August Tourny (monopman wins with M11 deck)

[Stroggoii]

It seems I had an issue with the .exe files mixing up but I'm still having issues, Sun Titan blocks the game completely and freezes my pc, and I'm still pissed about all the unlocked cards being locked again.

[monopoman]

For some reason Ajani's Pridemate is really broken I have seen it hit play as a 3/3 or a 4/4 and sometimes it gets counters at random intervals. Like I have seen it attack and get a counter where no life was gained.

This is really going to boost decks that contain him obviously making him outclass Watchwolf easily .

I put this in here because it does affect the tournament directly since I know at least one person has copies of it in deck.

[jatill]

Looks like a lot of people have an old version. This fixes most, if not all the bugs listed.
I just added a fix for the Planeswalker bug, too.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jxfqly6ns ... 100810.zip

I guess I should have advertised it more heavily last time!

[stassy]

Look like you will have to post Tournament updates as major update in the main Manalink 2.0 section...

[juzamjedi]

Sorry for submitting a list with illegal cards

Zendikar has Disfigure that I could have used, but of course I messed up. Thanks for allowing me to play anyway by substituting swamps.

[Salbei]

I won´t have time to play, so you don´t have to wait for my results.

The Timmy in my head yelled "play it! play it!" when i saw that Spitfire.
Couldn´t test the deck as much as i liked to and i don´t even know if the AI uses the "Maze" at all.Doubt that my pile will even survive the first round

[Shantak]

Some commentary about decks then, now that I'm done with first round.

Let's start with my own deck. After reading about the bonus card chance, I instantly checked which were the strongest cards in pre- Ice Age expansion sets (and in Manalink) and thought that Black/Blue Arabian Nights deck would probably be the only one with a fighting chance. It plays pretty nice, but with Oubliette as the only removal spell, it doesn't have what it takes to do really well without luck.

Looks like Aww had a similar line of thinking to my own. The differences were Aww's 4 Stone-Throwing Devils (which I considered but thought Flying Men would do as one-drops), my 4 x Serendib Djinn (which I figured would be needed as it's the only fatty flyer and the drawback could be dealt with in a quick game), aww's Cuombajj Witches (which I thought would hurt me more than enemy), my 4 x City of Brass (without Duals and plenty of BB and UU mana needed I thought these would be necessary, plus they can be sacrificed to djinn) and finally the different amount of Erg Riders and Sorceress Queen (I think AI can use Queen pretty well and is bad against it, and I didn't have just room for more Ergs).

The djinn/efreet strategy might have been too painful actually. With Juzam Djinn, Serendib Efreet, Cities of Brass and possible Erg Riders and Serendib Djinn or Cuombajj Witches, there are really many sources hitting my own life total. Also, looks like just Arabian Nights isn't just strong enough in this environment.

That was long. Maybe I'll be briefer about other decks.

If the bonus card condition had been any expansion set other than Zendikar from the beginning, I might have also gone Rise of the Eldrazi route (though I actually forgot we had so many RoE cards available). Stroggoii's deck is a blast to play. Brandon's Shard of Alara Exalted deck was also really enjoyable and a good idea. I'm hoping bonus cards for both of you

Juzamjedi seemed to be only Zendikar contestant (other than jatill's third). Both vampires and landfall play really nice. When I considered Zen I thought of an ally deck, but we didn't get one this time.

Plenty of M11 decks and what could be more fun. I've wanted to try out all of those new combos and got to try Chandra's Spitfire, white lifegain, boosted Squadron Hawks, Sun Titan tricks with Jace and AEther Adept and finally Titans with Destructive Force. Thank you so much for giving me these awesome decks to play with (I tried some quick M11 decks myself but these were better).

Finally, I said in the results thread that jatill's U/B Revised deck is nasty. I didn't mean that. I meant to say that it's downright horribly evil I'm hoping it gets far to prove that despite all power creeping those Revised cards still pack a punch.

[aww1979]

I haven't had a chance to play the rounds yet, but when I made my deck, I knew I wanted to go for the bonus card. Antiquities and The Dark had no removal or decent creatures, though an Urzaland deck in antiquities might've done okay with Clockwork Beast, Colossus of Sardia, etc. Fallen Empires I didn't think had much of a chance. The other sets I didn't know what cards were in them and was too lazy to check, so I went with Arabian Nights, which had decent creatures, and at least Oubliette for removal.

Differences with Shantak:
-I had a Serendib Djinn in the original, but in the half hour or so of testing my deck got, the AI didn't do very well with it
-Stone-Throwing Devils: I figured I needed more weenies
-Cuombajj Witches work as a combat trick and as removal against weenies, plus 1/3 for BB isn't horrible.
-AI completely fails with City of Brass; it usually won't play any lands at all if one is in hand, so that was out
-Sorceress Queen was added in place of the Serendib Djinns I took out, because I overlooked the queen the first time around. More of them might've been a good idea, but I wasn't sure what to cut and didn't get a chance to test.

[Brandon822]

I had fun time playing decks. So thanks for making them. Most fun were probably Salbeis Spitfire deck. Cognis' white weenie deck is very ruthlessly efficient. I have same kind of ww deck, but I would probably lose nine out of ten. Late game seems to be problem, but pumped Squadron Hawks + knights hit hard and fast.

My first idea was also to play B/U Arabian Nights deck, because chance for win a card and lack of knowledge of knew cards, but I then decided to build something new, because I have build that Djinn deck numerous times before. So, this was fine practice to learn some new sets. First one that I checked was Shards of Alara and then saw many white cards that we have and started to build from there. Not very much choices in white and I wanted Ajani Vengeant to take care of some creatures so I splashed little red. White had only one removal choice - Oblivion Ring. Basic tactic was to fill the board with small creatures - Late game was to be handled by (exalted)Battlegrace Angel.

[Cognis]

I wanted a simple deck with titans which I found awesome (except the blue one which is lame) and I first started with vampires but seeing there are only 3 and Captivating Vampire didn't work when I was making the deck I scrapped it. I made a green deck which was decent but when I saw Squadron Hawk I knew it had to be white. It's a great card, maybe even good enough to be included in a legacy WW build. I didn't want removal in the deck and was skeptical of Pacifism but it saved my ass a few times and it can even be returned to play with Sun Titan. And with Honor of the Pure and Ajani Goldmane, even the humble hawk can survive Devastating Force. It actually plays better than I expected. There are some fun decks in the tournament, my favourite is group C with 3 fun decks and it's a shame one will have to be eliminated. Looking forward to round 2.

[scherbchen1]

we really need a fresh "download this" file at some point, a manalink 3.0 (which really deserves that serial number after all the work our modders have done) that serves as a going-to point. maybe I am just talking from my own experience here....

I was unable to test my deck (bugger my deck or my results, not important, the point is I was about to pass on the competition because my version remained bugged or unable to use the new deck editor after spending some hours on trying to get it to work. testig and building is the most fun part imho. this should be the most accessible part) and I am going to refrain from playing my deck in any bracket.

after reading the tournament result thread I realized that it was pointless. there are about three different bugs with Ajani Pridemate (some of which I could have discovered and discarded the deck had I been able to test the deck and thrown the pile out of the window) and at least 2 with Ajani himself. apparently each individual version of mtg right now has different bugs. Pridemate gains counter upon entering the field for some. gains counter upon attacking when no life has been gained for others. gains random counters at the oddest moments for others.

me, personally, I succumb to the will of the devs. you tell me what my 2000 cards are. that worked. I don't give a flying fig about whether or not I can play Squire in my tournament deck. I don't have the time to reinstall the game umpteen times once I get home in order to maybe get it to work. I applaud the effort to make everyone happy bt you just never can

[jatill]

You don't need the deck editor at all for this tournament. Just download the latest release and run MagicLimited. Problems solved, easy as pie.
(there may yet be another Pridemate bug, but not one that is easy to reproduce)

[Cognis]

Yeah, playing custom is a lot of fun and you can have great decks but it took me about a week to setup magic custom properly and even now it has some strange bugs, just yesterday Victimize entered the field as a 5/5 flying creature and today Nemesis of Reason said locked Challenge 1#5 on it. For most part it works correctly, but a fresh update and Manalink 3.0 would be great, if possible, with a pre-installed deck editor because there are some really amazing cards out of constructed.

[scherbchen1]

You don't need the deck editor at all for this tournament. Just download the latest release and run MagicLimited. Problems solved, easy as pie.
(there may yet be another Pridemate bug, but not one that is easy to reproduce)

well, I kind of needed the deck editor to prepare for the tournament. which, as I mentioned, is one of the highlights for me as far as tournaments go.

not being a sorry loser here (haven't lost yet, eh) but my point is rather to make these tournaments accessible for everyone and not for a selected few who are lucky enough to get their versions to work.

spending, literally, hours on getting your version to be a correctly working one is just abysmal. we all want to play this game or we would not be here. I admire your spunk to try and meet everyone halfway and to make a new tool that lets everybody play the mtg he/she likes.

I'd just encourage you to be a bit more of a benevolent dictator when it comes to tournaments. heck, when it comes to anything. you, if anybody, code the stuff. if somebody really needs Squire let that be their problem. if you run a tournament give us the tools to participate. unless you value the one guy who loves Squire more than the guy who wants to enter the tourney which is perfectly fine. or if you want to hold a tourney for computer-savvy folks which is also perfectly fine.

[aww1979]

My thoughts on Group A:

Scherbchen's deck: I really liked this deck a lot, even though it's incredibly simple. Tons of synergies; I don't know what set has all this together, but it works quite well. I never did see a Solemn offering or Serra Angel on my side. This deck was quite fun to play and worked very well. I don't know what's in this set, or even what set it is, so I can't suggest any improvements except that it could use another land or two. 21 is a bit low, given that there are six 5 mana creatures and 4 Ajani Goldmanes. I never got manascrewed, but the AI did a couple times, especially when Acidic Slime ate plains.

Monopoman's deck: This was an interesting deck. There are a fair number of subtle interactions, and the deck is a lot better than it looks on paper. It's quite a bit more complex than scherbchen's deck, but is roughly its equal. Crystal Ball is awesome, especially with Jace. So is Sun Titan, though not so much in this deck, as there aren't a lot of targets. I don't think I had as much fun with this deck as the other two, but it is a good deck nonetheless.

Jatill's titan deck: This is a really silly deck :p It's fun when it gets going, though. I did well with it, but I think I had some good luck, as the AI did very little in its early turns in some of the games. Destructive Force was the MVP, at least in the AIs hands; I only ever needed to cast it once, but the AI cast it every game I think at least once. Again, I have no clue what set this was, so I cannot suggest improvements, except to say that either the AI does not use Mystifying Maze, or AI never drew it; I don't know which.

Some of my games in this group were really funny, too, but those are described in excruciating detail in the other thread.