(And we love you!)

It's official, straight from the Spooky's mouth. The deck has a name. It's the Number One Dream.

Thanks for making it bearable to stay at home for work... I know the report is gonna be grand.

Safe flight,

Stu

it was interesting to read about the finals. All the games were really close. I'm a bit bummed, because Adam was able to draw into Apoc in 4 straight games, despite only playing 2 of them. I mean, I know it's an 8 drop, but I've played a stall deck with 3 nine drops and I don't know if that deck hit on turn nine 3 out of 4 times. Great games though. Props to Adam for going from unknown to champ this weekend.

Great job Michael.

I read the match coverage of your semi and if not for the bad draw, things would have been different.

But you guys have to give it up to Adam Bernstein, he made some great decisions to beat both the Dream deck and New School, 2 decks that were teched out against CS. Apoc on 8 was something New School was not prepared for and for him to get it that often was insane.

For some random guy, Adam played pretty well.

Look at the Top 10 of Day 1. That's a better indication of the constructed metagame imho.

agreed, but it's still definitely a CS metagame, and anything that wants to win has to go though the big purple.

Eric Cabanero (Decktech) 7-5 (12-9) #75 $600
Jeremy Blair (Decktech) 8-4 (13-8) #34 $2,000
TJ Holman (Decktech) 9-3 (13-8) #30 $2,400
Michael French (Decktech) 7-5 (13-8) #49 $860
Colin Rodriguez (Decktech)(12-9) #64 $710 (Don't forget Colin)

10K top 20 stallion Mike Gemme #19 $200

i am surprises TJ did as bad as he did in the draft, i thought his record at the end of day 1 would all but solidify his day 3 placing.

but good job to decktech for all their guys getting money.

and to realmworx too. having two guys in the finals in awesome.

and i am glad that if a CS deck did have to win, it was at least a slightly new modified build, using apoc is a good insurance vs the stall decks that CS loses too. nice metagaming call.

Congrats to the champ, running a version of Sents that at very least will give people more to think about when building the obvious "best" deck in Golden. The lack of Defensive pumps was an interesting choice, meaning that he could very likely just lose to a Hounds lock, but his choice of Apoc and Microsents was a huge boon against decks teched to beat Curve. And his tech and a decent draft gave him the chance to prove the worth of his deck against those designed to beat him. I'm not sure about Apoc in the mirror, given that not blowing Genosha turn 7 might mean just losing. Same with no defensive pumps.

Congrats to MJ for an amazing draft day; It was a huge surprise to me to see him on 12th when the day was done. Hopefully you'll have some tales of your 5 losses day 1 and some new tech for Force....

Jason Hager's new tech was amazing, but reading through the coverage it seems like he didn't have enough practice with it. Sure, the deck does have a ton of decisions to make during the recruit step, but taking 5 minutes on turn 3 is absolutely unacceptable. Combined with the coverage indicating some questionable plays, I really wonder how much of his ability in constructed is due solely to the deck. He obviously had to put up a decent draft record to make it to day 3, but I see a lot of his "bad" plays and length thinking indicating an unfamiliarity with the deck. And he even is an old Magic player! Sure, he probably played it better than I would if I picked it up, but the same is probably true for any control deck in Magic. I guess he probably played faster day 1 when less was on the line and the round was timed, but untimed matches are no excuse to spend as much time as you want thinking.

I really wish I wasn't stuck at home under doctor's orders and couldn't make it to NY to judge as I planned; slow play is the largest problem this game has. And the reason behind it in my mind is pure lack of practice combined with a judge staff that doesn't pressure people enough.

interesting opinion cthulhu

what 'bad plays' are you talking about?

there was only one misplay that I had, unless you know something that I don't.

also, it's worth taking 5 minutes on turn 3, when if turn 3 doesn't go absolutely perfect for you, the deck collapses like a house of cards. I'm not playing turn 3 on turn 3, I'm playing turn 7 and 8. Figuring out how I'm going to be able to control the board on those later turns. Like when it's worth just blowing a microchip to change him into a different guy and when he's better as a microchip. There are countless situations like this.

It's not like I spent all that time thinking, I was doing things, playing cards, searching things out, passing priority, getting priority. It's not like I spent 5 minutes on a decision the entire day.

jason hager

Jason

If you have the time, and are willing, please do another article on how you guys came up with this deck.

I would love to know how often and HOW you and Oldaker and Justice and James and et al playtest.

I second the request for an article on the deck. I am extremely interested on how old school EMS was shuffled out for this newer version.

Consider this a third for that article then. I'd love to know how and why you guys made the change from EMS to New School.

Not quite Jason, but I'll answer your question. We playtest every day. We'll be back to the drawing board tonight. We have to break DC Modern.

Now, if a player is spending around 5 minutes during their turn 6 recruit step when playing CS, they're obviously stalling. Your decisions are not THAT hard on turn 6. =/

but with something like Jason's deck, decisions become much more complicated. It shouldn't be that hard to notice this. Jason, congratulations on placing 2nd for this tournament. Your deck rules. :D

seriously, you need to post an article. new school is nothing short of brilliant. i nearly #### my pants while reading the coverage.

oh, and all you haters need to back off a bit. stall decks are way hard to play. especially one with as many options as new school. it's always the CS and TNB players who say they are being stalled. gay.

TBZ