By: Eugene Klopper
So far we have Mark Young contributing his weekly - or bi-weekly not sure yet - article called the Judge's Corner, which I hope becomes a useful resource to newer players. Moving from FNM's to higher REL events can be intimidating, at least I still a feel a bit nervous every time a black-shirted Judge starts walking in my direction [I'm only kidding Judges] I think though that this often originates from the general mis-conception as to what Judges at large events actually do. I'm sure Mark will address these issues in coming weeks, and make
Keraan Chetty is busy with a nice little surprise that we will hopefully have posted this evening (Sunday, 11/11/2012) that I think will go a long way to creating a more interactive atmosphere on this Blog, and generate a great deal of more interest with possible contributors.
I think by now that pretty much every Magic player in South Africa knows how amazing the 2012 Blowfish Invitational actually was. The weekend itself was chock full of all things Magic, with the event itself running pretty damn smooth - the start was delayed on Saturday, however that was due to many factors that were largely out of the control of the TO's and Judges - that ended on Sunday afternoon with Enrico Guarneri being crowned the first Invitational Champion. His Human deck slotted perfectly into the Meta-Game and allowed him to develop his board state in the early turns of the games to gain him a significant advantage in the mid- to late-game where the mid-range decks start to try to win. Later this week Enrico will give us a run-down of the tournament and his experiences as he fought through twelve tough rounds to finally emerge the victor.
Now onto my series of articles! FNM My Life will be the medium through which I share my experiences and thoughts as I try to become a better Magic player. I have been playing Magic the Gathering for a year now, I started playing Magic with my friends at RAGE 2011 when Blowfish were giving out these nifty little free packs of cards. I originally convinced my friends to sit through the demos so that they could give me their demo packs, my plan backfired ever so slightly when they decided instead that they would join me in discovering the plane of Innistrad and all it held.
My reason for wanting to play Magic was actually very simple, I tend to be a very competitive person - I play both hockey and cricket at Club level - and I was looking for a game that I could play that had regular tournaments that were close and easily accessible. Prior to this I dabbled in Warhammer 40,000 which while fun frustrated with a lack of tournaments, so that idea of being able to grab my deck and head to Outer Limits every Friday was greatly appealing. My first FNM I managed a paltry 1 - 3 record, most players would be dissuaded, I however was thrilled by the challenge ahead of me. Two weeks later I came 8th at the Innistrad Game Day, with 26 players present that day, I was thrilled. The Magic bug had bitten and hard.
Fast forward a bit more than one year, and here we are, with a brand new Blog, and a year ahead of us that promises to be rather exciting for Magic indeed.
This past Friday I played with the deck below:
UW Tempo:
21 Land:
4x Plains
5x Island
Creatures:
Instants and Sorceries:
3x Unsummon
4x Syncopate
Artifacts:
This probably isn't the best deck that I have ever created or played, it is fun though, although I will probably spend the next week or so looking for new ideas. The meta-game at my new regular venue - AWX in Centurion - is still in a state of flux, but with Selesnya Tokens decks and Izzet Control Decks becoming popular my deck is lacking any sort of significant consistency, the best result I have managed with this deck in the past few weeks is 2 - 2. This is probably because of my deck being too reliant on the Runechanter's Pike, the addition of Geist of Saint Traft and even more Snapcaster Mage's would help greatly. I think my biggest problem is that I haven't really found a new deck to play since the rotation of M12 and the Scars of Mirrodin block.
My preferred deck was BW Tokens, the deck didn't have that many bad match-ups and had an incredible resilience to it largely due to Lingering Souls, Shrine of Loyal Legions and Vault of the Archangel. Since the Invitational however I have found myself being drawn to Enrico's Human deck, it may not be as swingy as my current deck or even the Token deck, but it places immense pressure on your opponent early in the game and cards like Lyev Skyknight and Fiend Hunter allow you to control the tempo of play to such a degree to allow you to get in those final few points of damage.
In the coming weeks I hope to be able attend a few FNM's at different stores and incorporate a few short interviews into FNM My Life, I don't think I'm playing at level to justify having an entire article to myself, so I will gladly share my space with the stalwarts of South African Magic if they will allow me.
Until next time.
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