There’s nothing quite as exhilarating and self validating as stepping into a room overflowing with 1200 kindred spirits.  A colossal arena with row after endless row of numbered tables, almost all of which are occupied by zealots of all ages playing the world’s foremost customizable card game: Magic the Gathering.  Some came for glory, others came to fortify their collections and still others came foolishly expecting to defeat Mike Turian in a gunslinging throwdown.  I was there for a bit of all three.  That was the scene at the Seattle Grand Prix 2009 on day one of the big event.

If you want to meet the people behind Magic (artists, developers etc.) then a Grand Prix is where you want to be.  Lines of fans wait to get their favorite card signed by the original artist, and R&D team members gunsling with any and all challengers.

We got the opportunity to sit down with Hall of Famer and WotC Lead Developer, Mike Turian for an exclusive two on one interview.  The setting:  a table and chairs curtained off just outside the show floor, an iPhone on said table recording the interview and two bumbling fanboys who had in fact prepared for the interview but, in the excitement of the moment, misplaced their list of questions.  The interview has been left mostly raw, uncut and unedited.  Give it a listen and feel free to download the mp3 if streaming isn’t working on your machine.


Streaming audio not working for you?  Download the MP3!

For the record, my challenge at the end of that interview was answered.   Needless to say, the hall of famer’s Demigods overwhelmed my puny Reveillarks.  A big thank you to Mike once again, for the opportunity.

If there was a buzz word of the day it would’ve been “Cascade”.   From Bitominous Blast to Bloodbraid Elf, cascade, as in Barcelona, seemed to be the most common approach.  Seismic Swan decks seemed to crop up every other game I witnessed.   Black and White token aggro was also prominent.  Of course, 5 Color Planeswalker Control, Oona, White-Weenie Kithkin and TurboFog made commendable appearances as well.  There was even a rumor about a Red/Black goblin deck floating around the arena (and winning).   Presently, standard includes a very large number of cards and thus, the diversity at this Prix was stunning.  While the new standard rotation (post M10) certainly keeps the game fresh with new, more frequent releases, it also cuts down significantly on the number of total cards allowed in the format.  It remains to be seen if the quicker set turnaround will breed the same diversity I’m seeing here at Seattle GP 2009.

Apart from the main event, there are several other noteworthy activities to participate in at a Grand Prix.  Meeting the artists and pro players you read about online is noteworthy enough.  But being able to actually challenge an R&D member of the Wizards of the Coast team, is a fanboy’s deam.  Both Leaf and I didn’t participate in the Prix so we had the opportunity to play a few games with a handful of developers (for the record, I went 3-2 with a triumphant win over Mark Globus’ dreaded Goat multiplier deck while Leaf went 2-3 with a loss to the same).  All of the guys were great and put together some interesting gunslinging decks.  Their love for the game and its future is palpable when you’re sitting there playing with each of them.

One of my other favorite pastimes is to wander around the showroom floor challenging anyone who looks willing to throw down.  Its a wonderful way to meet new people and take in perspectives of the game that you would have otherwise remained ignorant of.   Theres nothing more exhilarating then playing against a random deck and random player that could be playing just about anything.  Of course, tournament players have the same experience several times over but random duels with random players feel all that more unpredictable.  You’re also able to enter several other side tournaments such Two-Headed Giant, current block sealed and Ravnica limited events.  Between those games and the massive multiplayer romps that tend to form out of nowhere, you’re sure to have a memorable time at a Grand Prix.  I encourage anyone who is able to attend the one, whether you participate in the main event or not.

Id like to thank Mike again for the interview as well as the entire gunslinging R&D team for humoring our insatiable urge to challenge them on the showroom floor.

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In Magic 2010 Spoiler news, we’ve been able to confirm three new spoilers over at our M10 spoiler page.  Take a gander at Golden Lotus, Vampire Nocturnus, and Queen of Ants (all mock ups obviously).  Check out MTGRealm for scans of the actual promo cards.  Exciting stuff.

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(This article was written four days before the Grand Prix began.  However, I did not end up participating in the Main Event.  I decided it would be a better use of my time to explore every facet of the Prix.)

It is that time of year, time for the Magic Grand Prix Event and Duelists across the globe are aflutter.  This year the Grand Prix happens to be in Seattle (or more accurately Tacoma), and since yours truly is a local product I am preparing to attend.  That is the issue at hand, preparing.  How does one simply walk into the very hallowed halls of MTG and throw down?  What are the steps a person takes to ready themselves for combat.  Especially what could be twelve hours of combat!  Many simply look up something from a recent Top 8, and throw together what they can with a few favored cards as ‘tweaks’.  Play test it a few times with friends and head out the door.  I am not wired that way.  Call me Jesse James, or call me stupid, but I’m a outlaw planeswalker.  I can’t compete with a deck someone else created and piloted better than I ever could.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I am not alone, and we are not alone.  There are rebels among us.  However different we are from our contemporaries, the same steps need be taken to prepare for battle.

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM

Or should it be problems.  Plural, because that will be what us renegade deck builders need to keep in mind when we build our deck. The advantage here being we can pretty much guess the types of decks we’ll be facing.  There will be Turbo-Milling aided by Jace Beleren and Sanity Grinding, some Five-Color Control, but mostly we are guaranteed a massive number of aggro decks.  Windbrisk Heights has become nearly as popular as Mutavault in the latter’s prime.  If we’re planning on making out of the first round we need to prepare for these creature rushes.  Turbo Fog is a creative milling deck with an anti-aggro theme right in the title.  Too bad this idea has gone main stream recently and would hardly qualify as renegade.

FIND THE SOLUTION

With most if not all of the threats calculated, creating a perfect counter should be easy.  Well, not exactly.  If MTG were that simple then . . . um . . . it’s not.  In fact 90% of the challenge of competitive Dueling involves creating a deck build that can beat what currently dominates.  Keeping that in mind we can still try to create something unique that bests many more popular builds.  Let’s start with anti-control/milling.  Luckily unearth has been given to us by WotC seemingly to intentionally break the choke hold control decks had during Lorwyn.  Packing countermagic?  We’re going to swarm you.  Board sweepers?  See you next turn.  With Jace/Howling Mine drawing us extra cards we never need to worry about running out.  Especially if our opponent puts a few in the graveyard for us.  The second issue is more pressing.  Creature/token rush.  The most popular archetype in Standard right now.  Not too good on defense so our unearthed army should do the trick, but we’d be long dead without a little defense of our own.  Hmmm, we’ll need to think about that one.

CREATE THE DECK

We want access to the best unearth creatures, and some great mass removal.  That is the base and the reason I choose black and red for the ‘rebel yell’ deck.  Just about any cheap unearth creatures will fit the bill, but we need a few key members on the team.  Hellspark Elemental,  Hell’s Thunder and Shambling Remains for fast damage and Anathemancer for more direct damage.  Late game against any control deck, unearthing one of these should just about finish the job every time.  If we’re looking to spend a little money Demigod of Revenge is also a perfect fit here.  In addition to unearth, the Shards of Alara block has given another gift.  Actually Infest and Volcanic Fallout might be considered two gifts, but who is counting?  If our opponent is tapped out and committed to the board we can hit them with Infest, if not Volcanic Fallout offers a less preventable solution.  Best of all we have eight mass removal effects in our deck.  Whenever our opponent rebuilds we can hit them again.  To deal with larger threats we can include four copies of Terminate and four copies of Incinerate for a quick finish.  To prevent being overrun ourselves we add Relic of Progenitus to our sideboard to counter-act any Reveillark madness.  Rain of Tears is a pretty solid side-board option as well against so many builds relying on Windbrisk Heights. (Ed Note: see the full deck list below)

THE TEST

We have our deck.  twenty-something unearth creatures, eight board sweepers and some spot removal/direct damage.  Now we need to test it to make sure we’re ready for anything the Grand Prix has in store.  MTGO tournament practice room here we come!

First Match, Bant Exalted – We both start fast, trading blows so I hold off on any board sweepers.  My over-confidant opponent taps out to play Rafiq of the Many and a second Jhessian Infiltrator.  I terminate Rafiq and play Volcanic Fallout.  Next turn I unearth Shambling Remains and play Anathemancer.  Good game.  No sideboarding and I am ready to go.  The second game plays out similarly to the first except my foe misses his third and fourth land drops.  1-0.

Second Match, Faeries – Actually this might be the best match-up for the deck.  Fae countermagic is hosed and Bitterblossom does enough damage on it’s own to make my job easy.  It also didn’t hurt to draw three Anathemancers in my opening hand.  The last was worth seven damage on it’s own.  My opponent quit before the second game realizing this was a very poor match-up for them.  2-0.

Third Match, Windbrisk Tokens – First game the tokens were too fast, and too many.  It didn’t hurt my foe activated three Heights!  Ouch.  Sideboarding in all four copies of Rain of Tears.  That move payed dividends early when I smashed his only Heights.  After a few terminated blockers I swung in for enough damage to tie the match.  For the final game I kept my deck unchanged.  The match basically came down to a blunder on my part.  I unearthed a Hell’s Thunder instead of destroying their single Windbrisk.  Bad idea as it hid their second Overrun that game.  Killing me with an Incinerate in hand and my opponent at 2 life.  Playing RoT could have bought me enough time to unearth and Incinerate the next turn.  Damn! 2-1.

Either way, it looks like the deck is ready for it’s big arrival on Saturday.  Hopefully some fellow rebels are able to attend as well and we can shake things up together.  Please let me know how it goes and I will do the same for you.

Until then, good luck to all!

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Ahh good ol’ Multiplayer.  The maker of kings.  If you haven’t ever tried it (or don’t have any Magic playing friends) I order you to drop everything, find some people and try it.  Some of the best Magic moments in my career have occurred in multiplayer.  Any time you get a group of competitive friends together to play a game like Magic you’ll need to lay down some gentleman’s rules.  Often, making a deck that is completely focused on multiplayer is looked down upon.     Anyone can make a multi-centric deck of cards with phrases like “each opponent” and “all creatures”.  Decide first if your group frowns upon stacking for multiplayer.

We have touched on the subject of multiplayer many times here at Gathering Magic so I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of the format.  There are a couple of important facts that need to be considered when choosing the Top 10 Multiplayer cards ever.  You want cards that are either huge threats, or huge deterrents.   One could argue that threats that sail under the radar are also helpful but I’m going to assume that you play in a group that understands what the real threats are.  Higher mana costs are okay because the game will surely break the 10th turn mark.  You also want to choose cards that are hard to get rid of.  No one likes wasting a card/turn/removal spell if they don’t have to.  Alright, most of you have already skipped to the list of cards anyway so I’ll stop yacking and get right to it.  Herer are the best Multiplayer cards EVAR!

10. Wrath/Decree of Pain/Damnation etc. – No multiplayer list would be complete without the wipes.  There really is no substitute for a good Wrath in a multiplayer game.  Players tend to build up armies, camp out and wait for people to start twitching.  If you’re the lucky one that gets jumped by five guys at the same time first, you’re going to want a powerful spell like DoP to turn the tables (assuming you live to see another turn).  Boring entry, I know, but it needed to be mentioned.

9. Auriok Champion – Healing isn’t a big deal in multiplayer because deaths usually come in the form of 25 damage at a time.  But a card like this gets a spot on the list because, if played early, it can gain you tons of  life when something like Hostility or Spectral Procession rolls around (times 4 other players).  Its also an amazing wall against two very powerful colors.  Throw an Armored Ascension on her later in the game and surprise everyone with a 10/10 protection from red and black baddie.

8. Blatant Thievery – Need some permanents?  How about 4+ permanents of your choice?  This is a great way to turn the tables at the end of a long game where life totals are low and tensions are high.  Prepare for some major aggro after casting this sorcery.  Be ready to kill most everyone.  Luckily, you’ll probably have the right permanents to do it.  Need some off color planeswalkers anyone?

7. Propaganda and Windborn Muse – Deterrents are underrated.  In multiplayer, taking that extra 6-8 damage at the beginning of the game can make all the difference.  What are the chances of someone pot shotting you with that forest walking 2/1 at the beginning of the game if they have to pay two extra mana to do it?  Getting swarmed by tokens?  They’d better have a crapload of mana to do it.  Such a deterrent that it should be considered a real threat.

6. Dread – The embodiment of both a gigantic threat and a nasty deterrent.  Who wants to blow their proverbial load on someone who will destroy all of their creatures after the smoke clears?  No one, that’s who.  Until then, knock fools around with a 6/6 fear while you wait for them to remove it.  Oh you finally want to kill him?  I’ll just shuffle him back in to my library.  Catch you later!  A bit expensive for a normal duel but he’ll (I think its a he?) be the talk of the town in a multiplayer game.

5. Confusion in the Ranks – Want to add a little confusion to your games? (as if 5-way multi isn’t confusing enough..)  Throw this baby in there and watch the sparks fly.  The best time to throw this out is when your opponents have huge creatures or artifacts out there that you’d love to have.  Follow it up with a couple of cheap creatures or artifacts yourself and roll up on your buddies with their own permanents.  Make sure you’re playing with different colored sleeves because the commotion is about to get redonkulous.

4. Thieves Auction - This might seem like a desperate, last minute grasp for a win.  But in a red burn deck the advantage goes 100% to you.  Play this when you have only lands in play and everyone else has armies of creatures.  Take some of those creatures for yourself and you’ll lose almost nothing.   Tons of fun yet a powerful advantage for you at the same time.  Just make sure you grab some mountains before everyone else does!

3. Wheel of Fate – An extremely powerful card that will almost surely go off.  For a red deck, card advantage is everything and getting 7 new cards late in the game might just give you enough firepower to kill everyone on the board (or come damn close).  Most players will let this card go because they think they’ll want the new hand as well.  Little do they realize, you might just be drawing 16+ damage in your new hand.  A crowd-pleaser and catalyst for those slower games.

2. Spirit Mirror + Unnatural Selection – Okay, so this is more of a combo than a card but seriously.  Of course you could play Plague Wind or find some other way to destroy all creatures you don’t control.  But how about having that ability for the rest of the game?  This combo was fairly popular in standard back in the day but imagine the possibilities in multi.  Combo this with any number of creature type changing cards or simply destroy any changeling that looks at you funny.  Having a 2/2 token out every turn is also nice.  Your opponents had better be playing some removal or this game is probably over.

1. Kokusho, the Evening Star – As with any list, there will inevitably be much crying and gnashing of teeth over the eventual “#1″.  But for me, a card like this is practical, powerful and replayable.  For six mana you get a 5/5 flier.  But the potential 40+ life total swing is where this multiplayer beauty really shines.  God forbid you Mannequin, Raise Dead or simply put another one out.  Id recommend dropping this towards the end of the game for maximum effect.  The beauty here is that, while it definitely makes you a target, its not something people want to get rid of because of the ability.   If life totals are low, it might not even be possible for them to get rid of it. If all else fails you can just kill it yourself.  

Honorable Mentions:

Acidic Soil
Lethal Vapors
Radiate
Reverse the Sands
Cabal Conditioning
Glory
Upheaval
Shahrazad
Thrashing Wumpus/Pestilence/Pyrohemia

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