Faeries are great. Goblins are great. Blue is the best color and green is the worst. Bonesplitter, Bonesplitter, Bonesplitter.
Vegas is this Friday. It seemed like only yesterday that Modern Masters was even announced, and yet here we are, only a few short days before the biggest Grand Prix in the history of competitive Magic. The set’s been out for not even a fortnight, but there is no doubt in my mind that many who are going will arrive at the convention center with preconceived notions of the good, the bad, and the ugly in the format.
“Trygon Predator is a trap.” I heard fellow Hipster Zach B. say multiple times to various people during a Modern Masters draft at the store. I happen to think that Trygon Predator is a fine card, and that the actual trap is the entire UG Suspend deck, but I can’t tell objectively which one of us is right. I just know that I’ve been smashing whenever I’ve had a handful of flyers in my deck, which has been pretty often.
I handily won that draft pod, dispatching Zach in two quick games in the second round. He opened a Dark Confidant and settled on mono-black when both Demigod of Revenge and Divinity of Pride made their way around the table and into his deck. It was the greediest mono-colored deck I’d ever seen. The creature quality just wasn’t there, which was no surprise, as I was seated two seats to Zach’s right and took all the good black cards for my UB Faeries deck. But hey, he’d apparently been raking in the wins with Divinity of Pride for many drafts in a row prior to the event, so it makes sense that he’d default to that strategy as soon as he saw the card. It’s certainly what I’ve been doing when I so much as catch a whiff of a key Faeries piece. You really have to figure these things out for yourself in a format like this.
In a sealed practice session on Friday, I had a pool that left me with little choice (albeit not a painstaking one) but to play UW Faeries. Quadruple Pestermite, double Cloudgoat Ranger and two Stir the Pride/Gleam of Resistance effects will do that. The hardest decision I had to make was whether to play a Thirst for Knowledge in place of the fourth Pestermite, and it turned out that Thirst was just the worst card in my deck. Imagine that. Thirst is an awesome card, but in my deck, I’d rather just have another two-power evasive dude with a Falter effect stapled on. I easily crushed every one of my practice partners—until I ran into the pool with Meloku, Sword of Light and Shadow, Aether Vial, double Cloudgoat Ranger and Flickerwisp.
Such is Magic. I won’t get into the whole “is sealed more about skill or luck” debate. It’s not black and white, and more importantly, it’s not worth my time.
The only thing that truly matters is enjoying yourself out in Vegas. I know I will be. I’ll be there with a whole host of friends and Hipsters authors. It’s my first real vacation in nearly a year, and it’s time to blow off some steam, play some Magic, and create some memories. See you on the other side.