Follow-up: MOMP: Memories of a Jarhead Contest

~ Chris Newton (Tynion)

I received only three decks, which is disappointing, but in retrospect, the guys who did not participate get their just rewards as the person who placed second and third in this contest will receive ten points instead of one and two respectively. Also, the winner will get a whopping 15 points.

Needless to say this contest has become a side event due to lack of interest.

Onto the contest results…

Unlike other contest admins who look at their contest for flavor and theme, I look at the decks for what they can do, but most importantly, I like ‘bling’. I like to see a NICE mana base full of top lands. I like to see cards that bring the end of the game. I like to see awe inspiring nasty cards that just shimmer in their own goodness. Those cards just reek of awesomeness.

A quick reminder here that I did specify the use of the Vintage card pool and did reference the Restricted and Banned list use. I didn’t think the use of Moxen and Lotus would be very high so I will be surprised if I see any used, but I think that any of us can get a hold of a Sol Ring ($6.50 on ebay), Demonic Tutor ($8.00 on ebay), and Balance ($ 0.50 on ebay) fairly easily, so these would also count as ‘bling’.

Since I didn’t really supply what I will be looking for in these three decks, I feel that I can score them according to a ‘bling’ rating. That ‘bling’ is pretty much subject to the interpretation to whomever is reading at the time, but hopefully the weight I put on a card is relatively in the ballpark of what you would put weight into it.

Finally, the one major thing that I did put on the deck is that it had to be vicious. If it is not, there is not point in counting the ‘bling’ and scoring the deck. Let’s see what we have for decks then:

(* = 1 Bling)

Maleficent:

Touch of the Jarmind

Lands (24)
8 Island
4 Volcanic Island ***
4 Tropical Island ***
4 Steam Vents **
4 Breeding Pool **

Creatures (12)
4 Vedalken Aethermage
4 Magus of the Jar *
2 Jushi Apprentice *
2 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind **

Other Spells (24)
4 High Tide *
4 Isochron Scepter ***
4 Counterspell **
4 Rings of Brighthearth *
4 Heartbeat of Spring *
3 Cerebral Vortex
1 Windfall ***

Look at those lands. Those are some beauties! Except that he left something out! All of those duals are Islands! He could have used Flooded Strand and Polluted Delta to put the Duals directly into play. Nasty!

Alright, so he meets the requirements of beating people’s skull in, mainly by Niv-Mizzet getting angry when you draw cards off the Magus.

Tallying the ‘bling’ points, Mal has a score of 25 points.

Next up is Aladdin:

Aladdin:

Jar Academy

Prime Time Pieces (8)
3 Magus of the Jar *
3 Underworld Dreams **
1 Megrim **
1 Forced Fruition *

Inside the Academy Pieces (13)
2 Academy Rector ***
3 Zur the Enchanter *
4 Lim-Dul’s Vault
4 Careful Study

Live For Ever Pieces (10)
3 Swords to Plowshare ***
1 Genju of the Fields
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ghostly Prison *
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Damnation **

What’s-the-Trick? Pieces (7)
4 Shallow Grave **
1 Corpse Dance *
2 Cabal Therapy **

The Way We Dance Pieces (23)
3 Swamp
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand ***
4 Underground Sea ***
3 Scrubland ***
3 Tundra ***
3 High Market *

First off, thank you Aladdin for the humor categories. I enjoyed reading them. Now, on to the review of the deck.

Nice mana base; probably could have spruced it up with the Rav-Duals and eliminated boring basic lands, but I guess the old art of Island and Swamp could be looked at with a glimmer of the old man’s eye.

Ow, crap does Underworld Dreams and Forced Fruition suck together!! Talk about getting a stinger. Also, I guess the Jar works pretty well with the Dreams. Nice combo set you have there. “Here are seven brand spanking new cards (take seven by the way), please feel free to cast any and / or all of them!”

If you can not see the combo, he is letting the Rector fetch the Dreams or Fruition and then using Corpse Dance and Shallow Grave to recur the Rector and Magus to get his combo pieces and then throws your library at you.

A very nice deck Aladdin, let’s see how much ‘bling’ you have: 34 piece! *studio audience applauds*

Next up, Azreal, can he beat out 34 ‘bling’ points?

Azreal Subnuci

Jar of Whoopass

Creatures: 25
3 Orcish Lumberjack *
3 Tinder Wall *
4 Boartusk Liege
4 Clone *
4 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker **
4 Magus of the Jar *
1 Deadwood Treefolk *
2 Protean Beast *

Other Spells: 14
1 Black Lotus ****
1 Mox Ruby ****
4 Brainstorm **
2 Altar of Dementia **
1 Wheel of Fortune ***
1 Windfall ***
4 Sneak Attack **

Lands: 21
4 Steam Vents **
4 Stomping Ground **
4 Taiga ***
1 Tropical Island ***

4 Volcanic Island ***
4 Wooded Foothills ***

Well, it almost seems like Azreal was inside of my head while I was brainstorming the scoring of the contest. He is playing pretty much every ‘bling’ card in existence. Do I even need to count the bling? I think he has 65 points in lands alone!

Well, let’s just make it official and see if he has more points than the 34 Aladdin accumulated: Just so you know, I am at 28 points before getting to the land base… final count is 48 ‘bling’ points.

I don’t even know where to start with his deck, so let’s just let Azreal tell us in his own words:

“It’s a monstrosity, I know, but somehow it works. You build up a mana base with lumberjacks and tinder walls in play, and try to find a Sneak Attack. Then the fun begins.

Sneak Attack + Magus = Fills hand with Sneak Attackables.
Sneak Attack + Clone = An extra Magus to refill hand, or extra Boartusk Liege.
Sneak Attack + Kiki-Jiki = See above.
Sneak Attack + Protean Hulk = Fetches a Magus and Tinder Wall, or other fun combination.
Boartusk Liege + Boartusk Liege + Clone + Kiki-Jiki = Owies?

Brainstorm helps fetch the cards you need to go off, Deadwood Treefolk can get back Magus, or other dead cards, and Altar of Dementia turns all those creatures that are gonna die into an alternative win condition, if they fail to connect. Boartusk Liege acts like a huge, trampling, Relentless Rats or something. It’s far from perfect, and takes a lot of precision to play, but it’s fun as hell.”

I bet it is.

I think I like Aladdin’s deck the best of the three, but I did say that the outcome was based on the ‘bling’ factor. Therefore your winner is Azreal, followed by Aladdin, and bringing up the back end is Mal.

Thanks for playing guys, and enjoy your points boost.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm and is filed under MDV Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Pauper Chronicles: Top O' the Morningtide to You!
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