joe Hammond (6)

4. 16 - John Kreinbring (7)

7. 12 - Dan Hooghkirk (3)

8. 10 - Bryant Benson (6)

8. 10 - Scott Record (2)

10. 9 - Brent Kollinger (4)

10. 9 - Haren Lalchand (5)

12. 6 - Ben Monge (2)

13. 5 - Kevin Crowley (2)

13. 5 - Liz DiGangi (4)

13. 5 - Alycia Johnson (3)

13. 5 - Glen Parker (4)

13. 5 - Will Sturges (2)

13. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

19. 4 - Michael Carney (3)

19. 4 - Helen Croce (2)

19. 4 - Michelle Karl (4)

22. 3 - Andrew Capik (1)

22. 3 - Nick Catalfano (2)

22. 3 - Stephen Kwokchoon (3)

22. 3 - Krystal Lutz (3)

22. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

27. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

27. 2 - John Chandler (2)

27. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

27. 2 - Kareem Elashmawy (2)

27. 2 - Anna Hallihan (1)

27. 2 - Aaron Macy (1)

27. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

27. 2 - Ethan Pepmiller (2)

27. 2 - Noah Senzel (2)

36. 1 - Michael Cambata (1)

36. 1 - Thomas Fitch (1)

36. 1 - Greg Lovell (1)

36. 1 - Mike Mooty (1)

36. 1 - Steven Nelson (1)

36. 1 - Dane Newton (1)

36. 1 - Hannah Sharp (1)

*Dom is not eligible for the invitational event, yadda yadda yadda you all know this already.

Thanks to everybody who came and check back in a couple days for information about the Scars of Mirrodin pre-release events at the local Melbourne/Palm Bay gaming stores. There will also be information about how you can earn league points just for going! Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

- Dom

Extended Results & Standings Update

This semester's Extended tournament had another solid turnout, with 14 players looking to dominate the newly re-modeled format. A lot of intriguing decks were played, but ultimately it was my day to take full advantage of my opportunity to finally play my favorite card:

9/11/10 Top Finishers: Extended Constructed

1. 5-0-1 Treehouse Rock by Dominic Casali

2. 4-2 Living End by Hunter Garrett

3. 3-2 UR Control by Skye Kutner

4. 2-3 UW Levelers by John Kreinbring

Some of the top contenders in the Swiss that cruised through were my Doran Treehouse deck, Michael Smith's Boom/Bust Boros, Hunter's deadly Living End combo, and two white weenie decks piloted by Ben and Kevin. However, the field was very diverse, and after two rounds of Swiss a lot of solid decks were in jeopardy of missing the top 8. You can read about one of the matches for top 8 on the post below this or by clicking here: http://fitssffmagic.blogspot.com/2010/09/extended-tournament-round-3-feature.html. Ultimately, both the reigning Standard champion (Emile) and defending Extended champion (Nikita) both missed the top 8, and it seemed pretty wide open.

It turned out that the top 8 was blown completely wide open. With 14 players, there was one 1-2 player who could advance to top 8. That was John and his leveler deck, and he took full advantage of squeaking into the top 8 as the number 8 seed, and defeated Kevin's previously undefeated White Weenies. However, that wasn't the only mono-white deck to fall in the quarterfinals, as Ben's version met its Living End. The number 2 seed also fell, as Boros was felled by Skye's somewhat under-the-radar counterburn deck. I got to face it after narrowly escaping RangerDan's really intriguing Naya planeswalker deck that you can read about in the feature match post.

The semifinals pitted me against Skye and Hunter against John. My aggressive Doran deck overwhelmed Skye in game 1, but he came back and stole my deck's namesake with Mind Control to take game 2. The same thing happened in game 3, but this time I had a timely War Priest of Thune to swing the game back in my favor and advance to the finals. I ended up facing Hunter, who lost game 1 against John to the triple Living End draw that ruined his Cascade combo, but came back to take games 2 and 3. In the finals, my hand disruption and cheap fatties did just enough to edge out two consecutive games and give me my first true event win of the semester.

The deck I played, inspired by the amazing Brian Kibler's Treehouse deck, was the type of deck I normally would be afraid of wielding, but it was actually really fun and exciting to play. The goal is basically to kill the opponent before I kill myself. Here's the list:

Treehouse Rock by Dominic Casali:

Creatures (24):

4x Treefolk Harbinger

3x Loam Lion

4x Putrid Leech

4x Tarmogoyf

4x Doran, the Siege Tower

4x Aven Riftwatcher

1x Chameleon Colossus

Other Spells (13):

4x Thoughtseize

3x Duress

1x Nameless Inversion

4x Maelstrom Pulse

1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Lands (23):

4x Murmuring Bosk

4x Misty Rainforest

4x Verdant Catacombs

4x Reflecting Pool

3x Treetop Village

3x Forest

1x Swamp

Sideboard (15):

4x Infest

4x Kitchen Finks

3x Path to Exile

3x War Priest of Thune

1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Basically, the goal is to play cheap beaters and hand disruption and kill your opponent before your mana base and Putrid Leeches cause you to kill yourself. The ability to mana-fix by essentially playing 12 Murmuring Bosks (thanks to the 8 fetch lands) and smooth your draws with Treefolk Harbinger is huge. Treefolk Harbinger allows me to play just one copy of Nameless Inversion and Chameleon Colossus, which aren't always necessary to win, but can be great, unexpected tutor targets. Tarmogoyf is also fabulous in this deck, as the 7 cheap discard spells cause the 'Goyf to be pretty big almost every time you play it, even if it's very early in the gamem.

The sideboard primarily addresses this deck's two biggest weaknesses: burn and other fast aggro decks. Elspeth, Path, and especially Infest handle the aggro problem. Kitchen Finks and Path help with burn, along with Aven Riftwatcher, who I was so impressed with in testing that I ended up playing him main (the reasoning of playing it over Finks is that Riftwatcher interacts positively with Doran while Finks interacts negatively, but sometime you want them both in the deck). War Priest of Thune was pretty much just a metagame gut call, as I knew there would be a lot of white decks featuring cards like Honor of the Pure and Oblivion Ring. It also is useful against any Leyline (especially the red one) and apparently is also awesome against Mind Control. Thanks to the several people who lent me cards that I could play the deck, it was really a blast.

Here's the latest league standings. People are starting to spread out a bit, and it should make for an intriguing next few weeks to see how the standings develop. But even if you're pretty far from the top, don't give up! The point system makes it pretty easy to catch up. For example, Kevin went from 29th to 13th in one event, and another good showing could put him in the top 8 just like that. As always, send me an email if you want to see my points-calculation spreadsheet:

0*. 30 - Dominic Casali (7 events)

1. 23 - Michael Smith (5)

2. 20 - Emile Paul (5)

3. 17 - Skye Kutner (3)

4. 16 - Hunter Garrett (4)

5. 15 - Joe Hammond (5)

5. 15 - John Kreinbring (6)

7. 12 - Dan Hooghkirk (3)

8. 10 - Scott Record (2)

9. 9 - Bryant Benson (5)

9. 9 - Brent Kollinger (4)

11. 6 - Haren Lalchand (4)

11. 6 - Ben Monge (2)

13. 5 - Kevin Crowley (2)

13. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

15. 4 - Michael Carney (3)

15. 4 - Helen Croce (2)

15. 4 - Liz DiGangi (3)

15. 4 - Will Sturges (1)

19. 3 - Nick Catalfano (2)

19. 3 - Alycia Johnson (2)

19. 3 - Michelle Karl (3)

19. 3 - Stephen Kwokchoon (3)

19. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

19. 3 - Glen Parker (3)

25. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

25. 2 - John Chandler (1)

25. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

25. 2 - Krystal Lutz (2)

25. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

25. 2 - Ethan Pepmiller (2)

31. 1 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

31. 1 - Thomas Fitch (1)

31. 1 - Greg Lovell (1)

31. 1 - Mike Mooty (1)

31. 1 - Noah Senzel (1)

*I am not eligible for to play in the top 8 invitational event at the end of the semester. But I can still beat people down in casual games with Doran, the Siege Tower, so it's okay. :P

To answer a question I got from a couple people: when there is a tie in the standings, for now I'm placing the person whose last name comes first in the alphabet higher up in the standings, but if there is a tie at the end of the semester, the tiebreaker will be overall match win percentage throughout the course of all events the individual has participated in. I'll mention this again when we get closer to the end of the semester, but I wanted to get it out there in case anybody else was curious or concerned about it.

Thanks to all the people that have been coming out every week and making these events really be a lot of fun so far this semester. I'm going to tone it down for a couple weeks before Scars of Mirrodin comes out to give everyone a little breather. Next weekend there won't be an event, but there will be a casual Magic workshop sometime to give some drafting and deckbuilding help to some of the players that are fairly new to the game or have been struggling a little in the events. I'll post more about this in a few days. The week after that there also won't be a FITSSFF event, as that's Scars of Mirrodin pre-release weekend at the local gaming stores. If you're interested in going to the Scars of Mirrodin pre-release, there will be more details abouut it available on the Web site in a week or so. Thanks for reading this, check out the exciting feature match post below this one, and have a great week!

- Dom

Extended Tournament: Round 3 Feature Match - Dan Hooghkirk vs. Nikita Nikolayev

I'll have the tournament results summary up later today or tomorrow, but for now, enjoy this feature match that I covered during the last round of Swiss after I was able to intentional draw with Michael Smith into the top 8.

In this matchup was RangerDan, playing an Extended adaptation of the "Fellowship of the Rings" deck, a Naya-colored planeswalker deck popularized at Pro Tour: Berlin in 2008. The deck uses the somewhat-unheralded Rings of Brighthearth to gain card advantage by effectively being able to use every planeswalker ability twice each time it's activated. Sitting across from him was defending Extended champion Nikita, playing a modified version of the mono-black Vampires deck that won him the Extended event in the spring. However, he was at the risk of completely missing the Top 8 this time around, as both players were sitting at 1-1 and the loser would be eliminated from the tournament.

Dan won the roll, and both players shuffled up and laid out their opening hands. Dan chose to play first and kept his opening 7, but Nikita had to ship it back, though he did settle for his hand of 6. After land-go by both players, Dan played the first spell of the game, casting Fertile Ground on his Jungle Shrine, setting up easy access to his Naya colors from the get-go. Nikita played a second Swamp and cast the game's first creature - a Kalastria Highborn. Dan responded by casting Oblivion Ring on the 2/2 Vampire, but Nikita followed it up with a Vampire Nighthawk.

Dan spent his next turn first casting his deck's namesake - Rings of Brighthearth. He then played Grove of the Burnwillows and used it to cast Lightning Bolt, taking out the Nighthawk but giving Nikita an extra life point (20-21). Nikita then cast Sign in Blood (20-19) to find some mome threats. He settled on a second Kalastria Highborn and shipped the turn. Dan got to work by casting his first planeswalker of the game, Sarkhan Vol, and used his first ability to put Vol to 5 loyalty. Nikita hit Vol for 2 with the Highborn, sending it to 3 loyalty, but had no further plays. Dan was content to use Vol's first ability and pass the turn, but when Nikita's Highborn attacked again, he cast Volcanic Fallout to deal with the 2/2 and deal each player 2 damage (18-17). Nikita did have mana open to use the Highborn's ability, draining 2 life from Dan (16-19). Postcombat, Nikita cast Vampire Hexmage and sacrificed it to kill Sarkhan Vol.

Dan was running out of gas, and did nothing on the following turn. Nikita elected to go for pressure over value, casting an unkicked Gatekeeper of Malakir. Fortunately for Dan, he peeled Elspeth, Knight-Errant off the top of his library and made two soldier tokens using Rings of Brighthearth. Nikita responded immediately with two Disfigures to kill both tokens, and hit Elspeth for 2 with his Gatekeeper. Dan wasn't done with his planeswalkers, however, casting Garruk Wildspeaker essentially for free, as he untapped four lands and then made two more Soldiers, threatening a particularly scary double Overrun the next turn. Nikita had a blank next turn, and Dan went for it, casting Kitchen Finks (18-19) and then giving both soldiers an Angelic Blessings and two Overruns, making them each 10/10 trampling flyers! But Nikita had the trump card, casting his singleton Consume the Meek and clearing the creatures out except for a persisted Finks (20-19).

Nikita then took his next turn, cast Sign in Blood (20-17), and found another Hexmage to deal with Elspeth. Dan was suddenly in trouble, as he drew an irrelevant second Rings of Brighthearth and got his Finks Smothered. Nikita then bashed with his Nighthawk (18-19) and played a Guul Draz Assassin, leveling it twice. Dan topdecked a Naya Charm to kill the Assassin, but had no answer to the Nighthawk. A second Nighthawk joined the team for Nikita, and the first one swung in again (16-21). Dan drew a Birds of Paradise to chump one the next turn (14-25), but the game was getting out of hand. The Nighthawks sent Dan to 10, 6, and then 2, and after finding no help on top of his library, Dan conceded.

Nikita Nikolayev 1, Dan Hooghkirk 0

Both players made some minor sideboard adjustments, and drew hands for the next game. Again Dan was able to keep his 7, but Nikita went down to 6. Dan led with a Plains, while Nikita played a Swamp and cast Duress. To his surprise, he saw his spell get countered by a well-timed Mana Tithe, which probably saved one of his planeswalkers. This turned out to be a critical play, as Nikita had kept a one-lander almost exclusively for the turn 1 Duress. This gave Dan time to build, as he cast Fertile Ground and Rings of Brighthearth while Nikita had to discard Consuming Vapors.

Dan jumped further ahead by casting Garruk and Elspeth on the same turn using Fertile Ground and Rings of Brighthearth shenanigans, making just one soldier as he didn't have the mana to make two. Nikita Disfigured it at end of turn and then finally drew his second land, casting and sacrificing Vampire Hexmage to kill Elspeth. Dan pressed onward, however, using Garruk to get enough mana to cast Chandra Nalaar and ping Nikita twice (20-18). However, Chandra also fell victim to a Vampire Hexmage.

Dan used Garruk and Rings of Brighthearth to make 2 3/3 Beast tokens and passed the turn. Nikita hit his third land and went deep into the think-tank, finally settling on a Vampire Nighthawk. This may not have been the optimal play, as Dan used his untapped Mountain to hit it with a Lightning Bolt at the end of the turn. Dan then made two more beasts and swung with the ones he already had out (20-12). All Nikita could summon was another Nighthawk, and things began to look grim for him. Dan attacked with all 4 tokens, one of which traded with the Nighthawk (20-5). He then put Garruk back to 4 loyalty, threatening the lethal double Overrun next turn. Nikita looked at his top card, surveyed the field for a minute, and then scooped up his cards, flashing me the Consume the Meek he didn't have enough mana to cast.

Dan Hooghkirk 1, Nikita Nikolayev 1

The rubber game found the mulligans reversed, as Dan went to 6 but Nikita was able to keep his 7. Nikita led with a Duress again, which was resolved this time, as he was playing first, and he forced Dan to discard Chandra Nalaar. Dan shot a Lightning Bolt directly at Nikita (20-17) and passed the turn. Surprisingly, Nikita again only had one land, and had to discard a Sign in Blood. However, Dan only had three lands, and there was no action for a little while. Dan then found an Arid Mesa, using it (19-17) to fetch a Mountain and cast Garruk using Green off a Brushland (18-17) and untapping two lands. He used Garruk to untap two lands, giving him double white pain to cast Elspeth (16-17) and make a soldier token.

Nikita finally got a land and cast Vampire Hexmage, destroying Elspeth. Dan used Garruk to make a token and swung with his Soldier (16-16). Nikita found another Swamp to cast Vampire Nighthawk the next turn, but it met an Oblivion Ring, and the tokens got in again (16-12), with Garruk going up to 5 loyalty. Nikita played a kicked Gatekeeper of Malakir, dealing with the Soldier, but Dan had Volcanic Fallout to kill the Gatekeeper (14-10), and his beast token got in for 3 more damage (14-7) next turn. Dan made a second beast and still had Garruk at 4 counters, threatening Overrun next turn. Nikita found a fourth land and cast another Vampire Nighthawk, which Dan Mana Tithed to force Nikita to tap out. The reasoning for this became evident when Dan cast Sarkhan Vol. Nikita looked at the board, did some math, and conceded upon realizing that his life would be reduced to zero upon a combination of Garruk's Overrun and either of Sarkhan Vol's first two abilities.

Dan Hooghkirk 2, Nikita Nikolayev 1

Extended Format Info

Hi everyone,

Here's some quick info about the Extended format, which we will be playing this weekend at noon. It is similar to Standard in play style and mechanics, but encompasses about twice as many sets, including the following:

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

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

- Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block: Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, and Eventide

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

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

I'm not nearly as familiar with the main decks in Extended as I am with Standard, but I know that a lot of popular standard decks like Jund, Mono-Red, and White Weenie are still around in Extended in slightly different adaptations. Some "old Standard" decks, especially the Lorwyn tribal decks like Faeries, Elves, and Merfolk, are also played. Some control variants also exist, and there's nothing that says you can't make up your own decks! There are many cards to pick from, and I'm sure there are plenty of good deck ideas I'm not even aware of.

If you need some help making your deck, feel free to visit me in the SUB on Friday between noon and 4:30 - I should be there for casual games, deckbuilding help, and for people to redeem the packs they won on Saturday. Shoot me an email if you have any questions and I hope to see lots of you on Saturday!

- Dom

Pauper Results & Schedule Update

The schedule has been updated finally, although there's still a small chance it could change again. Plan for what's posted now (Extended this week and Limited next week), but stay tuned in case things change.

I don't have lots of time to be exciting and creative with results today, but we did have a semi-impromptu Pauper (all commons) event at David's birthday party last night. Fire was the weapon of choice, as can be seen by the top finishers:

9/5/10 Top Finishers: Pauper Constructed

1. 4-0 RW Aggro by Ben Monge

2. 3-1 Red Deck Wins by Helen Croce

3. 3-1 RG Madness by Skye Kutner

4. 3-1 BR Control by Haren Lalchand

Congrats to the red mages who placed, and it's nice to see a fresh set of names on the leaderboard! Sorry for the lack of detail this time, but I was too busy stuffing my face, watching people play Call of Duty, and playing some Doran EDH to really chronicle the late feature matches as they unfolded. I believe Ben narrowly took the finals 2-1, but I was preoccupied during the last round to really be paying attention (I had already gone 1-2 with Grixis Control and dropped at that point). I also don't have the winning decklist, but it was a pretty fast Boros aggro deck; maybe I can get the list sometime later for you all.

I decided to make this event only worth half points for several reasons, with the most important one being the fact that some people did not have the opportunity to play in it, since the event was off-site. Here are the latest league standings. If you want clarification on where I got your score, please email me:

0*. 22 - Dominic Casali (6 events)

1. 20 - Michael Smith (4)

2. 19 - Emile Paul (4)

3. 15 - Joe Hammond (5)

4. 11 - Skye Kutner (2)

5. 10 - Dan Hooghkirk (2)

5. 10 - John Kreinbring (5)

5. 10 - Scott Record (2)

8. 9 - Bryant Benson (5)

8. 9 - Hunter Garrett (3)

8. 9 - Brent Kollinger (4)

11. 6 - Haren Lalchand (4)

12. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

13. 4 - Michael Carney (3)

13. 4 - Helen Croce (2)

13. 4 - Liz DiGangi (3)

13. 4 - Ben Monge (1)

13. 4 - Will Sturges (1)

18. 3 - Alycia Johnson (2)

18. 3 - Michelle Karl (3)

18. 3 - Glen Parker (3)

21. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

21. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

21. 2 - John Chandler (1)

21. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

21. 2 - Stephen Kwokchoon (2)

21. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

21. 2 - Nikita Nikolayev (2)

21. 2 - Ethan Pepmiller (2)

29. 1 - Kevin Crowley (1)

29. 1 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

29. 1 - Greg Lovell (1)

29. 1 - Krystal Lutz (1)

29. 1 - Mike Mooty (1)

29. 1 - Noah Senzel (1)

Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to some Extended. Check back later in the week (probably Wednesday or Thursday) for some information on the Extended format. Have a great week!

- Dom

Rise of the Eldrazi Draft Results

Notice: Before I talk about the draft, please note that the events scheduled for the next two weeks will happen, but may not happen in the originally scheduled order. It is possible that the Extended event and Mini-Masters event will trade weekends, as I may be out of town next weekend (but Brent is in charge of the Mini-Masters event, so we can still have that while I'm gone). I will try to let you guys know in the next couple days. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Our first September Magic event saw 14 players take a perilous trek into the land of the fatties. After one of the most interesting and diverse drafts I can remember, another mono-colored deck rolled to victory, piloted by the winner of the Rise of the Eldrazi draft we did at the end of the spring semester:

9/4/10 Top Finishers: ROE Draft #1

1. 4-0 Mono Green Eldrazi Beats by Skye Kutner

2. 3-1 GWu Umbras by Dominic Casali

3. 3-1 UR Control by Emile Paul

4. 3-1 BR Control by Scott Record

5. 3-1 BW Levelers by Michael Smith

A wide variety of decks emerged following the draft, and after the first round, it was evident that there was a wide variety of contenders. Two decks that drew attention early were Scott's "kill dem all!" black/red control deck, featuring not one, but two Guul Draz Assassins! Also earning some jealous stares was Haren's "look at me, I made teh moneys" double-mythic deck, featuring both All is Dust and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. Both were narrowly felled, however, in the second round by my self-proclaimed tri-color "triple Aura Gnarlid awesome-sauce" and Matt's white/black "why are the nomads assembling?" deck, respectively (if you think about it, the nomads really have no reason to assemble. The Eldrazi will smash them regardless of whether they are hanging out in the same place or scattered in the fields. Maybe they just wanted to play a game of poker or something before they got annihilated. Whatever.).

On the other side of the bracket, Hunter was sporting a powerful control deck for the second straight week, taking down Michael's black/white levelers deck and then Brent's Tuktuk sac deck, but his run came to an end from Skye's mono-green "OMG Haze Frog!" deck. After an Aura Gnarlid pumped by a splashed Drake Umbra got me through Matt's defenses just in the nick of time, I was staring down the mono-green deck in the finals. I was going to feature the finals again, but first off, I was in it, and secondly, it wasn't that exciting anyway, as I got curb-stomped by fatties in game 1 and lost to a Haze Frog and a 6/7 Eldrazi Spawn in game 2, as Skye cemented himself as the undisputed FITSSFF Rise of the Eldrazi limited champion, winning all his matches in this event 2-0 and going a total of 7-0 in matches over the two events we've done. Emile and Scott recovered from second round losses to take 3rd and 4th, and Michael wielded his Gideon Jura to bounce back from a first round loss to take 5th place.

After our match, Skye graciously penned his decklist out for me to share with everybody. This is just a great deck, and shows yet again how powerful mono-colored decks can be if you ever have the opportunity to draft them. Here's the winning list:

Mono Green Eldrazi Beats ( a.k.a. "OMG Haze Frog") by Skye Kutner:

Creatures (17)

2x Beastbreaker of Bala Ged

3x Nest Invader

2x Overgrown Battlement

1x Daggerback Basilisk

2x Kozilek's Predator

1x Ondu Giant

1x Broodwarden

1x Haze Frog

2x Stomper Cub

1x Hand of Emrakul

1x Artisan of Kozilek

Other Spells (7)

2x Ancient Stirrings

1x Might of the Masses

1x Ogre's Cleaver

1x Boar Umbra

1x Growth Spasm

1x Skittering Invasion

Lands (17)

17x Forest

This deck is powerful for a number of reasons. First off, between Overgrown Battlements and Nest Invaders it has 5 ways to ramp into 4-mana plays on turn 3. After that, it does a great job of making lots of spawn tokens, which allow you to easily cast an Eldrazi or bring the spawn beatdown with Broodwarden. Skye mentioned to me that two cards he was particularly impressed with were Haze Frog and Artisan of Kozilek, both of which did heavy damage against me. This deck was streamlined so well (note the many cards with 2 and 3 copies) that despite having no relevant sideboard cards or hate draft, he was still able to win every match 2-0.

Here are the updated League Standings after this event. As always, if you want to see my spreadsheet that I used to calculate your league points, send me an email. It looks like we have a couple frontrunners that have opened up some separation at the top of the standings, but everything beyond that is pretty much wide open. As Skye's position shows, it just takes one big event to jump into the front group:

0*. 21 - Dominic Casali (5 events)

1. 20 - Michael Smith (4)

2. 17 - Emile Paul (3)

3. 14 - Joe Hammond (4)

4. 10 - Dan Hooghkirk (2)

4. 10 - Scott Record (2)

6. 9 - Hunter Garrett (3)

6. 9 - Brent Kollinger (4)

8. 8 - Bryant Benson (4)

8. 8 - John Kreinbring (4)

8. 8 - Skye Kutner (1)

11. 4 - Liz DiGangi (3)

11. 4 - Will Sturges (1)

11. 4 - Matt Wills (3)

14. 3 - Michael Carney (2)

14. 3 - Alycia Johnson (2)

14. 3 - Haren Lalchand (3)

17. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

17. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

17. 2 - John Chandler (1)

17. 2 - Michelle Karl (2)

17. 2 - Stephen Kwokchoon (2)

17. 2 - Nikita Nikolayev (2)

17. 2 - Glen Parker (2)

24. 1 - David Chesnutt (1)

24. 1 - Helen Croce (1)

24. 1 - Kevin Crowley (1)

24. 1 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

24. 1 - Greg Lovell (1)

24. 1 - Krystal Lutz (1)

24. 1 - Mike Mooty (1)

24. 1 - Jennifer Mori (1)

24. 1 - Ethan Pepmiller (1)

24. 1 - Noah Senzel (1)

*To everyone's surprise, I'm still not eligible for the top-8 invitational at the invitational. If you don't know that yet, please check the Web site more than once a month. kthxbai. :P

Thanks again to everyone who came to the ROE draft, and I hope to see lots of you at the coming events. I'll try to have any corrections to the schedule up by Monday.

- Dom