Yup, what fyrekat said is correct :3 the cpi ability goes on the stack, then statebased effects are check, it dies, then only the counter triggers.

for the lark question..the leave play effect should go on the stack, and resolves only after all of them are put into the graveyard. Otherwise..it would require 2 copies of each component to work? :S

The meta in the US (excluding Japanese / european) based on the LCQ.

Along the top tables, mainly Faeries (no surprise), G/B elves, R and R/G. Small numbers of lark (1/2 out of top 16 at around midnight).

But I saw Chapin around midnight, at one of the tables. Based on the deck he had, it's bonded fetch reveillark.

The lark deck I am planning to play at the PT has no momentary blink. Is it essential?... I don't find it super-essential, except maybe in avoiding an enemy Sower.

I am adopting the pressure approach, 26 land, 4 mind stone, against faerie, it's threat, threat, threat.

2 mana: Riftwing Suspend / Mind Stone
3 mana: Riftwatcher
4 mana: Sower of Temptation / Venser (I am playing Sower maindeck, sideboarding out Wrath against Faeries, but keeping Wrath against other aggro)
5 mana: Mulldrifter / Reveillark / Body Double
6 mana: Crovax, Ascendant Hero

I believe the main board above is anti-Faeries. What do you guys think? (Apart from the 4 Faerie Conclave, 4 Mutavault in the land base).

Sideboard is 3-4 Teferi's Moat against the Green decks. 3-4 Remove Soul as additional SB against Faerie. Against Lark.... I am finalising the sideboard....

The other deck which I find pretty good is G/B Blossom-Elf. It actually came off a UK PT player, and I saw it lining the top tables later.

It's quite straightforward, super-efficient elves, combining with liege, black for thoughtseize, bitterblossom (and inversion / terror if required).

Squall line, thresher against faeries - some play oversoul of dusk.

Primal command, Vigor against mirror and red - Colossus is essential in the mirror.

the sideboarding is based on my testing and observation of what people are playing.

they play damnation, shield of oversoul and heartmender to control aggro.

This post has been edited by Playbook: May 24 2008, 03:30 PM

i think cutting out blink is a good with faerie macabre in SBs of msot deck...
its highly rare to use the flashbacks...
the core of the decks looks nice to me and i sitll find lark is the correct way to go as faeries would be pretty much hated...

between those 2 decks i would choose lark...

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2 notes from Hollywood

First note

Here's the scene. Over 36 hours pre-event, I tested and played mainly G/B Elves, U/B Faeries, U/W Reveillark. I tuned and re-tuned the G/B Elves and U/W Reveillark towards defeating U/B Faeries (e.g. 2 maindeck Crovax for Reveillark). A walk around the venue, catch up with friends, the sense is that the meta is pretty much confirmed for that based on the LCQ turnout alone. There are tonnes of U/B Faeries everywhere, with G/B Elves also very prevalent (p.s. G/B elves is played with Black for Bitterblossom! Thoughtseize, etc. Bitterblossom shows up *everywhere*, people just stick it in to either anti-Faeries or just for the love of the god-powerful card). Lark is also present but in smaller numbers - but there are less Japanese / Asians playing in the LCQ - and the Japs are known for their love of Lark. So, I peg the Faerie turnout at 30% for the main event, the UK contingent thinks something along the lines of 20% (final count turns out to be 27% at the main event but see below...).

Final practices, and I sleeve up 2 decks that I am most comfortable with - the U/B Faeries and the U/W Reveillark. No matter how much I tune and retune U/W Reveillark and G/B Elves, I cannot go better than 50% against U/B Faeries! I am puzzled. Stupid U/B Faeries has so many incredible lucky starts that put it ahead. Anyway... so at 845am, I am sitting at the table, doing a toss-up between the 2 decks, trying to decide which to play. European player across me playing Merfolk. Another European player playing some Red-based deck. At this point, I make a *fatal* conclusion - I conclude that Faeries would be hated out of the field, and that if I were to play it, I would be playing against all sort of hate for the rest of the day, and that my odds thus do not look good - Therefore, I toss the sleeved, perfected, but much-hated, Faerie deck (I am playing an updated version with Ponders that speeds it up even more) into my bag and prepare to play the long, thoughtful game with U/W Reveillark.

Where did it go wrong with that conclusion? "... my odds thus do not look good". Goodness gracious, I have been testing U/B Faeries for the last 36 hours against 2 other mainstay decks and I couldn't go better than 50% against the G/B or U/W Lark. But that's silly! That means U/B Faeries can still escape all the hate that was set up against it! The G/B Elves that I tested in had 4 maindeck Squall Lines for example! The U/W Lark that I customised had 3 Crovax, 4 Sower of Temptation, 2 Wispmare! And despite all that hate, U/B Faeries still had 50% game against it!!! Instead of worring why I couldn't break 60%, I should have been marvelling that U/B Faeries could survive all this hate - pre-sideboard! - and still come out 50%.

I should've picked to play the U/B Faeries deck that I already had in my bag Good god, how idiotic I was.

Anyway, long story short, Faeries were everywhere!!! Faerie mirror, Faerie opponent, look anywhere you see Faeries. Anyway, I won all Game 1s against Faeries, but 2 and 3 were losses (Faerie luck include double visions, double bitterblossom through 3 turns or double Scion of Oona thus negating Sower of Temptation, etc etc).

If I had to re-do, I would have gone back to Faeries. You should have seen the Feature Match area - not all of which are covered online. Faeries were on all tables of the Feature Match area! I remember watching StanVee crush Carvalho. It was not a pleasant game at all. Carvalho had no chance despite a lovely G/B deck (with Bitterblossom of his own). StanVee - Game 1, Visions, Blossom, Sprite, Sprite, Counter, Counter... Game 2, Visions, Blossom, Blossom and Visions (all by turn 3), Sprite, Sprite, Counter, Counter...

Lesson learnt... don't try to struggle against the wave... sometimes, good to go with the flow

I had some lovely games though... playing singleton Mirror Entity for simple (massive) beats without going for a combo

Second note

Here's a hot tip for everyone. Faeries may rule Standard but Kithkin definite contender to rule Block. I walked around the PTQ Berlin area to check out the Block Constructed decks. Faeries were on the lower half, but in the elite top 16-32 were Elementals, Elves, etc. in sufficient presence, but clearly maybe about 30-40% dominated by Kithkin. It was Kithkin based on U/W Liege and Mirrorweave for super-fast kills. Very clearly the dominating deck at the moment.

See ya all next week,
Regards.

p.s. Hari - I have a super-enormous super-expensive lovely present for you I am very sure it will go very well into your collection. With regards to the playmats btw, the stock they have here is SpellGround's elemental brand which is like some plain (no life counter at the side) playmat... crappy but a lot of players are using it to get Rob Alexander and R K Post to customise something on it. The other types of playmats they have are the Ultra Pro planeswalker and grand melee playmats. Nice, but not Kulrath Knight nice, or even the land / life counter playmat... I will walk around the dealers tomorrow to see if anyone has it.

p.p.s. Hari - some of your cards, e.g. Greater Gargadon by RK Post, do you want them signed as well? Your customised sketch of the 9-set by Rob Alexander has been done already.

p.p.p.s. Everyone else - do you have any requests? Send them to me asap and I will see if I can get them for you. No 3D Magic Cards for sale at the event site. If you like stuff from the US, it's very cheap here e.g. Levi's, Gap, etc. Some more, it's all on sale...

p.p.p.p.s. Poker is big here Very big...



This post has been edited by Playbook: May 24 2008, 03:24 PM

Nice Mark ... enjoy urself

well jsut enjoy urself at holywood ^^
anyways from various testing block goes to kithkin WW...
though i'm happy to see some elementals XD

seems like you're having fun ah never had the chance to get artist alters etc.

Congratz to Charles Gindy, piloting his GB Elves deck into perfection and winning his 1st PT which is PT Hollywood.

He beated a Merfolk deck in the finals.

Wah... and we thought that faeries are the best tribe to go... Guess everybody hate faeries and all sided anti-faeries nowadays... I wonder does Charles GB Elves have Bitterblossom in them

Charles deck does not have Bitterblossom, only Shuhei deck has em. Charles deck has Colossus.

i find merfolk is the best tribe...
underrated and udnerplayed..

Always been played by the Grandpa Merfolk Uzair hahaha.... its supposed to be underrated since its under water hahaha... but yeah... merfolk is quite strong... i never liked elves... once liked faeries but since everybody plays faerie i develop hate for them now...

At the end of the day, IMO, the best deck, with the exclusion of Faeries, is the Lark deck. The Lark decks lost collectively to Merfolk and Faeries which were their worst matchups.

Both Mihara and Choo had 3 losses each in Swiss... and of those 6 losses, 5 were to Faeries!!! Choo won 2 games against Faeries where the Faeries mana-flooded and so he was fortunate. He was hoping that both the Faeries & Merfolk would be killed enroute to the top.

But 2 double-mulligans killed him.

Unfortunately for me, I had to meet 4 stupid Faerie decks in the 1st 5 rounds of the tournament

In the 1st 8 rounds of the tournament, Choo met 2 Faerie decks (both losses) and 3 white weenies (almost auto-win), elves, etc to go to a 6-2 Day 1 record.

Lark suffers against Faeries and Merfolk, so pilots just hope they don't run into those matchups. Sometimes you need luck...

ya but notice the top 8 lacks lark hate in both mb and sb (except for magus)...
that's why choo managed to combo out for several wins...

faeries > lark > aggro > faeries and loop on...
this is the current meta and if choo didnt dbl mull the finals would have been his...

Noted. I agree, except that we kinda predicted that even if making the finals, we didn't think it could push pass the Merfolk. We were discussing sideboarding before start of every round.

Funny story!!! Mihara helped Choo with sideboarding before quarterfinals started Choo played the exact same 76 card deck copy cos he found it from a 17-person box tournament that Mihara won. A SEVENTEEN person tournament for a box of Shadowmoor. Announcers kept harping on this The 76th card wasn't cut because couldn't find what card should be cut as it would "undermine the foundation of the deck". But Mihara brought along an edited and updated version of the deck. Choo would've played Mihara's new list if he could He didn't even change the sideboard. Net-decking rocks!

Choo was looking for Mihara after he won his quarters, but we all couldn't find him - Mihara had lost his quarters match and disappeared and thus, couldn't give tips to Choo for sideboarding the semis. Btw, Singapore contingent was all faeries except Choo.