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.