3D Printing - What is old is new again

I keep reading that 3D printing is the way of the future. However every time I read this, I can't help but think about one of these:

Yep, thats a CNC machine. It too is a '3D printer'. They even make smaller versions called benchtop CNC machines. The one pictured is big enough to create a car rim. Even prints in metal which most of these new ones cannot do. So next time you hear about 3D printing being the next big thing, just remember this:

This isn't new technology. It just puts this technology into the hands of the masses.

FNM Haiku

I always rare draft
I drew all of my land
I lost the draft

TF2 Autocrafting

This may be late to the party, but I haven't cleaned out my Idle accounts in quite some time. The daunting task of loading each account up, doing multiple trades with an autocraft bot put me off. So much so I went past the 200 item 'limit' Steam Item Manager had for autocrafting. (What I mean by that is, the program will crash or take several hours when your inventory is too large)

Previously I would use one of two methods to craft my items:

* Find a scrap bot, and meticilously trade for each account. (Taking 2-3 trades per account)

* Do it manually. (Normally while watching TV)

* Hope I don't hit the magic limit in SIM and use that to cut half my workload down.

So I decided to load up SIM on a laptop and let it run on a few accounts for the next few days, low and behold there was an update! 

Some new features it added that I care about for idling:

* Allow Autocraft for non-duplicate items.

* Actually autocrafts to refined

* Autocrafts in aprox 2-3 seconds for a 1000 item backpack.

All I can say is... Nice. Thank you for updating and making the tool usable. =)

Steam Item Manager

Vapor Nine (V9) Review

It started with a random reddit link offering a free E-Cigarette if you pay shipping, so why not? What's the worst that can happen, I'm out $2? I've had worse experiences with cheap E-Cigs from random locations for much more. Ordered Thursday and patiently waited for it to arrive promptly Tuesday morning. 

I've been sucking on a cheap 7-11 X-Hale o2 (Second gen) that I picked up at the start of the year for an impromptu car trip with non-smokers with my normal Camels in between when the o2 doesn't seem to cut it. While it works, its not that great and the stock flavor kinda tastes bad. I sadly ran out of my wonderful vanilla flavor a few weeks ago and have had to suffice with the stock flavor. (Thank you US Customs for "losing" my imports 5 times in a row now.)

So I ripped open the package to see what my prize was and I was greeted with a thank you letter from the V9 guys, even signed in pen! That's rather personalized, I like it. Not to mention a 20% off coupon to boot. So far so good.

Now the packaging on the product itself is, lets say sturdy. It took me a good 5 minutes to open the thing without possibly damaging my new toy with a pocket knife assisting. It came with 2 filters (16mg/each), a 280 mAh li-ion (4.2V) battery and USB plugin charger, pretty standard stuff. Sadly the charger isn't branded meaning it may get lost or mixed up with the glut of other e-cig chargers I have lying around which may not be an issue with anyone else. The 4.2V battery is a refreshing change from the normal 2.2V or 3.3V you normally get with a $20 kit. The filters also have a very nice feel to them, very soft. Compared to other low-costed E-Cigs this felt like a premium bonus.

So I plugged it in and let it charge (it only took about 5 mins to charge after being shipped, must of been fully charged when they packaged it). Hooked up the tip and took a deep breath while looking at the blue LED...

Wow. First thing that hit me was how smooth it was. Wasn't harsh like other cheaper flavors, and for me this is a huge plus as I inhale deeply while smoking. The flavor of the Carolina was extremely nice and soothing, sort of a cross between mint and regular tobacco with a sweet aftertaste. The quaility of the flavor is something I haven't tasted with a sub $20 e-cig kit before and frankly its a nice change of pace. I'll be picking up some more later on for sure.

Now some nitpicks, the battery has a 'paper' feel to it. It seems like it would chip or discolor easily making the appearance of the e-cig less nice. I'm also not a fan of blue LEDs. Seriously hate the things and I may have to open it up and replace it with a nice green or purple. Also the packaging is pretty tight and a pain to open, I appreciate protecting the product. 

Overall I'm impressed.

Check em out, you won't be disappointed!

http://www.vapornine.com/

Team Fortress 2 Mann vs Machine: The Standard team

Team Fortress 2's newest update Mann vs Machine adds an exciting and dynamic new game mode offering new strategies and methods of playing not normally seen in normal play. Since it's release, I've played quite a bit of Mann vs Machine's Mann up mode. I've won and lost a lot and will present what I find to be the best standardized team to wreck those robots and achieve easy victories.

So what classes should be played? Its simple really. Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Heavy, Medic and Engineer. This setup provides the most diverse, best damage potential and overall utility needed to defeat any wave that's thrown at it.

The Scout

Primary: Scattergun
Secondary: Mad Milk
Melee: Sandman
MvM Job: Money Grabbing, medic/sniper picks
Upgrade Priority: Resistances, Milk Speed, Sandman Mark on Hit

The Scout is essential to a successful Mann up engagement. Money is the life blood of the merc's ability to obliterate later stages of any map, and the Scout is the number 1 class for picking up money. As a scout, your primary job is to get that money. Any lost money is a direct reflection on your ability, and those $100 bonuses add up. When you aren't grabbing money your focus should be on taking out snipers and medics. A full scattergun shot on a medic will one shot it, this is important when the Soldier is out of range or out of Crit canteens.

Depending on the map, the -35% speed upgrade on your Mad Milk is one of the most critical upgrades in the game. It slows down giant scouts, and keeps your team healed up with it's natural ability. Its wide spread is also great for slowing down large groups of small scouts. The next upgrade on your list should be the Sandman's Mark target on hit, $500. It allows you to mark a target from a distance and let your team kill it much quicker. It is vitally important to both Milk and Mark a giant bot from a far since you'll be torn to shreds if you get too close. For this reason alone, the Sandman is much better than the Fan of War.

While it completely depends on the map, your upgrade stratgey should be resistances first. Because money is so important, you don't want to die and want to be able to survive encounters in the midst of a bot horde. I typically get Blast/Bullet to max, Fire resistance and on the waves that matter at LEAST 2 points into critical resistance, without it Giant soldiers will ruin your day. Getting at least 2 levels in Mad Milk recharge rate is essential for later waves, it should be spammed at any large group of bots, and always be ready for giant scouts.

Upgrading your scattergun is unneeded as it does plenty of damage on its own. Its great for taking out all the small bots (sans Fists of Steel heavies) and can One-shot a good chunk of them with a solid body shot. Your main job isn't to kill, so focus on Resistances/Milk/Sandman Upgrades.
Don't forget about the money, ever.

The Soldier

Primary: Beggar's Bazooka
Secondary: Buff Banner
Melee: Escape Plan
MvM Job: Indiscriminate carpet bombing
Upgrade Priority: Rocket Reload, Rocket Clip Size, Rocket Ammo Capacity, Rocket Damage


As a soldier, your primary job is to carpet bomb the hordes of robots coming in. Try not to stand too far to avoid the "50 damage syndrome" and move up close to get some extra damage bonus. Once upgraded you are a true force to be reckoned with.
While the stock rocket launcher is an excellent weapon for Mann vs Machine, the Beggar's Bazooka is just a better overall choice. Between doing more damage during crit canteens, to a better spread for uber medic slaughtering, the Bazooka is significantly better than the stock. Both can be used with equal effect, but the Bazooka is just better since it works with Kritz Medics and crit canteens more smoothly.
You are a roaming glass cannon. Stay close to the front lines for as much damage as possible, but don't get too close. Since rocket launcher upgrades are so expensive, you can't feasibly fit in enough resistances to make a difference.

Make sure to communicate with your medic to get the most out of his krits during tank rounds. Have him krit you for your volley of 9-11 rockets, then quickly switch over to the heavy. Don't let him waste valuable krit time while you reload.

Upgrading is pretty fluid for the Soldier. The first upgrades you should get is the reload speed. Less time you spend reloading, the more damage you do. After that, Firing speed, Clip size, total ammo, and if really needed +hp on kills. Rockets do plenty of damage on their own, so throwing 400 for a 20% damage bonus can wait for later waves when you're done with the needed upgrades.

The Medic

Primary: Crusader's Crossbow
Secondary: Kritzkrieg
Melee: The Amputator
Hat: Team Captain
MvM Job: Healing, Kritzing, Pyro buddy
Upgrade Priority: Uber charge rate, Uber Charge duration, Heal Speed, Over-heal amount, Vial sharing

You are the life blood of the team. Without you, your team will constantly die and have to respawn. With you, your Pyro will be useful in horde waves, and your heavy able to stand toe to toe with a Deflector Heavy. You are also the eyes and ears of your team, calling out spies, spotting snipers and calling out cash locations for the scout.

During the early waves, you should be up close and personal with the pyro. Keeping him alive should be your utmost priority. Once the game progresses and he has his resistances up, you can move back to the heavy for the larger robots.

Kritizing is the most important thing you can do. Either the pyro or heavy are the best bets, early I suggest going with the pyro, then later on moving to the heavy. Once you get vial sharing, load up on crit canteens and spam them during recharge times. Since you are a non-damage class, adding crit canteens and kritz will make up for your loss, even (if played perfectly) add more damage than another damage dealing class would.

Keep your eyes open for dangers, and play defensibly and keep your team aware of spies and possible snipers. If you have to go chase down a bot, something has gone seriously wrong.

The Pyro

Primary: Stock Flamethrower

Secondary: Flaregun/Shotgun

Melee: Homewrecker

MvM Job: Airblasting, health reducer

Upgrade Priority: Resistances, Flamethrower ammo, Flamethrower Airblast Power

Mmmph Mmmph Mpph. Mmmph Mmmph mmmmmph mph! mmmmph mmmmmm, mmmmph mph. mmmmph mph mmph. Hurrrrrrrrruuuuuu!

Your job is simple. Keep the bomb from reaching its target. Know your bomb reset locations and airblast those bots back to hell. Outside of playing pong with the bots, your job is to do as much damage as possible. During horde waves, get up close with the medic and go wild. During tank waves, let the tank push you while ducking for extra damage to bots behind the tank. Keep your eyes on the sides and be ready to airblast bomb carriers or giant robots that try to get past it.
Load up on uber canteens, it will make airblasting giants on the decoy missions MUCH easier. Try to upgrade equally however, getting extra ammo, airblast power and resistances all at the same time. Health on kill is nice but not necessary beyond the first wave or two and frankly kind of a waste, same goes for afterburn damage and time.

Make sure you know where the bomb is at all times, and have your team work with you to keep a "toy" robot with the bomb in a constant circle. If you can keep it up, they'll never be able to cap the bomb.
Outside of the primary Flamethrower upgrades and resistances, don't bother upgrading much else. Save the money for uber canteens. On later stages it will take 1 uber to push 1 giant robot to the reset area. Keep this in mind when you think about getting Jump height, or homewrecker damage or any other useless upgrade.

During tank rounds, get up there with the heavy, duck and let the tank push you while you shoot it. Your flames will go through it and hit the robots behind it doubling your damage. When it gets to the "line" (aka, where the heavy normally sits) back off and go after the bots that spawn, and bring the medic with you.

You make the difference between winning and losing on some of the harder missions more than any other class.

The Heavy

Primary: Stock Minigun
Secondary: Sandvitch
Melee: Gloves of running urgently
MvM Job: Damage, Crowd Control
Upgrade Priority: Minigun ammo, Rage, Minigun attack speed

Dakka-dakka-dakka-dakka-da-Kaboom-Kaboom!

You are the line. You determine how far the robots get. You are the centerpost of the MvM team's line. Your position determines everything.
The first upgrade you should get is, regardless of map is Round Penetration 1. It effectively doubles your damage right there on the spot. Since you aren't always on the front lines, your 5 damage shots turn into 10 when they hit the bot behind them. You don't need much more than 1 level of this, as its rare to see a long line of bots to make use of this expensive upgrade. Subsequent upgrades should be ammo (very very important), Minigun attack speed. On heavy projectile rounds, Grab Projectile destruction as it will do more to keep you and your team alive than any other upgrade.
Most maps, Rage is extremely important for crowd control. While it might not seem useful, pushing giants back, and the bomb carriers is extremely useful at keeping your front line. If the opportunity arises, raging on sentry busters is also quite good.
My thoughts on the Brass Beast vs Minigun debate: Mobility is better than the damage. You can avoid snipers while spinning a minigun, you can't when you have the brass beast. During tank rounds you'll run out of ammo quick and have to stop firing with the brass beast. With a minigun and proper dispenser placement you can just move away for a moment, and never stop firing. Also positioning yourself directly in line of the bomb and making full use of Penetrating rounds DOUBLES your damage over the brass beast. In my mind, there is no substitute for the Stock minigun in this mode. If you can't see your enemies, how can you shoot them?
For gameplay, make sure you never have to leave the line. On Decoy the spot is the right side of the main "hallway" near the stairs. On Coal town its at the top of the ramp to the right side. (The ammo box is your lifeblood here) And on Mannworks its dependant on which side the bots are going, on the ground (to make use of the armor piercing rounds).
Just remember, your medic is best served on the PYRO not you. Fend for yourself and fire from afar. Don't forget to get to point blank range on tanks. Every time you aren't doing max damage on a tank, Saxton Hale rips a kittens head off and drinks the blood from it's body.

The Engineer

Primary: Shotgun/Posmon
Secondary: Wrangler
Melee: Wrench
MvM Job: Area Denial, Support
Upgrade Priority: Wrench Attack Speed, Building health, Dispenser range.

While I admit I don't play engineer very often, I'll tell you what I've seen done that makes for the best teams.

Dispenser placement. Should always go near the heavy. If he has to leave to get ammo, the line crumbles. Place your sentry near a full ammo box and rely on that instead of your dispenser. Once you begin upgrading dispenser range the line will become more flexible. You are the component to determine how versatile your teammates are.
Proper sentry placement is key. There are a few universal places, such as the top right catwalk on Decoy, or the top right building on Coaltown. Use them.

Make sure your teleporters are facing the right direction and slightly behind the heavy's line. This allows your team to get quickly back into battle. Two-way teleporters are useful but unnecessary.

-------------------------------------------------------
I feel this is the best setup for any MvM team, and when people follow these guidelines we tend to succeed with little failures. Just remember this is a team heavy mode. Communicate, and don't play your pet classes/weapons when your team depends on you.

Team Fortress 2 Mann vs Machine - Spy Guide for mvm_mannworks

It is my opinion, that for the single map's both modes, Mannworks in Man vs Machine, the spy is a superior choice to a scout. In a vacuum, the Spy and Scout have very similar jobs. Both are agile money grabbing whores, and priority target destroyers. If played properly, both are the same. However in Mannworks, which is much more cramped and snaky map than the other two, here the spy excels above the scout in picking priority targets. Groups of robots are larger and more clumped than the other maps making the sapper invaluable, so much so I've found myself zerging the point just for a faster sapper respawn. In the same situation the scout's damage pales in comparison to the sapper's stopping power. However every time I've picked Spy for this map, we've never dropped a wave outside of random bomb carrying scouts getting past. I think my playing the Spy had a large part in this.

Let me start off by saying, Spy is horrible on both Decoy and Coal Town maps. A scout is MUCH better than a Spy on those maps. The speed, pickup range and lack of heavy uber bots make the Spy a poor choice here. Mannworks however is the Spies play ground. The map is layed out in such a way that maneuvering between sniper points and the main groups is easy. The drop off cliffs are easy to stand behind and get a solid sapper off, and most importantly its easy to disguise block and create a clump of robots for a large sapper near the end. Since both missions are long and their success not dictated purely on getting A+ money pick ups, the scout tends to be weaker overall here. This is amplified greatly on the final mission, endurance.

I spent the better part of yesterday arguing with Hou-long heavies, backburner pyros and Fan o War scouts about how Spy was better than scout for the Mannworks map. Short of making a video (coming soon (tm)), I decided to write a litte bit about the Spy on this map, how to play it, and why its good in order to dispel some beliefs that the spy is a bad choice.

The spy is not for everyone. Most players aren't solid enough to properly play the Spy in Mann up missions. The misconception of the spy is well deserved. It takes a completely different mind set to play the spy. Most of the time you're off solo killing groups of robots while your teammates frantically try to kill giant deflector heavies. Your priority targets are wildly different than say a heavy or soldier.

Imagine a map with no uber medics, bots randomly stop moving and shooting, and the overall number of bots reduced. This is what a Spy does.

The Spies Job
The Spy has three jobs, and two jobs alone. Sap large groups of robots making it easy for your teammates to slaughter them or for you to chain stab them. Second, take out uber bots. Mannworks has a large number of Uber bots for easy picking. The third job is, since you effectivly replace the scout is to pick up the money.
Outside of these three jobs, you can spy check or more importantly take out/distract snipers. If priority targets show up, your job is to drop everything and deal with them.


Loadouts:
Knives

• Butterfly Knife (Stock): This is an excellent choice, and the one I choose.
• Conniver's Kunai: Not a bad option for the Invasion Scenario, but horrible on the Endurance due to the high number of Pyros. You tend to die too quickly for the health bonus to be good.
• Spy-Cicle: Another good choice if you plan on only sapping. The loss of your primary weapon is a huge disadvantage here, as you'll be unable to chain stab a group of robots if its down. 
• Your Eternal Reward: Sadly this weapon is the worst of your selections. The bots will constantly look at you if you aren't disguised and you'll be unable to get a backstab off unless they're distracted by your teammates. This isn't the goal of the Spy and this weapon should be ignored.

Pistols:

• Enforcer: Your best choice. The damage output for Razorback snipers/Tanks is well worth it. 
• Stock Revolver/L'etranger: Non-optimal choices when the Enforcer exists. Your job is not to be at a far taking pot shots to refill your invis meter, and the stock revolver is outclassed in every way by the enforcer.
• Ambassador: Unless you can headshot 90%+ of the time, the Ambassador is a bad choice. There is only one wave (during Endurance) where razorbacks come into play, and the Enforcer two shots them. Also due to the massive lag on valve servers, headshotting snipers, even at close range is next to impossible. 
• Diamondback: Truth be told, I've never used it in Mann vs Machine. If it gives crits based on bots sapped, they its FREAKING INSANE. If not, its just a Revolver that sounds odd.

Watches:

• Dead Ringer: Your only choice here, as illustrated below. The damage reduction when DRing is whats key. Plus the bots don't really spy check, so no reason to not go Dead ringer.
• Invis Watch/Cloak and Dagger: If you run away from the bots while undisguised and activate either your Dead ringer or Invis watch they will still track and shoot you for a small period of time. Since you lack the damage resistance of the Dead Ringer they will kill you every time. This fact alone makes these two watches non-choices.

In short, Enforcer, Stock Knife, Dead Ringer is the best choice.

Upgrades:

The following upgrades are the only ones you need. Everything else is nice, but it detracts from your true purpose. Ordered for importance. 

• Sapper: All 3 levels. Should go without saying as to why the sapper is the most important upgrade and should be first, but this is your #1 upgrade. Get it to 3 before moving on.
• Knife Attack Speed: I like a minimum of 1, but 4 is obviously best. You need the attack speed to chain stab large groups of bots/medics quickly. Leaving the default speed will sometimes make you miss a uber medic or a couple of demomen in a group. I typically get 1-2 in this then move on to...
• Movement Speed: Since you're now a cocky scout, movement speed helps pick up the money. Mostly its there to let you catch up to groups of bots, or chase down snipers more easily. It also allows you to outrun annoying pyro bots who still chase you while DRing and still on fire. Even 1 point in this will increase your lifespan  a LOT.

Once these 3 upgrades are maxed, you're done. You don't need any other upgrades. So what to do with the rest of the money you may ask? Its easy. Uber Canteens and respawn buybacks. Thats it. 

Some may ask why save for buybacks when you can get resistances. I could go into the economics of the cost of buybacks vs 25% resistance to a single damage type, which is about 3-5 buybacks per point. However with the Sapper's long recharge time, and when bots are swarming your spawn, the buybacks turn into "instant sapper" recharge canteens. Several times has this been the difference between winning a round and losing it. Outside of dire situations, large groups of pyros/scouts on this level tend to trap you while DRing and just slaughter you. No amount of jump height will help in these situations, so its better to just die and respawn instantly. 

Just remember, you have a lot of money to do this with.

Quick upgrade strategy

1. Sapper 1-3
2. Attack speed 1
3. Movement speed 1
4. Attack Speed 2
5. Attack Speed 3
6. Movement Speed 2
7. Movement Speed 3
8. Attack Speed 4

(Get uber canteens as needed)

Strategy:

Machine Massacre (invasion)

The first few waves you're pretty weak and not very useful. Use these rounds to prove yourself to your team by mercilessly slaughtering hordes of bots. Once they realize you aren't horrible they'll be much more receptive to you as a spy. I've even received "Wow you're the best spy I've ever seen!" a couple of times. Make your sappers land perfectly and those people will convert.
A quick anecdote here, in the 7 times i've played this mission as a spy, I've been the top scorer 6 of those times. The 7th I was beaten by the heavy who used all crit canteens by a single point and had a great kritz medic hugging him. Sure score means nothing in MvM, but consider this, each point is a bot killed. (only kills count, no bonus points count for your score in MvM) Since each point is a kill, I've killed the most bots, theoretically making me the 'best' player on the team. It is however a team effort, I'm just using this bit of information as an example to why the spy is an excellent choice.

1. Wave 1: Soldiers and Pyros. Try to stay away from the pyros and sap the large groups of soldiers and chain stab them. The groups are spread out enough and the bots close enough when they drop its easy to do this. If you can, sap the pyros and chain them as well. This should be a breeze. Don't forget to pick up every bit of money that drops.
2. Wave 2: People still in disblief will be astonished when you destroy the first group of 6 heavies in a few seconds. Once the ubers show up, focus on sapping the first heavy/medic combo. They alternate sides, so once you kill the first group disguise quickly (bind a close key to lastdisguise, i use F) and run over to the other side and stab the medic letting your teammates kill the heavy.
   Be stingy with your sapper until they start to drop 2 at a time and get all 4 bots in one go. If all goes well, this should be a very easy wave.
3. Wave 3: The bonk scouts. On the first wave, stand further back from the wall, a bit past the rock and wait for their bonk to wear off and sap them. I've gotten all 20 sapped in one go here with a pyro airblasting the first groups together. Let your team slaughter them and prepared for the next section.
   Pyros come down first, then the deflector heavy. You can either focus on sapping the pyros, or sap the big guy slowing him down. Either is good, I tend to play with the pyros and wait for scout groups to slaughter while my team deals with the heavy.
4. Wave 4: The tank round. This is where you're most useless, and at the same time most useful. Ignore the tanks, focus on the support. The bot groups are staggered and small, so the sapper is pretty useless. Stay near the pathway choke points and matador stab the pyros and run away. Once the snipers spawn, go after them exclusively. They're rated at expert and will slaughter your teammates if you don't kill them quickly.
   You can add damage to the tank near the start and the end if you're feeling sassy enough. Truth be told, the damage you add is too minor to notice, but go for it if you have nothing better to do.
5. Wave 5: Another easy wave to sap and stab. The heavies' AI is bad about turning away from you, you dont even need to be disguised to really chain stab them. Focus on the soldier groups, opting for the 3-4 in back instead of the one in front.
   Make sure when buff soldiers spawn to obliterate them as soon as possible. They spawn so closely together this shouldn't be an issue. 
6. Wave 6: Soldier/Uber wave. OOoooo my favorite wave. At this point you should be either maxed out on upgrades, including your canteen. Make sure to tell your teammates to NOT SHOOT until you've dealt with the medics. Uber canteens will be used a plenty here, as the soldiers will destroy you if they aren't distracted. If they look at you, hit the uber canteen right away. Better to be safe than dead here.
   Stay back, ignore the minor groups and just kill the medics.
7. Wave 7: Another tank round. It sucks to sit back and do nothing to the tanks, I know. But just hang around up front and take out the support when it spawns. It should be no issue for you.
   Next part is the Deflector/Uber Medics. Just sap/uber kill those medics and let your teammates kill the giants.
   Don't forget to spy check around this time...
   On the final section of tanks, you should have a ton of money saved up, I average around $1200. Use this money to upgrade your enforcer's attack speed and clip size and jump on those tanks. Any decent group of teammates will obliterate the tanks regardless, but since you have nothing else to do, might as well join in the fun. Plus, a fast firing, high clip enforcer is fun to play with =)

Thats it. Sounds simple, but just remember your teammates are doing the "heavy" lifting with the big bots, but you're severely lightening their load, to the point they may not even notice. As long as you sap/kill the important targets, (Medics, large groups of scouts, buff soldiers and snipers) your team should have no problems with the rest of it. Try not to die, but if you do, just buy back in as quick as possible and get back out there. Just think of it as a free sapper respawn button.

Mech Mutilation (Endurance)

After having a civil discussion with a good friend of mine (seriously, it was civil, no yelling) the spy is about equal to a scout here. The sections where a spy is undoubtedly better than a scout are far and few between. The staggered pyro spawns are a true pain in the ass for the spy as well. However I still stand by the uber medic killing as the defining point of the spy. Having played with both a scout and a spy on this mission, I tend to see fewer 'close calls' with a spy than a scout here. Since there are only three waves, money is less of an issue, since the most you can lose is only $200, which is nothing really. 

As a spy here, be ready to die, a lot. The pyros are a true pain here since there are so many, and not close enough to sap all of them. Pay careful attention to close range allies as well. Demoknights and Pyros can get you killed if they move between you and a robot pyro. Be cautious here.
Since you begin with $1000, get 2 Sapper upgrades and a movement speed or attack speed upgrade. The latter is a personal choice.

1. Wave 1: The worst wave for you. Everything is staggered, and pyro bots are everywhere. Instead of chain stabbing everything, focus on sapping groups of robots, small and large both. Since this is your "spy proving wave" so to speak, show them you aren't useless. Help out even though you and I know you'd be better off as a heavy here due to the staggered groups.
2. Wave 2:  Another hard round, but excellent to show off. Robot groups are clumped nicely together and there are snipers a plenty to chase down. The scout groups are choice targets for mass sapping.
   Once your team gets pushed back, hang around the right side outhouse and matador stab passing bots and jummping down into the hole to run away. This serves a double purpose, killing bots and spy checking, since the spies love it down there. Be prepared to zergling yourself on the point if it comes down to that.
   Don't forget to upgrade every once in a while during this wave, by the end you should be maxxed on the 3 upgrades and a few ubers ready for the next wave.
3. Wave 3: And this wave is why you're a spy. Make sure to tell your teammates to NOT SHOOT THE GIANTS OR MEDICS till you say so. Your teammates can screw up your stabs so quickly, you become useless. Communication is key.
   After the initial uber medics are dealt with, hang around the front and sap/stab/shoot stragging pyros and razorback snipers. If you notice your teammates having issues, run back and sap the bomb carrier. It will slow him down enough for them to regroup and take it out.
   The scout groups are a horrible pain, depending on the bot path that round, try to use your body as a blocker to clump them up and sap them. Using a giant for this is the best choice.
   The last section is the tanks. Ignore them at first, and pick off all the stranglers, which aren't many. Let your teammates focus on the tanks.

And there you have it. Be alert, and know the waves and you'll be a great spy on this map. Don't waste your sapper on small groups if you can avoid it, and always keep yourself up front to keep an eye on whats coming up next. Slowly, we can turn the tide of opinion about the spy here. 

Final notes,
Don't use a spy on Decoy or Coal town. Its not a good choice.

and FFS, use a damned mic.

Limited Musings - How to make the best of a weak Pool

As I write this I'm currently playing an M13 Sealed release event. I am right now 2-0 and haven't lost a game. My pool is, shall we say not very good. I've had much better and much worse. This pool however is an excellent tool to show how one can make the best of a bad pool and still win packs.

I ended up going 3-1 with this pool, not too bad.

So heres my pool and final deck selection.

Yes, it is indeed 3 colors with only a single mana fixer. But theres one important thing about my build that many people miss. Only 3 cards have double mana requirements, and all are late game finisher style cards. Everything else is either a beater, card draw or conditional removal with only 1 colored mana requirement.

My curve is low and on the aggressive side. Aven Squire, Attended Knight, Knight of Glory, Arbor Elf, and Elvish Visionaries are my early plays. If I happen to have a Rancor I quickly can go on the offensive. My late game includes the 3 best cards in my pool for these colors. Jace, Memory Adept, Serra Angel (still good after all these years) and Serra Avenger.

So how did I come up with this monstrosity? First I sorted by Rarity as do many of us. I was stunned at the number of red and black rares, 5 in total. Firewing Phoenix and Krenko, Mob Boss are both bombs in their own right. The Xathrid Gorgon can be slow but insane once on the board, and the Shimian Specter is just flat out insane if left unchecked. Who needs random discard when you can get a targeted discard! Thoughsieze every turn? I don't see why not!

So red black it is, or is it... Here are the only playable support cards for red:

1. Mark of Mutiny (Not very good in this limited for some reason, haven't figured out why)
2. Reckless Brute (He turns into a 3 mana removal spell, not bad, but not what I want to be doing)
3. Canyon Minotaur (I'd rather be playing something else, but he'll do)
4. 2x Chandra's Fury (Axing questions is always fun, but without heavy creature support to back it up...)
5. Fire Elemental (Haven't been impressed by the Firey Lady in M13 sealed. Nice, but quickly outclassed)
6. Mindclaw Shaman (Hes insane, probably the best red guy we have.. but living to 5 mana seems tough)

and black's support cards:

• Zombie Goliath (Meh, if I play him its because I have no other choices)
• Bloodhunter Bat (Solid card, I really like this guy in limited)
• Cower in Fear (Its ok... can set up some sick turns but you want to be trading, we dont have enough dudes)
• Harbor Bandit (Hes great!)
• 2x Walking Corpse (A bear is a bear)
• 3x Mind Rot (Could be worth looking into...)
• 2x Tormented Soul (Pretty good, no exalted though)

Neither supports card selection is any good. The concept of 3x Mind rot, Jace, 2x Archaeomancers and the Specter calls to me, and in hind sight I should of run it just to see. But its not where this pool wants to go.

Taking a look at Green we have the following:

• Acidic Slime (always good)
• Primal Huntbeast (Hes pretty sick, especially with rancor. A+ dude in my book)
• 2x Elvish Visionary (replaces itself, what more could you ask)
• Rancor (By far the best card for limited I've found. Its soooooo good)
• Arbor Elf (Mana accel is good)
• 2x Bond Beetle (It may look like a 1/2 for 1, but in this format +1/+1 is pretty huge during creature math)
• 3x Titanic Growth (wow...)
• 2x Plummet (Maindeckable in this format, the times I have I haven't been unhappy)
• Fungal Sprouting (Solid token generation)
• Roaring Primadox (Combos really well with Visionary/Beetle/Slime, and a 4/4 for 4? Wow!)
• Vastwood Gorger (A wurm is a wurm. Almost always playable)

Green is really good, except it lacks one thing. A solid late game. Its early game is really good. Rancor, Primay Huntbeast, Visionaries, Elf, Beetle, but Primadox and Gorger aren't what I consider a solid late game. They can be killed quite easily, and not just from removal spells. Speaking of removal spells, Green has no prey upons, a key component to a green heavy M13 limited deck. Its going in for sure, just needs support.

Looking at Blue:

• Jace, Memory Adept (Best card in limited)
• Wind Drake (Always a solid flyer )
• Unsummon (This format is about big dudes. Unsummon is effectively a timewalk here.)
• Welkin Tern (Hes so good...)
• 2x Archaeomancer (insane in the right deck)

Blue is weak, very weak. But it has Jace, and Jace wins games.

White is pretty solid.

Serra Angel (Still good)
Prized Elephant (Newcomer, 4/4 for 4 and might trample? Sounds good)
Griffin Protector (Evasive beater that can get bigger? Awesome)
2x Divine Verdict (Removal is removal)
Captain's Call (3 1/1s are really good at stalling the game. Always a fan of token makers)
Crusader of Odric (works with Captain's Call, and Attended Knight really well)
Attended Knight (2/2 first strike WITH A GUY? Sold.)
Serra Avenger (Might not look like much, but the fact she lets you play multiple threats on turn 4 is great)
Knight of Glory (Relevant protection, and exalted, what more to ask for? Ok first strike but thats pushing it)
Aven Squire (Was great in Shards, Won me an old extended match and is great now.)
Ajani's Sunstriker (Not the best, but Lifelink is very relevant in this limited format)

So this is what I'm left with. My bombs are in black and red but with no support. Neither pairs well with Blue/White/Green. Green is by far my best color for limited, but lacks a late game. Blue just has Jace and some utility, and white is insane, but without utility.

My first build was White/Blue. Since I don't have very many cards in the two colors I ended up with bad cards, like Divine Favor, Guardian Lions, and Downpour main deck. Looking at it, it didn't seem good against aggressive decks. (RG is possibly the strongest color combination in the format, and it hits hard and fast)

I took a look at White/Black, trying to design some sort of small aggro/hand control deck. It suffered from late game problems since I didn't have much beyond Serra Angel to finish them off. I tried splashing both green and blue, but with so many double mana requirements it just wasn't feasible.  Also it had a low creature count. I've noticed in my years of playing that in Limited, more so sealed than draft, a high creature count tends to win more games, regardless of the format. Sealed tends to have stalled out games (most formats). If you can play more theats than your opponent, you'll end up winning. Its just a thing I noticed.

Next I looked at Green/White. It looks good, but ended up filling it out with some janky cards to make 23 playables. It would of been my build if I was playing at a GP, since consistency always wins over power in those sorts of events. Plus with 3 Titanic Growths I can play the, turn all my dudes sideways into your big guys game. Since this is a release event and I'm still figuring out what can work in the format, I passed for something a little bit more powerful.

Enter Blue/White/Green, aka Bant. It has all my powerful cards. Jace, Angel, Knight, Rancor, Visionaries, Acidic Slime. Instead of telling you how I built it, I'll go with what I cut and why.

Ajani's Sunstriker -  First problem is hes WW to cast. This is a 3 color deck.
Archaeomancer -  Not enough things to recur. I don't want to cast a blank 1/2 for 4 mana.
Downpour - Its good, but I'm not aggressive enough in these colors to make full use of it.
Roaring Primadox - I have game ending 4 drops. He doesn't work well when I'm trying to drop Jace or Angel on turn 5.
Bond Beetle - I sided these and Primadox in one game, but without one, the other becomes weaker.
Fungal Sprouting - I have a better token generator in Captain's call. I've been bit too many times in M13 to always run it.
Plummet - Yes its main deckable, but I have too much going on for conditional removal in this deck.
Vastwood Gorger - If i needed another playable or stronger late game, hes my #1 pick. As such with what I have, hes not going to fit my deck. Since I have 3 colors, mana is an issue, so I'll almost always have things I can't play dude to mana requirements. I don't need yet another thing sitting there waiting for land.

Things I shouldn't of done:
The Ring. I love these things. Theyre all good. This deck is white creature heavy, so it made sense at the time. In actual play however, It always turned into a Plummet or Titanic Growth.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If I had opened this in a GP, i'd be pissed. Since I'm playing online in a release event, I decided to play with it and see what's possible in this format. I learned a few things:

• People still autoscoop to Jace.
• With this much removal in the format, lots of dudes is still good. (Every color has at least 1 this format)
• Being color screwed still sucks, but much more manageable in M13.
• Unsummon is SO GOOD when they enchant their elderscale wurm 4 times in one turn.
• I wish I had done the Blue/Black Hand Control deck instead.

Overall, a great experience for M13.

How not to be a scrub - Part 7 - The best deck - "Netdeck"ing is bad!

It has happened to everyone. Round 1 of a large tournament. You greet your opponent, shuffle up and present. You banter a little with him and everything seems friendly. You win the die roll, choose to go first and drop your Island, and then cast Delver of Secrets. Suddenly your opponents demeanor changes instantly. He gets red in the face, mutters under his breath and stops talking to you. After you handily beat him 2-0 in record time he begrudgingly signs the match slip and congratulates you on beating him with a lame "Netdeck" and the begins berating you as you put your things away on not building your own deck and playing Magic the right way.

If there ever was the battle cry of the Magic: The Gathering scrub it is this. Netdeck. NETDECK!

There are two major factors in Magic: The Gathering. Playing and deck building. You cannot have one without the other. To know how to build a competitive deck, one must know how to play. You must know how to play the current decks in the meta to be able to build a competitive deck. They go together and are not mutually exclusive to one another.

Before I begin, I need to explain a specific term. Deck tiers. The short answer is, the deck tier is roughly how good it is against the field.

Tier 0: Dominating. (Caw-Blade, Affinity)
Tier 1: The best deck(s) in the format. (Faeries, Jund, Delver, etc)
Tier 1.5: Great decks but auto losses to one of the tier 1s. (Mono Black Control today, Grixis Control vs Jund, Jund in Faeries land)
Tier 2: Solid deck. Needs work or is always a turn too slow. Can steal games. (My pet deck Time sieve when Modern first came about, always 1 turn slow)
Tier 3: Solid concept of a deck but the cards aren't right in the meta. (Right now, Turbo fog would be Tier 3)
Tier 4: Casual only. (A non-synergistic tribal deck)

I frequent the mtgsalvation.com forums quite a bit, especially the rumor mill. More importantly the developing sub-forums for standard. You can see a wide arrange of decks here. They hardly ever range above a tier 2. I see many solid decks, some excellent concepts and card interactions, some even give me excellent ideas (1). But you always see one thing in common with these threads. They don't play test, they don't refine.

Who designed Faeries? Who designed Jund? Who designed Caw-Blade? Who designed UG Madness? Truth is, if you aren't speaking about a specific build the answer is No one. No one designs these decks on their own. Every single one of those examples was designed by a team or the community at large. Each individual making incremental changes that better the deck. No one can say, "I designed Caw-Blade from scratch in its final form." It simply isn't true. In the context of Caw-Blade it was a team of several people who came up with the initial idea and the community who shaped it into what it would become.

The scrub doesn't understand this process. (True story here) In their mind Caw-Blade was designed by a single person with no help from the outside. Only the person who designed the deck could possibly play it and if you do you're just an lame net decker who can't play magic the way it was mean't to be played.

The truth is, building a deck is hard. Its more than hard its downright one of the most difficult things for an individual to do in Magic the gathering. Its so difficult in today's game, that the highest level players don't bother to even begin designing a deck anymore. They add on to an existing deck and improve it. While the team Channel Fireball may of brought Caw-Blade into the spot light in a huge way that year the deck existed prior to them getting a hold of it and improve it greatly. A couple of months down the line the magic community at large made even more improvements and continued its development to become one of the most dominating decks in a format ever. Even surpassing Affinity in terms of tournament play.

Lets not get into the other facet of the argument by saying no deck is original and someone else has come up with the idea before. With as many magic players in the world, and decks always being designed your original deck has been done before. Most likely not the same 75, but close enough the decks are the same.

In conclusion Net decking isn't "bad". The term is used by players who play the game differently than the competitive player. While in their mind they play the game right and you're wrong, but the facts of the matter don't hold water. No one designs the next Caw-blade on their own. Anyone who believes as such isn't looking at the bigger picture.

Play those net decks. Use them in tournaments. Make your community contributions to the list and further the advancement of Magic: the Gathering.




(1): For example when I designed Dredgevine at the end of the era Shards/Zend . Someone made some odd Jund colored deck trying to abuse Vengvine poorly, I then modified my mono-ish black dredge deck to include it, and eventually Blue for more card draw/dudes. After a week of constant play testing I came up with the deck. It was Tier 2, 2.5ish, and had its week in the sun. A friend of mine nearly won a 5k with it (he took it off MTGO daily results, ugh ;)

MTGO - Double Queuing M13 Release Ugh.

... As I write this I'm between rounds on the MTGO Prerelease for M13. I am double queuing. This is not a choice I made.

I hate double queuing. I can never keep the games straight, I make way more play mistakes than normal. Just now, I missed an attack with a Bladetusk boar in one game because I thought it was the OTHER Bladetusk boar I just cast in the other game. Nearly cost me the match that mistake did, with a lucky top deck of turn to slag on his Lich + Ring of Blackness (heh, seemed like a good idea from his standpoint I suppose) got me back into the game.

To make matters worse, one of my decks is 140 cards. You see the ORCs made a mistake when creating the first queues. They are all Phantom events. Phantom event means the cards you open you don't keep. This is for Newplayer events, Cube, etc, not Prerelease queues. So I'm dirdling around building my deck up and suddenly I get 25 tickets! I thought they cancelled the queue since I had read about some issues in the chat. My deck wasn't good, and I had 0 good rares (ok I had a door to nothingness, my pet card ;) but it was MY DECK DAMN IT! Oh well. I joined another queue and waited.

Suddenly, a random game launched, there it is, in all its 140 card glory. My starting hand was Island, Mountain, Swamp, Silvercoat Lion, Serra Angel and an Arbor elf...

Thanks ORCs =) Next time I'll pay attention to the windows open in MTGO and not do this.

Update: I won round one! My opponent Conceded the entire match. Thank you kindly sir. Now I just have to win one more round for a free pack! The things I do for free stuff...

Update 2: Free Queue, got a buy round 4, WOOT FREE PACK. Paid Queue: currently 3-0 with a hyper aggressive GR deck. Today is a good say thus far.

How to not be a scrub - Parts 5 & 6: Not going on Tilt and Pet cards

I'm combining both parts 5 and 6. I realized once I wrote part 5 there really isn't much to say. Learning to take a loss is personal growth. Nothing I really say will help that along. So I shortened up what I was saying and translated it to English (from incomprehensible gibberish) and present it here.

Look. The harder you take that loss, the worse you'll feel. The worse you feel will reduce your chances of winning that next round which in turns repeats the cycle. I can't say it more straight than this. Let it go, and move on. The tournament isn't over yet, keep going. You're only hurting your own chances by feeling bad about the past.

Part 6: Time to let go of Pikachu

We all have our pet cards. For me its Door to nothingness. I love this card. Its so cool, the effect is awesome, the art (both now) is incredible, and it conjures up images of my favorite fantasy concept.  Tap, YOU LOSE! Bawahaha. Enjoy your trip to New Jersey, don't forget to send a postcard! You could say my Pikachu is Door to nothingness. 

I have thrown Door to Nothingness in many decks. Any 5 color EDH deck I've built over the years, you can find this card in the list. Of the casual decks I've made (I have some friends who have 0 interest in draft, competitive, etc. Since I'm not going to bring Delver to play against them I have to have a casual deck or two that aren't EDH decks, its a sacrifice I make) Door to Nothingness is always in them. At one point I owned a little over 500 of them. I have alters, I have a few misprints. I love this freaking card. When it was reprinted in M13, I'm not ashamed to say this, I jizzed in my pants. 

However, outside of some outlying situations, I have never diluted myself into considering it to be a competitive level card. It just isn't there, and never will be unless some sort of incredible power level shifts in the cards happen where this is a constructed bomb:

Yes, thats a 5 mana 2/2 that doesn't let your lands untap next turn. This is the kind of power level we need for Door to Nothingness to be a competitive level card. 

Now don't get me wrong, I have tried to make this card competitive several times. When Modern was announced, I took my pet deck (Time Sieve, more on this below) and updated it with Modern cards. It was always 1 turn too slow against the then combo decks. One of the cards I added was a single Door to Nothingness. It gave me an alternate win condition. The deck was fine for it, mana generation was not an issue, including colored mana. (I routinely created 15+ mana with Amulet of Vigor and Borderposts, when I played it and mana of all colors was not impossible) It still didn't work. Eldrazi, another time walk, anything was better than the Door. 

If I had ended up taking this deck to a tournament, I would of been laughed at, and rightfully so. Pet cards, especially those in the realm of casual only are just that. Casual. Sure you may mise a few wins with your pet card and it will make you feel really good. But unless your pet card is Snapcaster Mage, leave them in your trade binder if you want to win a PTQ. 

Standard Thoughts: Choosing a standard deck for MTGO.

I'll be honest, I haven't played standard in quite some time now. Things in my life prevented me from playing mostly due to lack of money and time from a crappy job. Since I sold most of my physical cards to eat during this time, I no longer have staples. Staples are expensive. So I've been looking hard for a deck to play and make some tickets to build up a collection. I've spent the last month pouring over decklists, reading reports, playing various decks in my mind trying to come up with the ultimate deck. Also, money is a concern. Such is life.

So here are my options, and my thoughts on each deck.

B/R Zombies
I was captivated by Tom Ma's stream playing B/R Zombies. I learned at GP Anaheim how powerful bonfire truly is by going 6-3, and having to read my opponents cards every round. This is what Tom was playing.

--- B/R Zombies: Tom Ma build ---


4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
12x Swamps
3x Mountain
3x Tragic Slip
4x Diregraf Ghoul
2x Fume Spitter
4x Gravecrawler
3x Geth's Verdict
3x Blood Artist
4x Highborn Ghoul
2x Walking Corpse
4x Brimstone Volley
4x Geralf's Messenger
2x Falkenrath Aristocrat
2x Bonfire of the Damned

---- Sideboard ----

2x Pillar of Flame
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Shrine of Burning Rage
2x Crypt Keeper
2x Manic Vandal
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Skinrender
2x Zealous Conscription
1x Bonfire of the Damned

* Deck copied off his stream, might be 2 mountains not 3, unsure as I couldn't see it all.

Two issues. The deck is aprox 200 tickets. Quite a steep price. Even after selling my JTMS's online I'm still quite short. Bonfire is 30 each alone, plus the Aristocrats are 20/each. Everything is manageable. I cannot commit to this deck with a sound mind purely because I truly don't believe either one of those cards is worth it. The second reason is, B/R zombies is not a "deck" yet. Its Tier 1.5 at best. Now while I advocate in my Scrub column to never consider cost if you're trying to play your best, cost for me is a major factor in my decision simply because I'm not trying to give my self the best shot at winning a PTQ and getting on the next pro tour. My goal is small, win some tickets and get back into magic.

Now with rotation happening online tomorrow, my deck selection has gone up. A few new arrivals have shown up, most notable mono-u wizards. Looking at the top 8 for the StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on 2012-07-22 I noticed a trend from the previous weeks. B/R Zombies is now a real deck, took not only 1st place, but another similar build took 3rd. 8th and 13th we're also Zombie builds of some sort. Thats a huge step above the previous weeks. Zombies is now a real deck! My choice has been made!

Only one problem, I have a personal dislike when grinding for tickets on MTGO. I hate the mirror. I hate playing mirror matches like I hate trimming my ear hair. (I'm getting older, what do you want) When I'm grinding for tickets, I want fast, effective decks that require little to no thought from myself once I'm familiar with the deck. I don't want to think about, "Is this card better now, or this one" i want to go, oh, this setup, I play card X because of Y and Z. Mirror matches are all about thought process. Who can process the game state better while reading their opponents better. I bring this up because, now that Zombies is on the scene, people will play it online. Sadly my search continues.

Next deck: Delver.
Take a look at this bad boy here. Pretty sexy isn't it. Sadly this is the style of deck I can't grind with at this time. If, by chance I had been playing since Innistrad came about I would have no issue with grinding with an aggro control deck. It's my style. It's what I do best. The problem stems from, I haven't been playing long enough with or against it to understand the deck. It would take me a month of solid play to really feel comfortable with the deck and format to be able to make tickets online. That leaves me with only 2 months of pure grinding. While this deck remains in my top choices (I may even be able to borrow it completely which negates the cost issue, granted I have 2 snapcasters and 3 Restoration angels from Inn drafts last week now) I want to give myself the most possible time grinding as possible before rotation so I can be up on the cards and meta and dive right into my favorite time of magic, a set rotation.

Round 2: G/R Aggro
So beautiful, So wonderful, so Aggro. I have had a leg up on this deck by being dragged to standard daily tournaments by my best friend with this deck. (He handed it to me, told me to play, went 4-0 five days in a row). This deck is the best grinding option for me. It's powerful, its fun, and requires little thought once I get use to it. I've watched Cedric Phillip's streams religiously since he began and I love the deck. Even playing against it during GP Anaheim gave me respect for the deck. This is my #1 option. The problem? Sadly cost.
Most lists run 2-3 swords, 4x Bonfires and 4x Huntsmaster of the Fells. Thats $300 in JUST those cards. When we factor in new 'hot' cards for the deck like Thundermaw hellkite and Thragtusk, the price will skyrocket tomorrow. Sigh.

A new Contender: frites
Seen here. I love me reanimator in legacy and vintage. (One of the few Vintage decks I own is a JTMS Reanimator hybrid, down to 8 proxies). I just have one answer to this deck: Grafdigger's Cage. Normally I would say this isn't a card. Same with Surgical Extraction. These aren't magic cards. They're trap filler cards. Except in this context. I'm grinding on MTGO. Someone WILL intentionally hate me out with this card. They'll lose, during the match modify their deck, and rejoin the queue when I do. It happened a lot when I was grinding with Time Sieve. (Side note: Don't grind with a heavy trigger based combo deck on MTGO.. its a bad idea) It will happen again with Frites. I love the deck concept, but I dislike the MTGO queue players.

Honorable Mention: Esper Aggro.
I'll admit this deck intrigues me. I have some of the cards already and it seems easy enough to play. I'll seriously look into this deck in the next few days.

So for now, I'm deckless. My time is running shorter for grinding season every day I linger my soul on this decision. Maybe the Day of judgement will come soon for my decision...

... I've been reading too many LSV articles.

How to not be a scrub - Part 4: Knowing your outs - Never give up, never concede.

"Never give up! Never surrender!". Ahh Galaxy Quest. An excellent 1999 parody film. But we aren't here to talk about old, awesome Tim Allen movies today. We're here to talk about not giving up a game you still have a chance to win. The movie's tag line however embodies today's lesson perfectly.

All to many times I've seen my opponents, both new and old just give up a game in a tournament setting. They think its hopeless. Sure they may have to draw perfectly the next three turns to get out of the situation, but they still give up. I, for the life of me cannot figure out why. There is always that chance it happens. The game isn't over until you sign the match slip.

Let me first start off by saying this. There are situations where it is perfectly acceptable to give up early. Your opponent's combo deck is solid and is going off and you have zero counters for it. You know this deck is consistent to military time, and your opponent has never (okay rarely) makes a mistake going off. Time in the round is short and you just want to get to game three to have a chance. This is acceptable. Another situation that comes to mind is practicing. A good practice group knows when the chance to win is 1 in a million. Once that situation has established, it is acceptable to enter your scoop phase and go on to another game. More games means more practice. These situations are the exception, not the rule. If you're in a tournament, don't give your opponent a win unnecessarily.

Gather around, its story time.

I'm going to paint a picture of a tournament I played a few years back. Jund was the new faeries and everyone played it, including myself. It was the night before a large SuperStars 5k invitational event, and I played the last chance qualifiers (For byes) to get in. I played, you guessed it, Jund. It was horrible. My technique sucked, I casted Blightning first in the mirror several times, I always cascaded into Goblin Ruinblaster without kicker mana. Hell, I even lightning bolted one guys Putrid Leech prior to him pumping it. I was off my game.

I went home that night defeated. I knew my pet deck (1) Grixis Control just wouldn't cut it in a field of Nissa's Elves and Boros. Both pretty weak matchups for me. I had a few options at my disposal for the tournament in 12 hours. I could play Jund again and hope for the best. I could play Elves which had been pretty good to me. I could just hope for good matchups with Grixis, or, I could build a new deck no ones seen. I took the last option and build a very solid Mono-Green ramp, big dudes, Eldrazi Monument deck. Sleeved it up, typed my decklist, printed and got some sleep.

The tournament was a breeze. I went 9-0 before cut to top 32 without dropping a single game. My super sideboard tech against Open the Vaults (the one that uses creatures, not my precious Time Sieve deck) worked 3 times to insane results. Nothing could get in my way. Until the top 32 came.

Round 10, I was matched up against Shahar Shenhar. This was prior to his rise to fame and was still a kid. He was playing Naya. I knew this matchup would be easy for me. All I needed was to throw guys in his way, drop monument and bash face. Easy right? Well, game 1 was easy. I crushed him. No mercy was shown. Noble into Leatherback Baloth, into Noble + Huntsmaster into Monument. Boom. Headshot.

Game 2 is the lesson. Shahar allowed me to make a mistake, and I did. He started off strong as did I. He got me down to 1 life (he was at 19 or so) and I finally was able to drop a monument and stabilize. The turn after the monument was the critical one. I had 14 damage exactly, except I had sacrificed a Wolf (2/2) token instead of a Snake (1/1) token leaving me at exactly 13 damage. I knew what I did exactly when I did it. I had already done the math. I was so use to sacrificing a wolf token to the monument that I had forgotten about the snake from my Cone of Dudes.

Suddenly I was on the back foot. Shahar had a gigantic Knight of the Reliquary with a Behemoth sledge attached. I had just enough creature toughness to not die on the board if I blocked with everything. I couldn't attack, I couldn't slowly chip away at his life total. All he had to do was top deck a lightning bolt, or another sledge, or a knight of the reliquary, or any number of things for the win. The crowd started gathering.

The game went on. Every turn I either top decked another creature to counteract the increasing size of Knight of the Reliquary, and Shahar top decked more fetch lands and was slowly thinning his deck trying to get one of three lightning bolts left in it. Eventually he started to attack with extra Knights, gaining more and more life, putting my large in number but small in power army ever so slightly behind every turn. Every end of turn, one of us had the upper hand and would win, and the following turn reverse those fortunes. Every turn we had to count up the combat damage to confirm the standstill. Neither one of us would give up, we both had outs.

Luckily for me, I eventually got another Eldrazi Monument, plopped it down and went sideways for the win. Dealing something like 50+ damage in that turn. Lightning bolt was the top card of his deck. Neither one of us gave up on this game. Every turn we had to draw either the final answer, or something to counteract an alpha strike, anything else would of resulted in a loss.

I'm using this example for one reason. (Not because it has a now big name in MTG) But because it was one of my most memorable games. Both of us were losing, both of us had outs, both of us could of just given up at any time. I heard the comments from the very large group of spectators that I should concede, or Shahar should concede based on the board situation all the time during that match. Things like, "Well hes losing and its not getting better, I would concede if I were him referring to both of us at various times. In the end, we both played to our outs. His Lightning bolts, or my Monuments.

In closing just remember this. If you're playing for money, don't just give up. Even if your opponent restarts the game with Karn and has a Platinum Empirion + 4 lands on turn 0. Just don't do it. If there is a glimmer of hope, or a lightning bolt of a chance, go for it. Its money. You don't have to be the good guy, and no one with a brain will fault you for doing it.


(1): Remember what I said about Pet decks? (or will say, if forget ;) I built this puppy, and it was a tier 1 deck for quite some time. I cannot take all the credit, but I can safely say my build was the foundation for all other Grixis Control decks to come that season. I played it because one thing, after 500+ matches, I had a 56% chance of beating Jund. Also, Cruel Ultimatum is the best spell in Magic: The Gathering to cast.

How to not be a scrub - Part 3: Unfun magic archetypes - How I stopped worrying and loved the counterspell.

There was a Daily MTG article a few years back that I can't seem to find. It said something very striking to me. Casual players feel worse when their big Craw wurm is counter spelled, than if it was doom bladed right after it came into play. They felt like they at least did something. This sums up the casual player. Both effects are the same; the Craw Wurm is in the graveyard and I'm down a card.

Scrubs tend to keep this mentality with them when they first enter competitive magic. They feel control decks are unfun. They feel combo decks are not interactive enough. They feel you're "rushing" with a red deck, you aren't giving them a fair chance(1).

I honestly don't know what heart warming thing to say to make you, the aspiring competitive player to get over these mentalities. Suck it up. Suck. It. Up.

These things are apart of the game. Control decks (Casual hated), Sleigh decks (mono red), Mid-ranged creature decks (Casual favorites) and combo decks (Universally disliked by all). If you remove one archetype, you screw up the universal magic balance chart. Whats the universal balance chart you ask? Its simple, allow me to show you.

Small Creature Aggro  -> Beats Control
Mid-ranged-> Beats small creature
Control decks -> Beats small creature aggro.
Combo decks -> Depending on the combo, inserts itself randomly in this chart as the meta dictates.

Sure there are crossovers, (aggro/control, combo/control, Midranged/Control) that pop up every once in a while to shake things up or ruin things (think Caw-blade) but this is the standard deviation of deck archetypes that make up EVERY magic tournament(2).

Good players gravitate to the best decks. Sometimes the best deck is a control deck, other times its a midrange deck. And every so rarely an aggro deck.We play the best decks because we want to win. We aren't there to necessarily have fun while playing the game. We want to win the prize, be it packs or cold hard cash. We don't care if its enjoyable for you to turn 30+ Craw wurm style creatures 60 turns into the game. That isn't why we are at the tournament.

The aspiring scrub should ALSO be working to that goal. If you never play control decks because of your own prejudices against the archetype as a whole, you are only hurting yourself in a tournament setting.

Lets break here for a moment to understand how tournaments work in a magic setting. Remember a few articles back when I talked about randomness? Tournaments are random as well. Assuming you play perfectly and have a random matchup selection, you are rolling the dice against your deck's win percentage. Occasionally you'll hear people say something like, "My deck has a 60% win ratio against deck X" or 40%, or 75%, or whatever number they pull out of their ass at the time the question is asked. Truth is, there real numbers behind this. High level competitive players use these real numbers to determine if a deck is good or not.

As I write this in July 2012, the best deck in standard is Delver. A UW control/aggro deck everyone hates. Recently during a starcity games event, the casters revealed it had a roughly 52% chance to win. This is over hundreds of matches during that day and adding in a few other events. 52%. This is the BEST deck in standard. It was still played by some of the best players in the magic scene. Why? Because it has the best winning chance over all the other decks in the format at 52%. This may not seem like much, but it can be the difference between day 2, and going home early in a 9+ round tournament. You should take something from this small fact. A few percentage points different, and it wouldn't be the best deck in the format. Football may be a game of inches. Magic is a game of 1%.

There is another reason to play other decks. To get you out of your comfort zone so you CAN play the best deck, and to know your opponents deck better than they do. This is what makes LSV LSV, and not some random PTQ player.



Footnotes:



(1): True story, in one of my rare screw it moments, I played a mono red burn deck, second round opponent told me to stop rushing him. Uh, I wasn't aware I was playing Starcraft here and my Goblin guide was a zergling... but thanks for the round 2 win in a 250 person 5k tournament... I'll be sure not to rush my next opponent and give him a sporting chance at $5,000.

(2): Ok not vintage. Vintage is about casting Jace the Mind Sculptor and protecting it till he ultimates, be it from inf turns with time vault, or countering it. Everything else however...
Also worth noting, the more eternal a format is, the more crossover archetypes get.

How to not be a scrub - Part 2: Mana Screw - I could of won if I just had one more mana...

Today we'll be talking about mana screw. This is mostly theory, but its important to take to heart. It happens to everyone. You draw your first seven cards, see 2 land and a bunch of gas and never seen another land again. I could go into shuffling practices and theories which help reduce mana screw (by normalizing draws to a random distribution) but I won't. What I will talk about today is two fold. Making use of what you have, not going on tilt, and how to survive to flip more cards in hopes of a land.

Making use of what you have separates the good players from the poor players. Stuck on 3 land with a Day of Judgement in your hand facing down an army of opposing creatures you're only job should be surviving long enough to draw the needed land to cast day of judgement and seal the win. How do you do this? Proper blocking and use of your spells in hand that you can cast. While these are highly dependent on the exact game, it can all be summed up in a single thought: Stay alive as long as possible. Make trades that are advantages to you, use removal on the ones you can't block.

On the flip side of this, lets say you keep a hand of 2 lands, 3x 4 CMC, and 2x 5CMC and you end up mana screwed and can't do anything. This is your own fault. One of the key rules of mulliganing hands is, If you never draw another land this game, do you still have gas? If you can't cast what you have in your starting hand with the mana in hand and 1 more, the hand is not keepable. Sure it may of been godly, would of won, should of won, etc etc etc. Truth is, you kept a bad hand and you paid the price.

Watch some videos of non-LSV players (LSV tends to keep sketchy hands and just happens to draw the one of land he needs... you and I aren't as lucky as him. I mean, have you SEEN his wife? yeesh, that guy). Every hand they're thinking about throwing back always contains some sort of gas on Hand Land + 1. Depending on the format this turns into just the mana you have in hand. The most skill intensive part of magic happens BEFORE the game even begins. Think carefully before accepting the hand about what your lines of play will be. If it requires a god draw of cards xyz in order abc to be good, throw it back. You should never let your game be decided by randomness when you can help it.

The most important thing you can do is not let the game get to you. It takes time, and practice but what will hold you back the most from becoming a strong magic player (and indeed many other games, and life itself) is looking past the last small failure and moving forward. I can't tell you the exact steps to do this, its more of a personal growth thing. It comes down to one thing.

Shit happens. Get over it, and stop keeping bad hands.

How to not be a scrub - Part 1: Shuffling - Can you shuffle too much?

Every day Kibler's shuffl'n. Theres a good reason for it. Magic is a game of odds. Your deck choice, card distribution, even down to the die roll. Every thing you do in Magic: The Gathering is based on a chance. Even someone of Brian Kibler's caliber can lose against a person who's never played outside of Duels of the Planeswalkers. One of the biggest things that separates the the best players from your average kitchen table Magic player is one thing, playing to your outs.

What is an out? In simplistic terms, it is a card, or line of plays that allows you to get out of a losing situation, or outright win the game. Picture this, you're playing a core set draft, you have a fireball in your hand, but no red mana sources in play. You're going to lose next turn from his massive, about to be overruned army. Do you give up? Of course not, it isn't over until someone is at 0 life. (More on this in part 4), you cast your ponder, no mountains. You opt to shuffle your remaining 20 cards, draw, a mountain! You fireball them for the win! But what does this have to do with shuffling you ask?

You just played the odds. Your odds of drawing the one mountain were 1 in 20 (5%) off the ponder. (To save you from maths, i'll spare you the calculations for ponder as well). The better you shuffle, the more in line your odds will be with actual statistics allowing you to draw that mountain.

Since you're more likely an aspiring scrub looking to get away from scrubyness by reading these, you have undoubtedly heard the term, "Mana Pocket", or terms like "mana weaving". In short, there should never been whats called a "mana pocket", nor should mana weaving be valid (its actually against the DCI rules, and considered deck stacking, just FYI). If you shuffle enough, and play enough games, these will never be issues outside the normal distribution curve.

In closing, shuffle your deck. Shuffle often. Shuffle more. Shuffle your opponents deck. Everyday you should be shuffling so you can play the odds, and not mana screw because of your bad shuffling.

How to not be a Magic: The Gathering scrub - Introduction

I've recently started watching a lot more Magic: The Gathering streams on twitch and other sources. One thing I've gathered from reading the chat is, there are a lot of MTG scrubs in the world. I wish to dispel some of the myths and beliefs these "scrubs" hold in order to make you a better player.

Firstly, what is a scrub? Urban dictionary claims its from the depths of arcades in the mid 90's. These people would "scrub" the buttons in fighting games. While I disagree with this history, and being an arcade dweller in the 90's we just called them button mashers, the term is an accurate way to describe poorer players. People who don't play to win, have no grasp on the game concepts, or are just generally annoying to play against. What sets a scrub apart from the casual players is one thing, they try to win and consider themselves good. 

In this series, I'll address some of the habits of the scrub. Things they do which can be fixed easily. Many of these are just attitude adjustments, or play style habits that can be resolved. If you're a scrub take heart, you don't have to be one much longer.

Part 1: Shuffling - Can you shuffle too much?

Part 2: Mana Screw - I could of won if I just had one more mana...

Part 3: Unfun magic archetypes - How I stopped worrying and loved the counterspell.

Part 4: Knowing your outs - Never give up, never concede.

Part 5: Tournament losing - How to not go on tilt and lose more.

Part 6: Pet cards - Is it time to let go of Pikachu?

Part 7: The best deck - "Netdeck"ing is bad!

Part 8: Complaining - If I only... if you hadn't top decked... if you blocked this way...

Part 9:  Conclusion - I'm not a scrub! You just suck!

Update: I'm cutting "Part 8: Deck Building - All I need to do is draw all 5 of these cards and I can win..." This deserves its own hardcover book devoted to the art of deck building. I am no where near adept enough to begin covering the concept and where people go wrong. I've tried writing this section several times and came up with even more basic overviews of dos and don'ts. Thats not what I want. I may overview generic deck building for the rotation, aka How to build a control deck in a new format, but thats not how to not be a scrub.

First thoughts on Diablo III

Diablo, one of the best action RPG's in existence. I've spend many a hour trying to get just one more level, or finish one more Baal run. I even failed out of a few classes because of it. Third only to muds and Eve-online, the Diablo series has sucked more of my time than any other game. I even dabbled in the black market for Diablo 2.

This past week was the open beta. Available to anyone with a battle.net account. I eagerly downloaded the game and dived right in to the game. My first instinct was to play the wizard. I've always played magic users in the past, and this seemed a natural choice.

The story line quickly grabs you with an introduction of "the hordes at the gate" scenario, pitting you and the city guard against a large group of corrupted people. Reminded me a lot of zombies movies. The first chapter of the story didn't really engage me after the first point. The voice actors seemed disinterested, and the character's lines too jaded and snarky. Felt like "yet another dungeon I can loot and conquer" style to the game.  Honestly, I don't even remember the story outside of find and save Deckard Cain and kill the Skeleton king (again, didn't we kill him in the first game?)

After attaining level 6 and realizing I had 0 choice in character customization, I noticed It was taking me quite a bit of time and tactics to kill even the smallest of enemies. So I switched to the Witch Doctor.

Zombie, fucking Dogs. Yes, Zombie Dogs. Such an awesome summon creature to do my bidding. I'm hooked on the witch doctor now, even if he looks like a scrawny malnourished redneck with a beer belly. I quickly ran through the entire first act, and easily figured out the best way to kill enemies. After about an hour I was greeted with the "You won the beta! Congratulations!" screen. Humm, that was easy. ooo gold item. (Note, I had to google how to identify items, it was buried in the fourms. FYI. Hover over the item for a few seconds. Yeah thats it. Why even have to identify it then...)

I then tried my hand at multiplayer. My first instinct was to grab every item I could find. After a while I was feeling like a douche for picking up everything when the loading screen tip popped up: "Item drops are your own in multiplayer. Everyone has separate drops." At least I don't feel so bad now. Glad to see one of the better ideas from Guild Wars/Muds was incorporated. I'd really love to see the stats on how drops work now. Do we all get the same item? Is it a normal drop (ala D2) that's randomly split? or do we just get the same roll of loot level and items are randomly generated at that level?

After the third multiplayer game I started notice there was zero, ZERO randomization. Every dungeon was identical. The one large outdoor area only had a few randomizations with the major landmarks. (Tree, Crater, or Dungeon entrance, slightly randomized, thats it) Also chests would move around slightly. In otherwords, the game is NOT random generated like D2/D1. Its a static world with slight decoration differences. (Ok ok, D1 wasn't truely random, every dungeon level had 99 maps, but it was close enough) This is going to bore me to death, or make writing a bot easier. One or the other.

The concept of crafting is interesting, and I see myself spending a lot of time gathering normal magical items this game for crafting. I forsee the majority of runs purely for craft ingredients. Good way to keep us playing I suppose.

I read on the forums the stash is shared this time around. This is good I suppose, but maybe bad. I tend to horde my items, (Even those stupid low-end set items). I suppose i'll have to get over having everything.

The real money market was disabled during the stress test, so I was unable to see how it functioned. But I fully support this. The black market on Diablo 2 was HUGE, still is to some extent. Making it accessible and taking a cut is the best thing Blizzard has done since the removal of LAN play. To the nay sayers: Get a job, or if you have one, don't partake. No ones forcing you to use it. For those of us who want to buy/sell for real money, (seriously, $10 isn't a lot of money) this is a huge boon. Even allows for power gamers to make a bit of money on the side. Perhaps not much down the line when the slaves in third world countries get into the business and undercut everyone, but for a while it'll be great.

Blizzard did a poor job balancing the classes. By this I mean It takes longer to do the same things with class A than B. For example, the Wizard kills at a 10th of the speed of my Witch Doctor, and the Barbarian just slaughters everything in it's path. I suspect they haven't done balancing yet, but this needs to be addressed, or everyone will be the same class in multiplayer games.

On multiplayer, I was deeply annoyed there was no real benefit to playing with other people. No additional experience, Monster HP and PC damage bonus scaled 1:1, and the drops even felt lighter. Sure it was slightly faster, but if you wern't able to keep up with the fast people, you missed out of a lot of loot. This needs to be addressed, otherwise I'll be spending a lot of time on Skype/Vent and never joining a game. Sure I understand the need to not make XP 4x like Diablo 2, but ffs give us something.

Achievements. I like this. Please don't make them impossible.

That's about it. I preordered my copy and will undoubtly play quite a bit when its released. (Also since I'll be  losing my job at the same time, Its a perfect start to my vacation!) But I don't see myself playing as vigorously 5 years later like I did Diablo 2. The rest of the game better be kick ass for that to happen.