1000 Tix Challenge - part 4

Mindbreak Trap has gone up - but not as much as I thought. Even though Cardbot is selling it at 4.50, the best you can sell it is 2.80 each at foggybot. I can't see it going any higher. I have already sold mine, and I recommend you do the same.

I've sold 8 Mindbreak Traps for a total of 25 tix. But as you can see, there are some new cards in my collection: 31 Bala Ged Thieves. And the reason for this is another Building on a Budget article by Jacob van Lunen. True story: I login on my main MTGO account, enter Tournament Practice and what is the first deck I face? Yup, WB Allies, exactly as described in the article :) I'd probably buy more if I wasn't that sleepy. I highly recommend buying some Bala Ged Thieves.

1000 Tix Challenge - part 3

Playing control against Primeval Titan decks can be really annoying, as using counters is dangerous - you can always fall into Summoning Trap that will ruin your day. That was one of the main reasons why I thought Primeval Titan is going to dominate the early new Standard meta. And it did - it was everywhere in States. Is there no hope for permission strategies in Standard? Well, let's look at the winner from California:

UB Control by i-never-smile, 1st place in CA States

Main Deck

4 Swamp

7 Island

4 Tectonic Edge

4 Creeping Tar Pit

4 Darkslick Shores

2 Drowned Catacomb

4 Mana Leak

2 Negate

2 Cancel

2 Stoic Rebuttal

3 Mindbreak Trap

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Doom Blade

2 Into the Roil

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

4 Preordain

4 Jace's Ingenuity

Sideboard

2 Sign in Blood

2 Smother

2 Disfigure

3 Flashfreeze

2 Duress

2 Grave Titan

2 Consume the Meek

Frankly, I love this list. It seems tuned to kick some serious Primeval butt. First of all - the finisher of choice, Sphinx of Jwar Isle. It's unkillable for any Primeval Titan deck. Second - and this one is a stroke of genius - Mindbreak Trap. Here is your answer to Summoning Trap - not only it avoids triggering it's trap condition, but also helps against countered threat into countered trap into trap chains that are nigh-on unbeatable otherwise. And you know where this one leads:

Yup, that's 8 Mindbreak Traps bought for 16 ticks. You can get them easily for 2.25 pretty much everywhere. Once it catches on, it should rise to about 6 tix.

Preparing for rotation

I planned to write something entirely different in this entry: how the meta for the upcoming Standard is going to be defined by three cards, and how we won't be seeing a single deck to beat similar to Jund from one year ago. If you're reading some pre-rotation stuff, you might have read it already. That was the plan. The thing is - this is simply not true.
When Zendikar became legal, there was one question you had to answer when designing a new deck: How do I beat Jund? And it wasn't an easy question. The beginning of this Standard will have a similar question begging answer: How do I beat Primeval Titan? The M11 mythic was already showing success before the rotation - just look at MTGO events, and you will see it everywhere. It's even worse in the 2-man queues, as some 30% decks being played are Primeval Titan builds. The percentage will grow when we get Scars of Mirrodin - the decks lose very little, and gain a nice tool to fight unfavoured matchups.

There are 2 Primeval Titan builds - Valakut Titan and Mono Green Eldrazi. If haven't been playing Magic in the last months, here's a quick look at both of them:

Valakut Titan by Jorlain72, 6th place Standard Premier #1641449 on 10/02/2010

Main Deck

3 Evolving Wilds

5 Forest

11 Mountain

4 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

2 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Inferno Titan

2 Oracle of Mul Daya

4 Primeval Titan

3 Cultivate

4 Explore

4 Harrow

3 Khalni Heart Expedition

3 Lightning Bolt

4 Rampant Growth

3 Summoning Trap

Sideboard

2 Acidic Slime

2 Back to Nature

4 Goblin Ruinblaster

1 Lavaball Trap

1 Naturalize

3 Pyroclasm

2 Ricochet Trap

Mono G Eldrazi by Marcin Karolczak,

4-0 in Standard Daily #1641401 on 10/03/2010

Main Deck

4 Eldrazi Temple

1 Eye of Ugin

12 Forest

4 Khalni Garden

1 Mystifying Maze

4 Tectonic Edge

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Joraga Treespeaker

1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

4 Overgrown Battlement

4 Primeval Titan

3 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

1 All Is Dust

3 Cultivate

3 Everflowing Chalice

3 Explore

4 Rampant Growth

4 Summoning Trap

Sideboard

2 Acidic Slime

2 All Is Dust

2 Fog

3 Hornet Sting

2 Master of the Wild Hunt

4 Obstinate Baloth

Both these decks are powerful, easy to play, and lose very little to rotation. Does it remind you something? Yup, Jund. They will be everywhere. In 2-man queues, expect them to exceed 50% of all decks played, similar to how Jund was in the first days of Alara-Zendikar Standard.

What does all this have to do with investing? First of all, I'm not that sure now that Wall of Omens was such a good investment. It doesn't do anything against Primeval Titan decks, so my hopes of it going up to 3 tix soon are slim. I will keep the ones I've already bought, but I won't buy any more. Second - I've mentioned a new tool for Primeval Titan build that helps against unfavoured matchups. The matchups I had in mind were aggro decks, especially RDW - and the tool is Wurmcoil Engine. And here comes my recommendation - buy Wurmcoil Engine promos. I know I've recommended buying Sun Titan promos, and it wasn't that good yet, but I feel Wurmcoil Engine is a better buy. It is colorless, so it fits a lot of decks, and it goes straight into the dominant decks of the coming meta.

As for Primeval Titan itself - it will also go up, but it's already quite high at 27 tix. I can't see it going above 50 tix, and that is already being pretty optimistic. You will make some profit, but it won't be that much. I have a Valakut build that I am going to sell after the rotation - and that's all the investing in Primeval Titan I'm going to do.