Free brainstorm is huge!  Swap two dead cards in your hand for gas and crack a fetch land.  That’s just sick.  That’s a card engine that makes me miss Sensei’s Diving Top.  The original Jace gave you more cards.  Whereas, Jace 2.0 is designed to give you better cards.  To be honest, I’m not sure which is better.  But, top/fetchland engines were big in extended before the DCI dropped the ban hammer.  Hopefully, tournaments won’t drag on since players will only be brainstorming once per turn.

Meet Jace 2.0

Banned since '08

Don’t forget that Jace can protect itself. That’s key for the cards playability. Sarkhan Vol’s ultimate seemed like a solid win condition. However, as Evan Erwin mentioned in his article, its hype wore off because Vol can’t protect a damn thing. Bouncing a threat (assuming it’s not a Bloodbraid) is a huge tempo swing. I like that he can hit the table and have an immediate effect on the game state. R&D should have codenamed this card “Manhattan Project”. It’s a perfect win condition for a control deck. My buddy made top 8 at the Wisconsin States this year with his Grixis control deck. I’m sure he will be hunting down a couple of these. WotC has put tremendous focus

on the combat phase of the game. We could see the rise of more “draw-go” style control deck. This could be an indicator from WotC that blue will no longer be the dormant color in standard.  Maybe Worldwake will also feature strong counter magic as well?

There is nothing about this card that I don’t like.  The artwork is sweet.  I love that it has four abilities and look forward to the rest of the set.  I wonder if other Planeswalker will feature four abilities.  A friend of mine has a theory that Garruk will be upgraded as Green and Black variant.  But, that is just a wild theory based on a comic.  I’ve been a fan of BG decks since high school (my first ‘Rock’ was Craw Wrum).  So, I’d be hyped if that were the case.

Not as simple as it seems...

Riki Hayashi wrote a great article on ChannelFireball.com trying to clear up a some misunderstandings about Harm’s Way. Check out the full article here

A PTQ in Madison was held up for 15 minutes while the judges debated the resolution of a pair dueling of Harm’s Ways.  Consider the following sequence of events:

1) I attack with a Silvergill Adept and a Merrow Reejerey.

2) My opponent cast harms way targeting the Reejerey and choosing the Silvergill Adept as the source.

3) I cast harms way in response – before allowing his to resolve. I target him and choose the Silvergill Adept as the source. (Note: we have both chosen the same source.)

Who or what takes damage? Does it matter that I cast mine before allowing his to resolve? Does this cause a rift in the space-time continuum tearing both players apart?

After the dust cleared the opponent took the two damage and both creatures were saved.  The judge couldn’t offer a clear reason for the ruling.  It didn’t help that neither player knew how to correctly play the Harm’s Way.  (They didn’t understand that the source was chosen on spell resolution instead of when playing the spell.  For the record, I didn’t know that either.)

4 Trinket Mage
1 Ancient Den
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Brainstorm
4 Executioner’s Capsule
2 Dimir Aqueduct
3 Looter il-Kor
2 Ponder
2 Plains
4 Mulldrifter
4 Agony Warp
4 Esper Panorama
2 Azorius Chancery
4 Aven Riftwatcher
4 Momentary Blink
2 Terramorphic Expanse
5 Island
2 Swamp
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Seat of the Synod

Sideboard
3 Eyeblight’s Ending
2 Sunbeam Spellbomb
4 Echoing Decay
1 Dispeller’s Capsule
4 Negate
1 Relic of Progenitus

I started with a UGW momentary blink deck and slowly tweaked it until it was an stompy-style bant aggro with a shaper’s gift package. It was a lot of fun and could have been effective.  However, I didn’t play test it enough and as a result made a couple play mistakes. Serves me right.   I’ll save you the round-by-round report of a mediocore finish.   I ended up 3-2-1 before dropping.  My buddy Ron Serio was one game away from top 8.  He hasn’t played serious PTQ magic in a long time and was playing a deck he considered underwhelming due to lack of cards.  So, I’m hoping his finish lights a fire under his ass to get ready for regionals.

[On a side note: Generally, I don't like to complain about matches or other players.  However, if you are a slow player.  Please, please, for the love of god, don't come to a PTQ running ELVES!  If you need 35 minutes to finish a game, maybe you should consider playing something a little more aggro.  Nuf said.]

Regionals is about a month away.  To start the play testing process I’ve decided to take another look at an old fiend – BG Elves.  There are a lot of walls running around thanks to Nassif’s 5-color control finish.  So, Wren’s Run Vanquisher is looking mighty good right now.  Here is a pile of cardboard that I’m going to try this week.

Assasssin Elves for Standard

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Scarblade Elite
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
4 Troll Ascetic or Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers (if I can get away with trip green)
4 Murderous Redcap

3 Bitterblossom
4 Thoughtseize
3 Giant Growth
4 Nameless Inversion
3 Profane Command

4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Waste
4 Twilight Mire
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Treetop Village
4 Swamp
1 Forest

I know what your thinking: “Giant Growth? Really?”  Ok, ok…hear me out.  GG serves some useful purposes. 

1. Giant growth saves my team from burn.  Volcanic Fallout is good.  Ajani Vengent is better.  I may even be able to bait my opponent into thinking they can clear the troll while I only have 1 mana open.
2. GG may force them into a bad block.  A 5/5 Scarblade Elite kills most of the creatures in the format.
3. GG combos with the Redcaps.  There will be times that need just a little more reach to finish off a control player.  An extra few points of damage may be enough.

I’m about to log on to MTGO and try this deck out.  I may be eating my words in a few minutes.

I wanted to try and discern the list before they are spoiled.  So, I started with the Banned and Restricted list for vintage, legacy and extended.  From that list, I excluded any cards on the reserved list.  Here is what I found:

White
Balance
Enlightened Tutor
Land Tax

Blue
Brainstorm
Fact or Fiction
Flash
Gifts Ungiven  
Gush
 Mana Drain
Merchant Scroll
Mind’s Desire 
Mystical Tutor
Ponder
Tinker 
Windfall

Black
Demonic Tutor  
Disciple of the Vault
Entomb  
Imperial Seal 
Mind Twist
Necropotence
Vampiric Tutor

Red
Burning Wish
Worldgorger Dragon  
Goblin Recruiter 

Green
Channel   
Hermit Druid 
Oath of Druids
Regrowth

Artifact
Aether Vial
Black Vise
Bronze Tablet
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Lion’s Eye Diamond  
Lotus Petal
Sensei’s Divining Top 
Sol Ring
Skullclamp

Land
Strip Mine  

There are only 15 slots for this mini-set.  I’m going to assume that the cards will be spread out between all the colors.  Otherwise, let’s face it; there would be ten blue cards.  That would mean 2-3 cards per color.   Let’s take a look at the possibilities color by color.

White
Based on the artwork alone, we know Balance makes the cut.  (Also, balance is one broke-ass card.)  Land tax seems like another piece of cardboard that will never see the competitive magic again.  Although not on the restricted list, I wouldn’t mind seeing Swords to Plowshares with new artwork.

Blue
No shortage of blue bad-asses to include here.  I figure there will be one card based around drawing and another with the counter-magic mechanic.  Mana drain would be amazing.  The boxed sets would fly off the shelves.  However, collectors might start a riot if they see their play set drop in value.  It would be more likely that they include counterspell with new pimped out artwork.  I figure that Gifts Ungiven might attract the extended players.

Black
Demonic tutor and dark ritual.  Nuff said.

Red
Not a lot of red cards on the banned list.  I would bet that Lightning Bolt has to make the cut.  I would buy a box just to get a foil bolt.  Maybe they included something old school like ball lightning.  Burning wish would also be a lot of fun.

Green
There are not a lot of beasties that made their way to the banned list.  Tarmogoyf is of course broken enough to make the cut.  However, goyf sells for $40 bucks on its own.  I doubt they would include it in a $35 boxed set.  I expect to see Channel and Regrowth represent green.

Artifact
Few artifacts are more potent than Mr. Sol Ring.  It’s an auto first pick in cube draft and any casual player would want to play with it.  Aether Vial would be popular and a good way to attract legacy players.  Black vise pissed me off when I was in High School.  My friend Ron and I would trade for them just so that we could destroy them.  He would burn them in effigy.  I would literally take a bit out of the cards and display them in binders to show my disgust.   Our goal was to remove them from circulation and thus lessen the likelihood that we would play against them.

Land
Strip mine is the only land on the banned or restricted list that is also not on the reserved list.  It seems like an auto include to me.

Here are my predictions for what’s in the exiled box set.  Nothing here it too expensive on its own.  However, the sum would be well worth the $35 bucks.  Let me know if you think I’ve missed something.

Balance
Land Tax
Brainstorm
Counterspell
Gifts Ungiven
Demonic Tutor
Dark Ritual
Lightning Bolt
Ball Lightning
Channel
Regrowth
Aether Vial
Black Vise
Sol Ring
Strip Mine

I upgraded my extended aggro loam deck into control loam for legacy.  The night before I arrived ready to play the deck list I posted a couple weeks ago.  I made two important changes before settling down on the final 75:

1.      Take out all the terrible cards.

2.      Replace them with good cards.

Here is the legacy deck I ran at GP Chicago:

Main Deck
1 Worm Harvest
4 Living Wish
4 Life from the Loam
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Maze of Ith
3 Putrefy
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Thoughtseize
3 Raven’s Crime
3 Tarmogoyf
2 Troll Ascetic
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
2 Wasteland
1 Mishra’s Factory
3 Tranquil Thicket
4 Barren Moor
2 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Plains

Sideboard
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Vexing Shusher
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Gigapede
4 Krosan Grip
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Maze of Ith
2 Other wish targets that I don’t remember

I’ll spare you the tournament report regarding a mediocre finish.  However, I was going into round five on a winning streak and was paired up against Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa.  With a name that long, I knew he had to be good.  Game one I crapped my pants and played like an idiot.  The worse was when I dropped a Tarmogoyf while shuffling my hand.  Paulo shaked his head at me for acting like an uber rookie.  That was not my finest moment.

I find that I lose a lot of games by getting in my own head.  Between games one and two I decided to get my act together and settle down.  Paulo opened with a quick counter balance game two, but never found a top.  He sided in Relic of Progenitus against me and kept me from getting my loam engine running.  I drew enough green creatures to keep pressure on him.  He countered back with Sower of Temptation but I had enough point-n-click elimination to keep them in check.  I finished him off game two with a goyf and a troll ascetic.

I don’t remember much about game three except that I needed to living wish for a Stomphowler to take out a counterbalance.  At some point we were both hellbent and playing off the top of our decks.  I wished for a Gigapede and he went all the way!  Paulo is, by far, the toughest opponent I’ve ever played and this match was the highlight of my weekend.

After going 5-0, I drew in round six.  After entering the draw bracket the wheels came off and I lost two of the next three, missing day two by a couple points.   I ended up going 6-2-1.  Oh well.  Not too shabby for my first legacy tournament.   That left more time for important things…like cube drafting!

- Trinisphere is always applied last. If your opponent has a Trinisphere and a Sphere of Resistance in play, and you attempt to cast a Ponder, it would cost you three mana, not four. Note that this has NO effect on the converted mana cost of the spell. That will remain 1. Shattering Spree, or other replicate spells, work differently for Sphere of Resistance than they do for Trinisphere. A Shattering Spree replicated twice under SoR will cost 1RRR – the original spell costs 1R, followed by 2 replications. Under Trinisphere, the same Spree would cost RRR – you announce the spell, Trinisphere asks “Did you pay three mana for this spell?” and the answer comes back “Yes.” The Spree destroys three artifacts (barring other effects), and everyone is satisfied.

- A spell with an X in the mana cost has converted mana cost of the non-X mana in every zone but the stack. X is ONLY counted when the spell is on the stack. For example, you cast Pernicious Deed (CMC=3). Your opponent has Counterbalance in play, and reveals Stroke of Genius. This would counter the Deed, as its CMC is three when it is in this zone. Should your opponent then cast the Stroke with X=4, the Stroke would have a CMC of seven while it is on the stack. Once the spell resolves, and it is placed in the graveyard, the CMC returns to 3.

- Split cards are handled differently depending on which zone they’re in, and what characteristics you’re looking at. If you are casting Bound (of Bound//Determined), then its CMC on the stack is 5. If you’re casting Determined, its CMC is 2. If you reveal B//D to Dark Confidant, you lose life equal to the total CMC, which is 7. If your opponent plays a spell into Counterbalance, and you reveal B//D, you will counter either a 5 or a 2 mana spell, but not a 7 mana spell. The explanation of why these act as they do is a little complex, but if you keep these examples in mind, you’ll be fine.

- Standstill can be targeted by Stifle or Trickbind, but the Standstill will trigger again when you play that spell, and the result will be your opponent drawing the three cards. Krosan Grip can target Standstill, but again, the triggered ability will resolve, and your opponent will draw. Should you or your opponent cycle a card, or channel, this will not trigger the Standstill.

- If your opponent casts Demigod of Revenge, and you counter the Demigod before allowing the triggered ability to resolve, the trigger will return the countered Demigod to play.

- There is a difference between effects whose duration has ended before they triggered, such as Sower of Temptation dying before control vs. triggered abilities such as Tidehollow Sculler. If you kill a Sower with its ability on the stack, no control is exchanged. If you kill a Sculler with its CitP ability on the stack, its abilities resolve in reverse order (from normal). You would first return a card removed by Sculler to your hand (which does nothing), and then your opponent may remove a non-land card in your hand from the game. This now becomes a permanent effect.

- Orim’s Chant, Abeyance, and an Aether Vialed Meddling Mage do not act as counterspells. These must be played preemptively, to prevent your opponent from playing spells before they are put on the stack, not after. However, there are occasions where they can be used this way effectively – specifically, in response to the activation of Isochron Scepter. Should you time the Chant or Abeyance correctly, you can stop your opponent from playing the spell from this effect. Example – Your opponent has a Lightning Bolt imprinted on Isochron Scepter. He pays 2, and activates the Scepter. If you respond to the activation with Orim’s Chant, when the ability resolves, he will be unable to play the copy generated by the Scepter.

- If multiple replacement effects try to replace a single ability or action, the owner of the affected object chooses which replacement to apply. For example, if you were to discard Darksteel Colossus to Survival of the Fittest, while your opponent has a Leyline of the Void in play, you would be able to choose whether you remove the Colossus from the game, or shuffle it back into your library.

- Some cards create multiple triggered effects that would happen simultaneously. Additionally, two or more cards may trigger at the same point in time. Under these sets of conditions, the active player’s triggers are put on the stack first, followed by the non-active player’s, and resolve in reverse. For example, your opponent controls a Tangle Wire, and you control a Smokestack. During your turn, your two effects will be put on the stack in whichever order you choose – say, Sacrifice is put on the stack first, and then Soot counters. Then, your opponent’s effects are put on the stack – tapping for Tangle Wire. When the stack resolves, you would tap permanents, then choose whether or not to add a soot counter to Smokestack, and then sacrifice permanents equal to the number of soot counters. Note that you could also have chosen the other order for your own triggers.

- When it comes to “Protection from X,” remember the anagram “DEBT.” This means that something with Protection from Green, for example, cannot be Damaged, Enchanted/Equipped, Blocked, or Targeted by something that is green.

- If Replenish is cast with Auras in the graveyard, those auras will be retuned to play. These auras will be attached to permanents of which they have “enchant this” and will not target those permanents. For example, Immolation is in your opponent’s graveyard, and they cast Replenish. That Immolation will return to play attached to a chosen creature, and could be attached to your Troll Ascetic, since the Aura does not target the creature. Only Aura spells target, not aura permanents.

- The handling of characteristic-setting abilities in out-of-play zones has recently been changed. In Legacy, the most relevant example of this is centered on Tarmogoyf. Regardless of the zone Goyf is in, it retains the values for its power and toughness. Should there be 4 card types in the graveyard, every Tarmogoyf will be a 4/5, no matter what zone the card is in. If you remove four Tarmogoyfs from the game with Sutured Ghoul (and no other creatures), and your opponent activates Relic of Progenitus, the Goyfs track their power and toughness, and would become 0/1’s. This would effectively kill the Sutured Ghoul. Once the Ghoul dies, the Goyfs return to at least 1/2’s. It’s kind of a bad rap for the Ghoul.

- Phyrexian Dreadnought has been “fixed” to combo with Stifle again. However, there’s more to it. If you should choose to sacrifice creatures to fulfill its CitP, you may sacrifice it and any number of other creatures, as the ability reads 12 OR MORE power.

- Timing is everything. There are common effects that seem like they should work one way, but instead work differently. A few examples:

• Tombstalker vs. Tormod’s Crypt – Tombstalker cannot be countered by Crypt. As the Delving is part of the cost of playing the Stalker, the player casting Stalker will be able to delve without an opportunity for their opponent to activate Crypt. You’ll need to preemptively Crypt if you want that to work.
• Devastating Dreams – The discarding of cards is an additional cost to playing the spell, meaning should the Dreams be counterspelled, you will still lose your cards.
• Mox Diamond – This card’s wording has recently been changed. You now choose whether or not to discard a card upon its resolution, and therefore do not lose the land if the Diamond is countered. Additionally, you are now able to play the Diamond, and let it die without discarding a land (to get Hellbent, for example). You cannot tap the Diamond for mana without discarding a land, however.

- Chrome Mox’s (Free foil at the GP!) imprint can be Stifled, but you will not be required to RFG a card from your hand. Along the same vein, you do not imprint a card until the Mox has resolved, and its Imprint has resolved. No need to give out extra info.

- If you control a Tarmogoyf, with a land and sorcery as the only cards in graveyards, it cannot die to Lightning Bolt. Should your opponent try to Lightning Bolt it, it will take three damage, but will not die until State Based Effects are checked. This occurs after the resolution of the spell. Since placing the card in the graveyard is the last part of a spell’s resolution, the Goyf will be a 3/4 when the SBE’s are checked, and will survive the bolt.

- Runed Halo may only be used against cards. While this seems intuitive, it is important to note that tokens are not cards, unless they are tokens which are copies of an actual card – such as the tokens generated by Soul Foundry. These are different from tokens generated by Empty the Warrens or Bridge from Below – Runed Halo can do nothing to protect from those.

- Storm is a triggered ability on some spells which copies the spell for each spell cast before it this turn. This is a triggered ability which triggers prior to the resolution of the spell itself, and which still triggers should the spell itself be countered. In other words, Counterspell (the card) will not stop every Storm copy of Tendrils of Agony. You would need a counterspell for each copy of the Tendrils.

- RTFC’s:

• Chrome Mox cannot imprint an artifact, even if it has a color.
• Engineered Explosives does NOT destroy Mishra’s Factory, animated or not.
• Pernicious Deed and Powder Keg destroy animated lands and artifact lands.

Main Deck
1 Worm Harvest
1 Progenitus
1 Roar of the Wurm
4 Living Wish
4 Life from the Loam
1 Solitary Confinement
2 Extirpate
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Maze of Ith
3 Putrefy
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Raven’s Crime
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
2 Wasteland
1 Mishra’s Factory
1 Treetop Village
1 Mutavault
2 Tranquil Thicket
4 Barren Moor
2 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Plains

Sideboard
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Gamekeeper
1 Spirtmonger
1 Vexing Shusher
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Shriekmaw
1 Golgari Rot Farm
2 Krosan Grip
4 Duress

The game plan is to control the early game with disruption.  Raven’s Crime and Hymn to Tourach should help me against combo decks.  The Extirpates should help against combo.  Swords and Putrefy give the deck point-n-click elim.  I traded out one Putrefy for a Maze of Ith.  Pernicious Deed serves as the needed board sweeper.

The threat package is kind of odd.  The deck relies on living wishes to get a beater.  The Tarmogoyf, Troll Ascetic, Gamekeeper and Spirtmonger fetch the threat appropriate to my mana curve.  Gamekeeper seems odd as for a four-drop.  Except, he upgrades to Progenitus when he hits the yard.  As a bonus, the gamekeeper effect sends the loam engine into overdrive.  I play one each of Mutavault, Treetop Village and Mishra.  The mix is there only to ensure I don’t get owned by a Pithing Needle.

The miser Solitary Confinement can be a soft lock against aggro and storm.

There is one thing my deck that worries me.  It takes FOREVER to finish a game.  I’m actually practicing playing this deck solitaire to ensure I play fast enough to finish a match within time.

Pauper is a new format supported by Magic Online. The format requires that all the cards are made available online, in some form, as a common. Finally! There is a way to play competitive magic online without spending massive loads of tix on singles. I built a quick mono blue deck for about 8 tix and headed into the 4-player pauper queue.

Main Deck
2 Condescend
4 Spire Golem
4 Muldrifter
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
3 Choking Tethers
4 Man-o’-War
3 Rushing River
4 Counterspell
4 Impulse
4 Looter il-Kor
4 Brainstorm
20 Island

Sideboard:
4 Aeolipile
4 Boomerang
1 Chocking Teathers
3 Hydroblast
3 Relic of Progenitus

Round 1:
I played the first round against a storm deck that generated mana with the usual suspects, dark ritual, cabal ritual, etc. The first thing I did was run a quick search to check if Tendrils was a common.  Instead he unloaded with a couple dozen goblin tokens with empty the warrens. Game one he tried to go off round three and fizzled. Lucky me.

Game two he unloaded 18 goblin tokens quickly and ran me over. Game three was a bit anti-climatic (for him). Mid-way through going off, I hydroblasted a Manamorphose for the win.

Round 2:
Next round I faced another mono-blue deck. He mentioned that mono-blue is kind of a popular deck. Mine was a bit more agro than his and I was able to tempo him out with the bounce and shadow/ninjitsu tech.

I won two packs for my troubles…more than paying for the cost of the tix to build the deck. I’ll change the deck to run a bit more land. Other than that, the deck seems like a lot of fun to play.