I answer the questions! Magic Online edition

I stole this from the mtg.com page. It has some good questions that I thought I would like to answer.


Getting to Know You

Name:
Timothy Tyler "Ty" Thomason

Age:
29

Occupation: 
Student

Twitter: 
@ceciliajupe

Magic Online username: 
Miss Havisham

Guild affiliation:
Azorius

Where do you live?
 Houston, TX


You, Magic, and Magic Online

How long have you played Magic?
Seventeen years more or less.

What is the first set you remember from Magic?
Buying Ice Age starter decks at the Barnes and Noble. I remember having lots of Arnjlot's Ascent.

How did you learn to play Magic, or who taught you? 
A bunch of friends in middle school played. I picked up the rules watching them play and eventually got some cards for one of my birthdays.

How long have you played Magic Online? 
Since Onslaught. When I got back into the game around that time I started an account.

Do you stream? If so, what's your channel URL? 
Not very often, but I have done it in the past. http://www.twitch.tv/ceciliajupe

How often do you draft on Magic Online?
About once a month I'll do a couple of drafts. My logs on this computer say I've done 30 this year.

How often do you play Constructed on Magic Online? 
Almost all the time. If I'm logged in, I'm usually battling the two and six man queues. Occasionally I'll play
Daily Events if I really like my deck.

Do you play any casual formats on Magic Online? 
I'll play some when I think I'm tilting. I have a couple of fun decks I really enjoy playing in the casual room, and I'll play some Commander from time to time.


Magic Online's Beta Client

Have you tried the Wide Beta client? 
Yes

What's your favorite change that has been made? 
Separate windows for chat and games. Just more flexibility as far as what goes where.

Favorite formats to play on Magic Online: 
Standard, Legacy, Modern, Classic (soon Vintage I hope!)

Favorite draft format: 
SSE is pretty high up there.

Favorite Magic Card: 
Strangleroot Geist

Favorite piece of Magic art: 
Orcish Settlers

Favorite Planeswalker card: 
Venser, the Sojourner


Return to Ravnica

What do you think of Return to Ravnica? 
Draft is pretty good, better than old Ravnica only. Standard is fine, but Sphinx's Revelation is lame.

Did you play during the original Ravnica? 
Yes, it was when I first fell in love with constructed.

Favorite guild to draft in Return to Ravnica? 
Izzet. I love Teleportal and Nivix Gildmage.

What's your favorite non-rare first pack first pick in Return to Ravnica draft? 
Thoughtflare.


Silly Questions

If you were to get a Magic tattoo (or already have one) what would it be? 
Probably just the Azorius guild symbol.

If you could play Magic against anyone, who would it be and why? 
I wish I could have played with my dad. He was around when I was just learning, but passed away before I got good enough to teach him.

If you could play Magic Online against any villain AI from the movies, which would it be? 
Agent Smith from The Matrix

Top 10 Homelands Cards

It came up earlier, so here they are:

Top 10 Cards from the Homelands Expansion

1. Memory Lapse
2. Merchant Scroll
3. Serrated Arrows
4. Ihsan's Shade
5. Spectral Bears
6. Sengir Autocrat
7. Autumn Willow
8. Eron the Relentless
9. Sea Sprite
10. Leeches

Worst set of all time? Hardly! Prophecy is far worse!

Top 10 Cards from the Prophecy Expansion

1. Foil
2. Mageta the Lion
3. Rhystic Study
4. Glittering Lynx / Glittering Lion
5. Spiketail Hatchling / Spiketail Drake
6. Alexi Zephyr Mage
7. Avatar of Woe
8. Rebel Informer
9. Abolish
10. Flameshot

Man, that was tough. I suppose I'll honorable mention Chimeric Idol, since it was probably the most played card from the set, but it's just been way outclassed over the years.

So these are the highlights from what are in my opinion the two worst Magic sets. (I have Legions as the third worst, if you were curious).

Abzan Tokens at GP San Antonio

note: this was originally published on Asgard Games website back in 2012. I found it in my email recently, posting here for archival purposes - Ty (3/10/2021)




Grand Prix San Antonio Report
It’s been a while since my last article. I’ve been meaning to write more, but I’ve been really busy with school. But just because I haven’t had time to write doesn’t mean I haven’t been playing Magic. In October, I travelled to San Jose for the Team Grand Prix. My team finished 44th place after losing the last round of day 1 (11 rounds!) to miss the cut to day 2. Then three weeks later I won the sealed PTQ in San Antonio, so I’ll be in Montreal in February for Pro Tour Gatecrash. And this past weekend I returned to San Antonio, this time to play in the Standard Grand Prix. My record was 11-3-1 with two byes, and I finished 16th place for $600.

My preparation for the GP began right after I won the PTQ and no longer had to focus on sealed and draft. I put together the UW flash deck to play at the Monday standard tournament at Asgard, but I wasn’t that impressed. I considered playing BR zombies (with Thundermaw Hellkite in the sideboard), but I’m still not sold on the mana in that deck (see this article for an explanation http://www.asgardgames.net/2012/08/developing-your-mana-in-standard/). I tried various GW aggro decks, but they all seemed too gimmicky for me. With two weeks before the GP, I was either going to play Bant Control or Grixis Control, depending on which performed better in
testing. Then I found this list:

9 Forest
4 Gavony Township
3 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden

4 Arbor Elf
2 Armada Wurm
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Borderland Ranger
4 Centaur Healer
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

1 Collective Blessing
4 Selesnya Charm
1 Staff of Nin

Sideboard
2 Armada Wurm
4 Chalice of Life
4 Cloudshift
4 Intrepid Hero
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

The things I liked most about this list were the maximum number of mana creatures, the four Borderland Rangers, and the four Gavony Townships. The first change I made was to add Garruk, Primal Hunter for the Staff of Nin and the Collective Blessing, and I moved Centaur Healer to the sideboard and put Strangleroot Geist in the main deck.
The sideboard got overhauled completely once I decided Chalice of Life wasn’t good enough (but it might be good enough now).

Garruk was very impressive from the beginning, so much so that I added a 3rd to the sideboard, and then added it to the main deck, eventually ending up with 4 between main and side. Strangleroot Geist was not as impressive. I couldn’t figure out what creature I wanted in that low curve spot. I tried Vhitu-Gazi Guildmage, Thalia, Mikaeus the Lunarch, and Wolfir Avenger, but wasn’t happy with any of them. In the meantime, my roommate, Will Lowry, was trying to get me to play a deck with 4x Abrupt Decay. I looked at this list, and decided maybe we could splash for the removal spell and then have access to the best replacement for Strangleroot Geist: Lingering Souls. I made the
changes and never looked back.

We both played the list at the SCG IQ in Austin. I lost in the top 4, but Will won the tournament. Now we had our deck for GP San Antonio, and we just had to put the finishing touches. After the final week of testing, this is what we registered:

4 Forest
4 Gavony Township
1 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Woodland Cemetery

4 Arbor Elf
2 Armada Wurm
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Borderland Ranger
2 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

4 Lingering Souls
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard
2 Triumph of Ferocity
3 Rest In Peace
2 Ultimate Price
2 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Loxodon Smiter

With this deck and two byes, I began my San Antonio Grand Prix journey.

Rounds 1 and 2 – Bye
2-0

Round 3 Herdman, William (UW Human Aggro)
Billy is a nice guy from College Station where he runs Clockwork Games. I’ve known him for years now. It’s unfortunate to play against someone you know at a big event, but I probably knew 150 or so of the 800 players so it was bound to happen eventually. Game 1 he had an aggressive start, but he flooded out as I bought time by chumping his Sublime Archangel with Lingering Souls tokens while Garruk drew me into the cards I needed to win. Game 2 he was stuck on 2 land and I had an early Garruk and he couldn’t recover.
3-0

Round 4 Simpson, Kyle (Bant Control)
Game 1 he double Farseeks into a turn 4 Armada Wurm. I have my own Armada Wurm, but can’t find a time to play it before I die. Game 2 I use Garruk to keep the pressure on him, forcing him to use his Supreme Verdicts, and then using my Thragtusks and Angels to finish him off. Game 3 he mulligans to 5 and never really is in the game.
4-0

Round 5 Froehlich, Eric (Bant Control)
Game 1 he is stuck on 3 lands, so I kill him quickly with Lingering Souls and Township before he can draw out of it. Game 2 is tricky, I try to keep enough pressure on him to force him to use his Supreme Verdicts, but he keeps having enough answers to delay, eventually setting up a Sphinx’s Revelation for 7. Luckily I had Golgari Charm to counter his first Verdict, and then Garruk kept enough pressure on him to kill him.
5-0

Round 6 Boyette, Wesley (4 Color Stuff)
Game 1 I mulligan to 5 and he has Huntmaster of the Fells early to slow me down, but I stabilize with Thragtusk and Angel and some Lingering Souls before he Bonfires me out of the game. Game 2 he Slaughter Games my Thragtusks and I flood out while he casts more Huntmasters and even Entreat the Angels!
5-1

Round 7 HOFFMAN, KRIS (Reanimator)
Game 1 I have enough pressure that he’s forced to use his Angel of Serenity on my creatures, and I then Selesnya Charm the angel and he can’t recover. Game 2 he mulligans to 6 and is stuck on 2 land for several turns. We play a 3rd game for fun and he can’t beat my Rest in Peace.
6-1

Round 8 Webb, Taylor (BR Zombies)
Taylor and I go way back. I played him in the top 4 of the first PTQ he ever won a few months after I won my first PTQ. We both won PTQs for Gatecrash on the same day, so now after 10+ years we’ll finally go to a PT together. Game 1 I had mana creature into Borderland Ranger, which let me ramp into early Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Game 2 he killed my mana elf and I couldn’t catch up, but game 3 I had Trostani and he couldn’t find an answer.
7-1

Round 9 May, Parker (Blue Reanimator)
Game 1 he had Lingering Souls and I couldn’t draw any of mine to stop him from just beating me down with spirits. Game 2 he cast Supreme Verdict twice to buy the time he needed, and killed me with more spirits and Craterhoof Behemoth.
7-2

Celebrations after day 1 were mostly tame; I just wanted to get to bed early so I could do well on day 2. We did eat Mexican food on the River Walk for my friend Jose’s 30th birthday, but I went to sleep soon after. Both Will and I made day 2 with 7-2 records with the same deck. We woke up early on Sunday ready to win out.

Round 10 Hammon, Conrad (Naya Midrange)
Game 1 he had 2 enter the battlefield tapped lands and didn’t get to Farseek until turn 3. He still missed land drops and I killed him with spirits. Game 2 I had Garruk early and he was flooded. We traded Restoration Angels and he Bonfired my team for 7, but I still had enough gas to follow it up and kill him.
8-2

Round 11 Schelling, Christopher (Grixis Control)
Game 1 he had an early Olivia Volderan, but only had 5 mana to use. I kept alpha striking with my team of lingering souls and borderland rangers to get him down to 6. He cast Forbidden Alchemy, keeping an unknown card but discarding Thundermaw Hellkite and 2 lands. At this point I put him on Mizzium Mortars, so I play Armada Wurm, and he doesn’t have an answer and has to trade his Olivia. A turn later, he dies. Game 2 he’s in control the whole time, including a turn 4 Olivia and a turn 6 Mortars on my whole team. Game 3 he mulligans to 4 cards, and I have double Triumph of Ferocity to draw 3 times as many cards as him, so he’s never really in it.
9-2

Round 12 Craddock, William (BR Zombies)
Game 1 he kills my mana elf, and I die on turn 4 with 2 Thragtusks in hand. Game 2 I have Nearheath Pilgrim paired with an Angel, plus Trostani and he can’t keep up. Game 3 looks ok for me as I have turn 3 Trostani and follow it up with Thragtusk, but his Bonfire on 2 and Falkenrath Aristocrat puts me to 3 life with only land in hand. He goes out of his way to keep me from getting a beast token to populate, so I’m stuck without a way to gain life…. But then I draw Armada Wurm! I gain 10, and attack him with Thragtusk down to 15. He draws the land he needs for Thundermaw Hellkite at attacks me for 9 in the air, so now I’m down to 4 life with no cards in hand. This time, I draw Ultimate Price! I populate a wurm to gain 5 more life, kill his dragon, and untap and kill him on the next turn, doing exactly 15 points of damage. I got very lucky to win this game.
10-2

Round 13 Gomez, David (GW Midrange)
David’s deck is very similar to the original deck I started from. I win game one with Garruk and Armada Wurm, slowing down his Township assault. However, games 2 and 3 I lose when I flood and never draw Gavony Township to match his. I was pretty unhappy losing this matchup.
10-3

Round 14 Carvalho, Pedro (RB Aggro)
With the last loss, top 8 was probably not an option, but winning out still meant at least top 16. Game 1 he has a very aggressive start with Stromkirk Noble and two Knight of Infamy, but I have a turn 3(!) Armada Wurm. He rips Bonfire and alphas, so I trade everything away and play Thragtusk. He dies shortly after. Game 2 I play turn 4 Trostani, he plays Hellrider and alpha strikes, but I have blocks to kill his whole team and stay at one life. I untap and play Thragtusk, this time gaining 8 life, and he concedes.
11-3

Round 15 Carson, Erik (Bant Control)
I’d seen him play an earlier round, so I knew he was killing people with Door to Nothingness. Game 1 I had Garruk in play basically the entire game, so he was always on the back foot. I kept an Abrupt Decay in hand to kill Chromatic Lantern in case he tried to kill me, but he never drew it. The game took about 25 minutes to play, but I was victorious. Game 2 was more of the same. I got him to Dissipate my Triumph of Ferocity so that my Garruk would resolve. He cast Sphinx’s Revelation at least 4 times this game, maybe more with Elixir. I had to spend one Abrupt Decay to kill his Pithing Needle on Gavony Township, otherwise I wouldn’t have enough pressure. I saved the other one for Chromatic Lantern, but he has a second one and showed me the Door on turn 4 of extra time.
11-3-1

An unintentional draw isn’t ideal, but still had a shot at top 16. I snuck in at 16th, with my round 15 opponent at 17th. Maybe he’ll play faster in the future.

The deck was a success. Will and I were playing next to each other Round 15, both at 11-3 with shots to top 16. He lost a close match to Gerry Thompson, but still finished in the top 32. My friend Jose played the same list in the TCG Player 5k on Sunday and split in the top 8 for $450, so everyone that played the deck made money this
weekend, except Andrew Sullano.

The deck is very good, I think I would play at least 70 of the same cards going forward. I want to add in a couple of Sever the Bloodline, and maybe an Akroma’s Memorial. If you have any questions about the deck, I’ll answer them. Just follow me on twitter!

top 10 lists

I'm going to try to do a weekly Magic related top 10 list. I did top 10 angels in my Restoration Angel post, and I've done a couple of others on the forums that I might transfer over to here, but today I'm going to give you the top 10 lands that do not function as mana fixing (ie. no dual lands, no fetch lands, etc.) I was talking about how good Treetop Village was earlier tonight, but looks like it doesn't even get to the top 10. I think it is the best manland of all time though, but I might be wrong.

Top 10 Nonbasic Nonmulticolor Lands Of All Time

1. Tolarian Academy
2. Bazaar of Baghdad
3. Mishra's Workshop
4. Strip Mine
5. Library of Alexandria
6. Wasteland
7. Gaea's Cradle
8. Ancient Tomb
9. Cloudpost
10. Dark Depths

BONUS!

Top 10 Manlands Of All Time

1. Treetop Village
2. Dryad Arbor
3. Mishra's Factory
4. Inkmoth Nexus
5. Blinkmoth Nexus
6. Mutavault
7. Celestial Colonnade
8. Raging Ravine
9. Faerie Conclave
10. Stirring Wildwood

Top Angels in Magic History

Last night at dinner, I mentioned to my roommate that Restoration Angel has supplanted Baneslayer Angel as the best Angel card of all time. It's another blatant example of creature power creep, and while it isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does restrict the available deck building options, especially in Modern. My biggest complaint about that format is the homogeneous nature of the card choices: if you play green, you play Tarmogoyf, etc. But enough about that, here is a timeline of the best Angel card in Magic through the years!

Alpha through 4th edition - Serra Angel
The first "best creature in the game", it was used by various control decks as a win condition that also answered multiple threats from your opponent. It also combined with Stasis to finish the opponent off quickly while you had them soft locked. Still a bomb in limited, she is one of Magic's most iconic cards of all time.

5th edition through Mercadian Masques - Vacant
WotC decided Serra Angel was too good, and took her out of the core set. Whether or not she would have seen any play during this time is debatable, but none of the replacements even came close. Warrior Angel, Radiant, Archangel, and others never were quite good enough to make it.

Nemesis through Planeshift - Blinding Angel
She took the defensive nature of Serra Angel and ran (or should I say flew?) with it! Locking unsuspecting creature decks out of the game completely, with their only hope to draw a Birds of Paradise to chump for one turn and hope that it resolved. Blinding Angel was a solid addition to permission based control at the time, since protecting her long enough usually led to victory.

Apocalypse through Judgment - Desolation Angel
Resolving this creature (with the kicker of course) was the best way to win a control mirror. A very dynamic card that could steal wins sometimes by being cast without kicker, she was one of many iconic cards from the enemy colored Apocalypse set.

Onslaught through Ravnica - Exalted Angel
No, she doesn't have the Exalted ability, but the Morph ability allowed for some fast beats. Not many aggressive decks could race an 8 point life swing starting on turn 4, and combined with Astral Slide and cycling cards, she could be impossible to kill. A long time player in Extended Scepter-Chant decks, she could be unmorphed on turn 3 with the help of Chrome Mox. Truly one of the best angels of all time, unfortunately relegated to the casual room with the printing of Baneslayer Angel.

Guildpact through Alara Reborn - Angel of Despair
The second black angel on the list shows that even when angels aren't the holiest, they still make for some great Magic cards. Angel of Despair's mana cost of 7 isn't unreasonable, but she spent most of her time coming out of the grave in Reanimator, Solor Flare, and Dredge decks. She is still a player in Legacy and can help you get out of many sticky situations with the Vindicate she brings along with her.

M10 through Dark Ascension - Baneslayer Angel
M10 brought a renewed focus on flavor, and a new focus on splashy creatures. Baneslayer was a workhorse in constructed, and nigh unbeatable in limited. The go-to threat for white control decks of the time, she obsoleted dozens of other creatures when she was printed.

Avacyn Restored through current - Restoration Angel
This card just does it all. From infinite combos with Kiki-Jiki, to value on Kitched Finks and Geist of St Traft, and just being an instant speed threat, all for the low price of 4 mana, Restoration Angel is easily the best angel of all time

And a bonus, the top 10 angels of all time, ranked!

1. Restoration Angel
2. Baneslayer Angel
3. Angel of Despair
4. Karmic Guide*
5. Iona, Shield of Emeria
6. Platinum Angel / Empyrial Archangel
7. Exalted Angel
8. Akroma, Angel of Wrath
9. Angel of Serenity
10. Emeria Angel

*Much in the way Worldgorger Dragon is one of the best dragons of all time, Karmic Guide makes the list almost solely on combo decks, and wasn't included in the discussion at the top.