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Originally posted by caquaa:
The U/G archetype has been doing fairly well for me, but my preference blue + another color that durdles harder. This was a 3-0 in an 8-4, but there were likely some missteps along the way in the draft portion.

The draft:
https://sites.google.com/site/caquaasmtgdrafts/m14/event-5888511

the deck:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lzvyo3mcw7okul7/blue%20green.PNG

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I try to play 15 creatures minimum (depending on how much removal I have), so to me you're 1 light. I'd play 1 Frost Breath instead of a 3rd Divination.

There were some odd choices for me, sure (P1P2 Scroll Thief, I would probably have taken the Spider there). The Thief is not that good (though I like him) and has a good chance of making it round, where by taking the Spider you could open yourself up for Green as there was just one other in the pack and you didn't send much through in the first pack.

In the end, you won, and winning coaches are always right eh . I also would have taken the first Air Servant over the Horde.

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Scroll thief does not wheel in 8-4's.

Divination is the best common in the set. I'd play a 4th if I had drafted it. I passed the 4th one at some point for a kalonian tusker because I felt the power level of tusker was really high, but I'm still not sure if that was correct.

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Originally posted by caquaa:
Oh, I realize that scroll thief wasn't necessarily the correct pick for building a deck. That pick was done to force blue.

Scroll thief does not wheel in 8-4's.

Divination is the best common in the set. I'd play a 4th if I had drafted it. I passed the 4th one at some point for a kalonian tusker because I felt the power level of tusker was really high, but I'm still not sure if that was correct.

15 Creatures is also something not required when drafting blue. M14 seems to break a lot of the typical "rules" for drafting. I made it to the finals with a deck w/ 6 creatures:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1529g463kochuei/anglic%20accord.PNG
only lost due to some very awkward mana screw games.
I also had this deck make the finals and lose:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h0rr7iz3w8fit7b/UB%20Durdle.PNG
to be fair, it was bad. It had no win cons. I went 1:1 my first round, beating my opponent one game because he thought I was going to deck out and with a few cards left I archaeomancered back an opportunity and cast it x2 on him to win; he timed out in game 3. Round 2 I got double scroll thief online in one game, in another game a single scroll thief carried it. If they go unchecked, they'll put a game away.

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Yeah, I love Scroll Thief too. I played U/Rphid and Mono-U control for Vintage with the Ophdians years ago.

At this point I'm doing a Sealed 4 Boosters M14. 30-card deck. Funny, but awkward. What would you play for your basic land amount? I'm doing 14.

I'll try and post the result later, but I'm playing R/G without any hard removal:

1 Goblin Shortcutter
1 Dragon Hatchling
1 Brindle Boar
1 Witchstalker
1 Predatory Sliver
1 Briarpack Alpha
1 Sliver Construct
1 Battle Sliver
1 Shivan Dragon
1 Sporemound

1 Lava Axe
1 Thunder Strike
1 Giant Growth
1 Hunt for the Weak
1 Lightning Talons
1 Shiv's Embrace

Lost round 1 to U/W. Won game 1 on power, lost game 2 on Mulligan to Pacifism/Celestial Flare/Banisher Priest and inability to get past Siege Mastodons, lost game 3 on double mulligan Pacifism on my Hatchling and Banisher Priest on my Shivan Dragon (only creatures). Sometimes mother luck is not with you.

'Won' round 2, he timed out, now waiting for round 3.

EDIT: Slaughtered him round 3. Predatory and Battle Sliver in game 1 ran him down, Shivan Dragon killed him. Game 2 had me T3 Witchstalker, T4 Lightning Talons (ouch), T5 Briarpack on the attack and turn 6 Shiv's Embrace on Stalker again.

Also had the fortune of opening Archangel of Tune. Let's do this again!

__________________
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Originally posted by fluffycow:
What do you guys do when you order things that comes in a condition that is no the stated condition but it's just slightly below? I just got 5 foils, nothing too expensive probably all the in mid-20s and they all have light wears here and thing, but nothing that would put them in the EX range, even though they were listed as NM. Would you drama their day up?

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depends who i got them from. someone here, yes i let them know, probably work out some form of partial refund. Ebay/online store, might not be worth the hassle of sending them back for a full refund.

__________________
"He fights you not because you have wronged him, but because you are there."

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Originally posted by fluffycow:
What do you guys do when you order things that comes in a condition that is no the stated condition but it's just slightly below? I just got 5 foils, nothing too expensive probably all the in mid-20s and they all have light wears here and thing, but nothing that would put them in the EX range, even though they were listed as NM. Would you drama their day up?

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You could bring it to their attention kindly, saying you're a little disappointed (always the best) when comparing the conditions of the cards (take photos) to cards that ARE of the stated condition (photos or condition guides) after you hearing good things about them from your friends (ok, you may bend the truth a little here ).
Leave it up to them (but don't mention that) and see what they do.

EDIT: From your story I assumed it was a store, not something from a person online.

__________________
I'm a geek, you're a geek. Let's trade.

quote:

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Originally posted by fluffycow:
What do you guys do when you order things that comes in a condition that is no the stated condition but it's just slightly below? I just got 5 foils, nothing too expensive probably all the in mid-20s and they all have light wears here and thing, but nothing that would put them in the EX range, even though they were listed as NM. Would you drama their day up?

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http://www.ebay.com/itm/Phyrexian-Dreadnought-Signed-Mirage-EX-MTG-Magic-/390352654985?pt=FR_JG_Collections_Cartes_de_Collection&hash=item5ae2d4d289

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Originally posted by Absurd90:
This is not Pete Venters signature... Right?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ph yrexian-Dreadnought-Signed-Mirage-EX-MTG-Magic-/390352654985?pt=FR_JG_Collections_Cartes_de_Collection&hash=item5ae2d4d289

Also does anyone know if Pete Venters signature is rare?

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Originally posted by Absurd90:
This is not Pete Venters signature... Right?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ph yrexian-Dreadnought-Signed-Mirage-EX-MTG-Magic-/390352654985?pt=FR_JG_Collections_Cartes_de_Collection&hash=item5ae2d4d289

Also does anyone know if Pete Venters signature is rare?

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Pete Venters' sig:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c240/caquaa/mtg/art/IMG00035-20101024-2317.jpg

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Originally posted by Liq:
I wouldn't say that Pete Venters sig is rare. Just a tad uncommon due to availability and demand. Whenever I saw him at events, there was always a line. To date, I've only had one thing signed by him personally, and nderdog currently owns it.

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Originally posted by nderdog:
And I treasure it! I was lucky enough to go to an event he was signing at back when prereleases were huge events with hundreds of people showing up at each one. I was able to plan ahead and even contacted him about my Gruul Nodorog obsession, so he not only sold me the original sketch that he submitted to Wizards, but also brought the original art for me to see. I picked up a few APs and got a handful of cards signed, and he did sketch on the back of the Nodorog AP, but even back then he wouldn't do alters because of his vision issues. Really nice guy!

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He still has the original art for that card for sale from the PDF he sent me.

So I thought, what the hell, I'll give it a go and build a pretty defensive deck with a little offense to be sure:

1 Dismiss into Dream
2 Zephyr Charge
1 Claustrophobia
1 Negate
1 Essence Scatter
1 Cancel
1 Disperse
1 Divination
1 Opportunity
1 Time Ebb
1 Wild Guess
1 Flames of the Firebrand

1 Seacoast Drake
1 Wall of Frost
1 Trained Condor
1 Nephalia Seakite
1 Canyon Minotaur
1 Academy Raider
1 Dragon Egg
1 Mindsparker
2 Regathan Firecat (to block any bigger dudes or fly home the win. Removal prone, but that's fine)

Round 1, Game 1: against U/W control. Great, I was hoping for aggro that leaves my Dismiss alone. After a counter war (he has more than me) he wins the battle for Dismiss and I fold against his Air Servant.
Game 2: I am on a roll when I get disconnected AND my router temporarily dies. Rushing downstairs REAL quietly (in the middle of the night here) and reboot it, restart MOnline and just in time I log back in. He counters my Opportunity and it goes downhill from there, him having one of his own fills him up with counters. I might have made a rush play that knocked me out of this.
0-1

Sucks. I was hoping to have fun and my router messed with my mind.

Round 2, Game 1: Red/Black
He stalls against my Wall of Frost while squeezing some damage in there left and right. I have the Charge on the table and finally find my 7th land. Dismiss goes online the next turn and after I play a creature he doesn't kill, it's a slow roll to finish .
Game 2: Mulligan, and he hits me with Mind Rot turn 3, forcing me to discard a land and something in order to keep Dismiss and Divination. I go a long way but my 7th land comes 1 turn too late, 1-1.
Game 3: I'm off to a quick start, a flying Firecat breezes through. I counter his Act of Treason as he has a Blood Bairn which I block with the Wall. Dismiss comes into play and though he has a few Pyromancer tokens, it's all over but for the crying! Yes! It's actually working!

Round 3, game 1: Blue/Black
Sigh, another control deck. He is unprepared for my Dismiss as he taps out and I can cast it safely, Negating his Disperse the next turn. We stalled a while before this and time ticks away as he lets me deliver Seacoast Drake blows to his head, eventually joined by Seakite.
game 2: He boarded more counters and runs me over with Messenger Drakes and Nightwing Shade after winning the counterwar for Dismiss. He's at 7 minutes now.
Game 3: Mulligan. crap. I'm fine though, as we both have Seacoast Drake on board and me having Zephyr Charge too. He Duresses my Opportunity while he and I build up land, but due to Wild Guess I'm down to 3 cards while he has 7, so I'm thinking he has loads of counters and I hold out. He casts Rod of Ruin the nex turn which pings me away and I have to do something. A flying Canyon Minotaur (that would be a sight..) does some damage before a Sensory Deprivation and after he doesn't counter my Mindsparker I know he doesn't have any counters, apparantly. He uses Claustrophobia on it and I don't have Dismiss yet, removing his Drakes and his entire board. He is still pinging me but his time is ticking away. My boarded 2nd Seacoast Drake and Nephalia Seakite start hitting him and it's close. He pings me to 1 with him at 3 and he casts Seacoast Drake! I need a bounce, Dismiss or something now or I'm screwed but I look up and see his timer at 0.00. I draw a card (Essence Scatter) and go into attack, after which he loses due to time.

That's what you get for playing more control. If he boarded out less creatures he would have probably run me over. Oh well, that was fun to play. Odd, but fun.

And indeed, when heavy blue you don't need all that many creatures, but you have to be able to protect those that you have. I was able to do that thankfully. Hope you enjoyed it a bit! I know I did. Brilliant card that Dismiss

Off to bed now...zzz...

Game 2:

__________________
I'm a geek, you're a geek. Let's trade.

quote:

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Originally posted by WeedIan:
He still has the original art for that card for sale from the PDF he sent me.

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Did it happen to have a price? I'm kind of curious now.

__________________
There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!

All your Gruul Nodorogs are belong to me. Trade them to me, please!

Report rules violations.

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Originally posted by nderdog:
Did it happen to have a price? I'm kind of curious now.

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I'll forward you over the PDF

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Originally posted by chaos021:
I don't understand something based on the rage going on in the Trade Value threads. Why is Thoughtseize so popular? I get that it will almost never miss, but is that really worth 2 life? That just seems so painful to me when I'm not guaranteed to hit something useful.

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Originally posted by chaos021:
I don't understand something based on the rage going on in the Trade Value threads. Why is Thoughtseize so popular? I get that it will almost never miss, but is that really worth 2 life? That just seems so painful to me when I'm not guaranteed to hit something useful.

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quote:

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Originally posted by chaos021:
I don't understand something based on the rage going on in the Trade Value threads. Why is Thoughtseize so popular? I get that it will almost never miss, but is that really worth 2 life? That just seems so painful to me when I'm not guaranteed to hit something useful.

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quote:

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Originally posted by chaos021:
I don't understand something based on the rage going on in the Trade Value threads. Why is Thoughtseize so popular? I get that it will almost never miss, but is that really worth 2 life? That just seems so painful to me when I'm not guaranteed to hit something useful.

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Originally posted by Pail42:
The best card in their hand will typically result in you losing more than two life, and you can use this to stop a game-winning combo before it starts.

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This. Even in standard, taking their best card out of their hand is usually worth the 2 life. Usually. People are quickly going to find out that TS isn't that great against aggro, however. That was the beauty of Inquisition of Kozilek - the CMC restriction was balanced by the lack of a downside, so it became a universally solid card against the entire meta.

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Originally posted by Vegas10:
Please tell us you are being sarcastic.

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