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brog8264-blog · 5 years

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Turbo Depths at SCG Richmond

This weekend I finished 3rd at SCG Richmond piloting Turbo Depths. Why was I playing legacy though, anyone who knows me knows that it is by far and away my least favorite format! To give some context, I locked in teaming with Charles Azuelos right after our top 8 finish at SCG Pittsburgh. I was super excited for this because Charles is a fantastic elves player but as you may know, modern horizons has a way of ruining decks and an audible was required. Charles wasn't really gravitating towards anything and after watching Abe Corrigan play lands at SCG Philly I thought going over wrenn and six with marit lage was a powerful strategy and started testing depths.

Testing: Leading up to Richmond, Hogaak Depths was by far the most popular flavor of depths. I have never played a match with it, but I imagine the plan is to smash fair decks with hogaak and lean on cabal therapy for combo matchups. I still am not sure where dark depths fits in but perhaps that just speaks to the power of Elvish Reclaimer. When I started looking at lists without hogaak, the lists trimming/cutting Dark Confidant in favor of Reclaimer that Bob Huang and Dave Long played to good finishes in Richmond hadn't really surfaced yet so I took it upon myself to build my initial lists. I started with Petal and Spirit Guide as my "fast mana" over diamond because I had assumed Dark Confidant was strictly unplayable into wrenn, and that going faster was probably better in pseudo-mirrors and against combo. (I was wrong about combo)

This was the final list that I played in Richmond, and i'd like to highlight a few of the conclusions I came to in testing

1. This deck is far more straight forward than slow depths due to playing 4 copies of Pithing Needle in the main deck. It feels like cheating in the delver matchups, if you land a needle naming wasteland and have a discard spell to clear force of will you will almost never lose. The downside to relying on needle is that we cannot play wasteland and only have access to a single ghost quarter, which gives us way less ability to maneuver against decks that play combinations of Wasteland, Karakas, Maze of Ith, and Ghost Quarter, or in situations where our opponents interact with Needle.

2. Into the North is an absolutely deplorable card. Horrible in Masteland matchups, low flexibility in matchups where our tech lands are good. I sided it out in at least 12 of my matches in Richmond because post board we are rarely afforded the ability to tap out to play a dark depths at sorcery speed when we have to worry about Wasteland>Surgical (a line that depths general has an easy time beating). The alternative effect is expedition map which greatly under performed in testing, 3 mana Sylvan Scrying is not where I want to be. I wish I had put time into testing another green source+Libarary or 2 copies of Birds of Paradise in that spot.

3. Dark Confidant is still extremely good. Though it is dicey into Wrenn, it is THE card against plow decks, and in mirrors. Most of the older turbo lists I saw didn't play Bob however, I believe he is well worth investing a petal in when he is good.

4. Turbo depths has a significantly worse side board than slow depths. Petal/Spirit guide over Mox Diamond don't really allow us to use Hymn to Tourach to help combo matchups, and when it came to 3 mana haymakers 1 copy of choke felt like I was pushing it, turbo certainly can't support juicy cards like Lilly, Last Hope, Plague Engineer, not to mention that I don't think Turbo can support Reclaimer in general.

Testing went quite well for the first two weeks, Delver decks felt woefully unprepared, the pseudo-mirror against Hogaak depths felt favorable, and I was smashing Blood Moon and UW decks with the sideboard I had constructed. The week prior to the event I started to lose way more. I started getting submerged more often, Show and Tell started popping up, and the slow depths decks akin to what Bob Huang won the classic with were clowning me. Not feeling comfortable audibling to Slow Depths, I added a Veil of Summer for the Delver matchups and locked in.

Tournament Report: I'm gonna start by admitting that my personal record at this event was 9-6, which does not reflect a very dominating performance. It was not, I lost a lot and was fortunate enough to mostly distribute my wins where they mattered. My tournament went like this:

Round 1 Miracles 2-1

Round 2 Show and Tell 2-1

Round 3 Eldrazi Stompy 0-2

Round 4 Miracles 2-0

Round 5 Nic Fit 2-0

Round 6 Bomberman 2-1

Round 7 Reanimator 1-2

Round 8 Lands 2-1

Round 9 4c midrange 2-1

Round 10 Ant 1-2

Round 11 Slow Depths 1-2

Round 12 Rug Delver 2-1

Round 13 Lands 0-2

Round 14 Rug Delver 0-2

Round 15 4c Delver 2-0

I felt in over my head multiple times in this tournament, in Round 8 I was insanely lucky to win my match against Casey Lancaster on lands after punting the second game by casting a Pithing Needle into a force of vigor that he had accidentally shown me. I felt insanely anxious playing this match, my team was crushing it but I was playing against someone who had a significantly better understanding of the matchup than me, and I started thinking about potentially letting them down, and did not feel confidant in my sideboard plan (side bob into wrenn). This also happened against in round 11 against Dave Long where I forgot to go to my second main phase against his floating mana before making my Lage, this resulted in him making a Lage off of my depths then finding Sejiri Steppe on his next turn.

Fortunately I was able to pull it together for most of the matches I needed to win, the ended up going 3-1 against delver on the weekend only losing to Noah Walker who showed me that Delver can feel like an even match when you know how to keep/mull and cantrip correctly. All of my Delver opponents came prepared by either being 4c with multiple edicts, or packing Submerge, the matchups still felt super favorable and I managed to steamroll my matches in round 15 and the quarter finals.

Though I think I missed my mark in deck building by not working on Reclaimer builds, the deck still mostly felt fantastic, and the explosiveness of my fast mana took people off guard multiple times. I don't want to make any statements about my read on the meta because it feels almost impossible to properly predict the day 1 meta, but I did not expect Lands and Ant in day 2, and assumed i'd see way more Blood Moon floating around. I plan to pivot into slow depths when I start testing for Syracuse because it does not play into the north, and has a much better sideboard, and would love to chat with anyone about depths, you can find me on twitter @brog8264 thanks!

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crystalelemental · 5 years

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+Attack Julia results listed below.

The first two rounds kinda don’t count. I forgot to give her Aether. The good news is, turns out she can beat most Green, Colorless, and Blue dragons in one shot with +Attack, with so much excess that she’ll probably still get those KOs with +Speed. F!Grima, Myrrh, and L!Tiki all went down in a single shot, with about 6 points of damage in excess at minimum. +Speed would mean losing 3 points, which assuming rounding up is about 5 points of damage lost from weapon effectiveness. From later matches, Red dragons she cannot one-shot. At all. Like, doesn’t even come close. She CAN get the KO with QR. So far, the most notable one is against Idunn. She can actually one-round Idunn if she’s at high enough HP to have QR active, and Idunn isn’t a Bold Fighter or Wary Fighter variant.

On the flip side, L!Marth and Laevatein, when given proper buffs especially, just annihilate Julia. BUT! If I had +Speed Julia, neither would be able to double. Speed Ploy activates, canceling out a lot of the buff, and Julia is able to deal enough damage in response that she can win pretty reliably. So there’s the tradeoff. Getting Idunn in one round, or not actually getting the kill and being able to just...take her out in player phase next turn. Seems pretty strongly like a point in favor of +Speed, I’d say. Especially considering she could fucking tank Laevatein with buffs active. Julia, that’s fucked up.

Match 4, we’ve got V!Lyn, Duma, M!Grima, and Draug. Julia cannot hope to beat Draug at all, he’s got Bold Fighter, and V!Lyn can’t deal any damage at all because Color Advantage and good Res. So Duma and M!Grima are what we focus on here. +Attack Julia is exactly one point away from one-shotting M!Grima. But, it should be noted that Julia is only +8 right now, and missing a point of attack. Meaning she could if we kept +Attack. Point for that, then. But then again, he deals barely anything in response, and same goes for Duma, so +Attack is more a convenience than a true victory here. Especially considering their lower damage output against her might be good to charge Aether. The only time it’s purely beneficial is if they run Bold Fighter, which could cause her serious trouble. Still going to count as a point for +Attack.

Match 5 was a wash, mostly. She cannot beat Amelia. A properly stacked Amelia hits 45 speed. We can’t stop that, and Amelia does too much damage, especially when Special Fighter goes off. We can, however, take H!Myrrh. Barely, but it can work.

Match 6: Hrid, B!Hector, B!Ephraim, Nah. That’s...that’s fun. She can take Hrid. Hysterically. She’d be able to take the other three 1v1 as well. Not a single one of them is a major threat. Aether going off on Hector also means he’s one-shot. Same with Ephraim, I believe. Nah has to be enemy phased, but there’s no notable different in damage. The one thing +Attack might have helped with is Hrid. She was able to double strike, and follow up in Player Phase, securing the KO. But with 3 less damage, she’d either just barely have hit that mark, or barely missed it. Counting that as a point for +Attack. Although all of this only works if she’s not debuffed in any way. If he doubles, it’s over.

Match 6: Cav Chrom, Fjorm, B!Ephraim, H!Myrrh. Complete slaughter. She can player phase Myrrh, but won by over 10 points, so +Speed wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Cav Chrom hysterically used Reciprocal Aid on an injured unit, so he went down in one shot too. Fjorm stood no chance, and Ephraim’s only scary if he has any kind of buff on him, in which case...oh, he still usually fails to one-round Julia because she’s tanky as shit. Got it.

Match 7: Zelgius, Amelia, Effie, L!Tiki. Did I ever tell you guys that Julia reliably tanks and beats Zelgius/Black Knight if they don’t have Bold Fighter? Similar to Hrid, +Attack seems good here. She dealt a good amount, but again, you have to take another shot in Player Phase, which can be risky with +Speed. But I think, unlike Hrid, this one’s a little more clear-cut. He barely survived, and she was able to deal a good amount on Player Phase. I think that one’s safe. Effie and L!Tiki were nothing. Amelia continues to be terrifying, but +Speed would’ve avoided the double. So...take that as you will.

Match 8: H!Myrrh, L!Tiki, Myrrh, Summer Tiki. Cute. But also mono-dragon. +Attack cannot one-round summer Tiki. She can player phase H!Myrrh no problem, and one-shots regular Myrrh reliably as well. Also...okay, I had Aether charged, and some of the dragons were down, but on a defense tile, no other buffs active, Julia was taking ZERO damage from Summer Tiki in player phase. There must have been some kind of debuff going, because good lord. No clear indicator one way or the other which is better.

Match 9: Marth, Olivia (FUCK), Effie, H!Henry. H!Henry Gronnbladed me into oblivious in like two seconds because I wasn’t attending to what they could do. Oops.

Match 9, again: L!Tiki, B!Hector, Idunn, Surtr. I got what I needed out of this. Julia cannot tank B!Hector. Ignis just deals too much excess damage. Nothing saves us from that.

Match 10: Myrrh, L!Tiki, Nowi, Young Tiki. Absolutely no threat, +Attack definitely didn’t matter.

So, that’s +Attack. So far, there are two clear benefits to +Attack: one-shotting tanky dragon units like M!Grima and Duma, and guaranteed matchups against bulky Red units like Hrid and Zelgius. The first point is good, in that it can reduce the damage she needs to take overall, but she can tank them reliably as well. Bold Fighter is always scary, but lacking that, she wins every time. The bulky Reds are a different story. That could, in theory, be something easily taken care of by Blue allies, but there’s also the issue of...we don’t know +Speed can’t beat them. I’m really hoping to encounter both of them with +Speed, just to know for sure. Overall, it does have some nice perks, but they’re minor perks at best. The benefits we saw from +Speed, namely beating out terrors like Laevatein and Marth forms, are tremendous. I’ll get +Speed up to level 40 and make the merge. Then, we test +Speed, probably more thoroughly, to see what threats she handles better.

#fire emblem heroes #julia

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newstfionline · 6 years

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Jacksonville shooting: The high-pressure, big money world of competitive gaming

By Kyle Swenson, Antonia Noori Farzan, Washington Post, August 27, 2018

With the final seconds draining away on the game clock, “Bread” pulls off a big finish.

It’s a chilly February night in 2017 in Buffalo. The flat screens plastered across the walls of the 716 Food and Sport are all tuned to a live-stream of the game, including a massive 38-foot television in the bar’s main room. More than six hours of video game competition has built to this moment.

Carlos “Los” Yancy and David “Bread” Katz are knotted in a tie, 20-20, in Madden NFL 17, the blockbuster football video game franchise. Yancy, the expected favorite at this tournament, is fending off a final drive by Katz, a Maryland native just beginning to build a reputation among competitive gamers. The winner not only pockets $3,500 but advances to a later contest in Los Angeles.

With the pressure mounting, Katz’s thin face is clenched in a serious look, his grey-green eyes pinned to the screen. As the figures on the screen snap into action, Katz’s quarterback fires off a final Hail Mary pass, connecting with a receiver who blows into the end zone for a surprise win.

“Bread!” the live-stream announcer screams as Katz’s face splits into a joyful grin. “The seventh seed upsets the top seed!” the shocked announcer continues. “I cannot believe it. The gunslinger mentality to go for it!”

“A lot of pressure on these young men,” the announcer tells the audience as the live-cast closes down. “You have to give it up to Bread.”

EA Sports, the company behind the Madden franchise, called Katz’s win the “most exciting moment in all the 2017 NFL Club Series Championships.” The Buffalo Bills tweeted out congratulations to Katz.

But the promising competitive Madden career Katz launched with his 2017 victory in Buffalo took a drastic turn Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla.

Authorities have identified the 24-year-old as the suspected shooter, “pending confirmation,” after gunfire erupted at a live-streamed Madden NFL 19 qualifying tournament held at a busy mall restaurant. Two people were killed in the attack, Jacksonville County Sheriff Mike Williams told reporters Sunday night. Eleven others were taken to local hospitals, including nine gunshot victims and two people injured fleeing the scene, according to Williams. The gunman shot himself fatally, authorities said.

The investigation continues to zero in on Katz, who reportedly competed in Madden under the tag names “Bread” and “RavensChamp.” On Sunday, federal agents and local police raided a home near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Neighbors said they have seen Katz there in the past. Police have yet to detail a motive for the shooting, although Katz was registered to compete in the Jacksonville tournament, according to the event’s website. A witness told the Florida Times-Union that the man allegedly opened fire after he was eliminated from the contest.

The shooting has delivered a blow to the tightknit Madden community just as the game’s popularity as a spectator sport--and the stakes involved--rise in the esport universe.

Once thought of as a slacker hobby, esports have become a highly competitive--and highly lucrative--pursuit for gamers in recent years. Top-ranked players compete for prize money as well as endorsement deals, with some championships offering prizes in the millions. They spend countless hours training to perfect their hand-eye coordination and fine-tune their ability to focus under pressure.

Some esports tournaments feature players competing in games that replicate traditional sports played by live athletes, like Madden NFL and NBA 2K. Others allow them to face off in games like Counter-Strike and Fortnite, which are based on battle scenarios.

According to the esports research firm Newzoo, the worldwide audience for esports is expected to reach 380 million people in 2018. Newzoo predicts that esports sponsorships for North American teams will reach $162 million in 2018.

A Washington Post-University of Massachusetts Lowell poll released this spring found that almost three-quarters of Americans between the ages of 14 and 21 had either played or watched multiplayer online games or competitions in the previous year.

For some young players, esports can be a way of paying for college. In 2014, Illinois-based Robert Morris University became the first college with a varsity esports program that offers scholarships to players, according to Engadget. Some 60 schools have followed suit and established esports teams recognized by the National Association of Collegiate Esports, while many others have unofficial programs, the site reported.

A little over a week ago, the University of Akron announced that it would be opening a 5,200-foot esports facility for its varsity, club, and recreational teams in October, touting it as the largest esports space at any university in the world. That same day, the university announced plans to phase out 80 degree programs due to low enrollment numbers.

The potential financial upshot for esport competitors rivals some traditional athletics. The five-person team that won The International 2018, a Dota 2 online battle competition that concluded over the weekend, walked away with over $11 million in prize money. Additional prizes for runners-up put the total prize pool at over $25 million.

But esports also present their own unique form of overwhelming pressure.

“There is no other sport in the world in which one day you can be a teenager playing a game by yourself, and the next day, because someone scouted you from your online account, you’re thrown onto a stage for millions to criticize,” ESPN esports reporter Tyler Erzberger wrote in a piece on the pervasiveness of mental health issues in the esports community published Friday, before the shooting. “There’s little to no assimilation period. There’s no road map for how to deal with the criticism. There’s just you, on the stage with four teammates, facing down the biggest moment of your life with no lifeline.”

Named after John Madden, a longtime pro football coach and commentator who in 2006 was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Madden NFL allows players to build a fantasy roster for their favorite NFL team and compete in online matchups. Some 46,000 people belong to /r/Madden, a Reddit community dedicated to discussing the series.

The first game in the series, John Madden Football, was released in 1988. By 2014, sales had topped $4 billion in revenue.

As of August 13th, more than 130 million copies had been sold, the game’s maker, Electronics Arts Inc., said in a news release timed with the release of Madden NFL 19, the latest version.

Despite Madden’s long-standing popularity as a franchise, the game’s status as a competitive game is only a recent development thanks to the uptick in tournaments with prize money.

Sunday’s competition was a regional qualifier for an October final round in the Madden NFL 19 Championship Series, which offers a $25,000 prize to the first place winner.

Three million players competed in the Madden NFL 18 challenge last year, which was the top-rated esports broadcast in North America, Todd Sitrin, a senior vice president and general manager for the EA Competitive Gaming Division, said earlier this month in a news release.

The release also noted that this year’s competition will have a prize pool of $700,000, the largest in the game’s 30-year history.

“People don’t realize Madden is a growing game in terms of esports,” gamer Matthew Lee told The Post. “There are guys who are going to make over $100,000 playing this year. With streaming and partnerships on top of the prize money you can win in tournaments, it’s becoming a way to make a living.”

However, the circuit remains a tight group of competitors, Lee said. Everyone knows everyone else--in part due to the intimate nature of the game. Unlike other popular esports titles like “Call of Duty” where players compete in teams, in Madden NFL it’s just you working to outsmart an opponent.

“It’s a mental chess match,” Lee said. “I liken it to a lot of card games with the way you fundamentally have to think about it. You make educated guesses, have to quickly do the math, measure possibilities. You have to outplay your opponent based on probabilities.”

The high-stakes can supercharge the emotions on the field of play.

“The Madden community is one of the most passionate and competitive groups of people you’ll ever find,” Michael Aldrighetti, a Madden competitor, told The Post. “During the actual game, it gets emotional. Frustrations mount, occasional chirping at each other. We’re competitors going at each other. Madden may be ‘just a game’, but the people and the emotions are real.”

#Jacksonville shooting #David Katz #Madden #esports

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junker-town · 3 years

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NBA playoff predictions: 1 big question about each Eastern Conference series

The SB Nation communities preview every first round series in the East.

The Eastern Conference playoffs feature three heavy favorites and five other teams looking to make a Cinderella run to the NBA Finals. The Philadelphia 76ers have the homecourt advantage throughout the conference playoffs by finishing with the No. 1 seed, but the Brooklyn Nets are looming as the betting favorite to win it all. The Milwaukee Bucks are also lurking as they enter the postseason with an improved roster following last year’s early exit in the bubble.

The Eastern Conference playoffs get underway on May 22 and will lead up to the start of the NBA Finals on July 8. As the first round kicks off, the conference features four exciting series with storylines galore from every perspective.

Now that the playoffs are finally here, we asked the SB Nation NBA communities to preview their team’s matchup by asking one big question about each series. The communities also gave their predictions on who will win the series, as did staffers Sabreena Merchant, Sydney Umeri, and Ricky O’Donnell.

No. 1 76ers vs. No. 8 Wizards: Predictions and preview

76ers 49-23 vs. Wizards 34-38

Offensive efficiency: 76ers 112.5 (13th) | Wizards 110.7 (17th)

Defensive efficiency: 76ers 107 (2nd) | Wizards 112.3 (20th)

Net rating: 76ers +5.5 (5th) | Wizards -1.6 (22nd)

Season series: 76ers 3-0. Philadelphia swept the season series.

The Sixers swept the season series 3-0, but all of those games took place before the Wizards saved their season starting in April. Given Washington’s current hot streak and mid-season additions (led by Daniel Gafford), do you think the Wizards can make this series competitive?

Steve Lipman of Liberty Ballers: The Philadelphia in me deeply wants to hedge my bets here just in case, but short of significant injury, I really don’t see a path for Washington to make this series competitive. Throughout the season, the Sixers have done a really good job of punishing teams that cannot match them, physically, and Washington is a much smaller team than Philly. Embiid, Simmons and Harris should be able to hunt mismatches on the court all throughout the series, and by doing so create enough advantages either at the rim or beyond the arc to rack up points on the shoddy Wizards defense.

I guess there’s a universe where Simmons, Thybulle and company simply cannot keep up with Beal and Westbrook’s offensive output, thus stealing a couple of games for the Wiz, but I think it’s unlikely. Davis Bertans is basically guaranteed to shoot 75% from 3 against the Sixers in round one after struggling mightily in the play-in games, you can write that in stone. But Davis can’t do it on his own. Ultimately, I just think the Sixers’ defense is too good to get victimized by this Washington team in a really meaningful way, and the Sixers’ personnel is tailor-made to take advantage of the Wizards’ poor defense. — @SteveJLipman

Albert Lee of Bullets Forever:

Ahead of the series, our Wizards community wrote:

The Wizards are not favorites in this series, and that’s fine, given how wild this season has been. So at the end of the day, the players should be very happy to make it to this far. While I expect Washington to lose this best-of-seven series, I also would like to see them win one game, And anything more would be a bonus.

Liberty Ballers: 76ers in 5.

Sydney Umeri: 76ers in 6.

Ricky O’Donnell: 76ers in 5.

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

No. 2 Nets vs. No. 7 Celtics: Predictions and preview

Nets 48-24 vs. Celtics 36-36

Offensive efficiency: Nets 117.3 (1st) | Celtics 113.1 (10th)

Defensive efficiency: Nets 113.1 (22nd) | Celtics 111.8 (13th)

Net rating: Nets +4.2 (7th) | Celtics +1.2 (13th)

Season series: Nets 3-0. Brooklyn swept the season series.

Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving played just eight games together. Can the Celtics put a scare into the Nets if it takes them time to gel?

Jeff Clark from Celtics Blog: Predicting what the Boston Celtics will do from game to game or even quarter by quarter is a fool’s errand. However, given that I am a foolish fan, I’ll give it a shot anyway. If this series is to play out in a similar way to how the season has gone, we’ll see the Celtics come out flat and lose the first three games and the entire fanbase will start wearing black and sharpening pitchforks. They will then go on an absolute tear, winning three straight games and getting up the hopes of every optimist fan. That will of course be followed up by a game 7 loss in which the team tries really hard but can’t hit a shot to save their lives and Brooklyn’s 9th man goes off for 27 points.

Seriously though, the variability of this team really is maddening. Blame injuries, COVID, the schedule, or inexperience if you like. The bottom line is that they haven’t been consistent all season long and missing Jaylen Brown isn’t going to help that at all. Perhaps Jayson Tatum can carry the team to a win or two but ultimately there’s too much talent on Brooklyn’s side. I’ll be optimistic and say Nets in 6. — @CelticsBlog

Chris Milholen of Nets Daily: The Nets ‘Big Three’ of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden played only eight games together and as we all know, what separates great teams from championship teams is common history and elite chemistry in the postseason.

All three players have stressed to us over the course of the final weeks of the season that the lack of common history isn’t a problem nor a concern since their talent will make up for it. Although the ‘Big Three’ played even less games with key role players on the team, I believe their talent will make up for that lack of common history in the first round.

I believe Brooklyn will prevail over Boston in five games (4-1). The Nets are approaching the postseason as “a new season” and due to finishing second in the East, Brooklyn has had an extended period of rest mixed in with practices that have been focused on solidifying chemistry in different groups and lineups of players. Like Brad Steven’s said on Tuesday, it’s hard to see this team losing, so I’ll be going with Nets in five games. — @CMilholenSB

Nets Daily: Nets in 5.

Celtics Blog: Nets in 6.

Sabreena Merchant: Nets in 4.

Ricky O’Donnell: Nets in 5.

Sydney Umeri: Nets in 6.

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

No. 3 Bucks vs. No. 6 Heat: Predictions and preview

Bucks 46-26 vs. Heat 40-32

Offensive efficiency: Bucks 116.5 (5th) | Heat 110.6 (18th)

Defensive efficiency: Bucks 110.7 (9th) | Heat 110.7 (9th)

Net rating: Bucks +5.8 (4th) | Heat -0.1 (17th)

Season series: Bucks 2-1. The teams split a back-to-back on Dec. 29-30, and the Bucks won on May 15 in a game at the very end of the regular season.

The Heat shocked the NBA by upsetting the Bucks in the bubble in last year’s playoffs. Is Milwaukee better prepared for a matchup with Miami this year?

Kyle Carr of BrewHoop: Milwaukee’s offseason moves were a response to their dismal bubble performance and the need to convince Giannis Antetokounmpo to sign the supermax and stay in Milwaukee. Trading Eric Bledsoe, who had another disappointing playoffs, was the biggest priority and Milwaukee found an upgrade in Jrue Holiday, who has brought the Bucks a two-way performance that’s been needed. The Bucks also added Bobby Portis and Bryn Forbes to provide some offensive firepower and PJ Tucker midseason to help with their defense.

The Bucks have spent most of this season tweaking their tactics, namely adding a player to the “dunker spot” on offense and switching on defense. All of these changes, plus an improved performance from Giannis, should put Milwaukee in a better position to be prepared for Miami this year. There will be some nervy moments, but with the previously mentioned adjustments, complete focus on basketball (which they did not have last year in the bubble with COVID-19 and the shooting of Jacob Blake) and playing in front of fans in an increased capacity Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee will look to show that last year was just a mixture of poor performances and bad luck. — @KyleCoche

Diego Quezada from Hot Hot Hoops:

Here’s what our Heat community wrote ahead on the series:

The Miami Heat’s upset over the Milwaukee Bucks last year stands as perhaps the team’s biggest upset playoff victory — knocking off the No. 1 overall seed in just five games. And yes, Jimmy Butler was amazing. But aside from Butler’s greatness, Miami also pulled off the upset thanks to varied contributions from other players.

....

Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk are both no longer with Miami. Dragic has regressed, and it seems ambitious to expect he’ll deliver another superb playoff performance this year. How can the Heat recapture that same balanced attack? The Heat will need Butler and Bam Adebayo to play like All-NBA and All-Defensive Team players in this first-round playoff series. But to pull off another upset and embarrass the Bucks yet again, the other players need to contribute.

Brew Hoop: Bucks in 6.

Ricky O’Donnell: Bucks in 7.

Sabreena Merchant: Bucks in 6.

Sydney Umeri: Bucks in 5.

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

No. 4 Knicks vs. No. 5 Hawks: Predictions and preview

Knicks 41-31 vs. Hawks 41-31

Offensive efficiency: Knicks 110.2 (22nd) | Hawks 112.1 (18th)

Defensive efficiency: Knicks 107.8 (4th) | Hawks 101.5 (11th)

Net rating: Knicks +2.4 (9th) | Hawks +2.2 (11th)

Season series: Knicks 3-0. New York swept the season series, including winning a classic overtime battle in late April.

Both of these teams blew past preseason expectations this year. Whose success feels more sustainable for playoff basketball?

Zach Hood of Peachtree Hoops: I think both teams are legitimately good as currently constructed. However, New York enjoyed extremely hot three-point shooting late in the season, and had a few guys post career or near career marks from deep. The Hawks battled injuries all season and finished with the same 41-31 record as the Knicks. It feels like Atlanta at its peak would be the better team if they could get everyone on the floor at the same time, something they really haven’t done for an extended period this season. De’Andre Hunter appears to be ready to go for the series, so they may be as close to full strength as they have been all season when the series tips off Sunday evening. If Atlanta can stay healthy, I think they are the team with the higher ceiling.

I’m going Hawks in 7. New York is certainly going to battle and nothing will be easy. It’s also tough to pick against them in their building in a Game 7, but that’s what I’m doing here. Ultimately, a great deal of respect is due to New York for the season they have put together, but if the Hawks can keep the three-point line under control defensively, I think they will take this series. — @ZHood_

Joe Flynn from Posting and Toasting: I would disagree with the idea that the Hawks blew past preseason expectations. I think most experts had them contending for a playoff spot in the East after all their offseason improvements, albeit at a lower seed. The Knicks, on the other hand, finished damn near 20 wins higher than their preseason Vegas line in a 72-game season. That’s almost unprecedented.

The Hawks are the more talented team across the board, and that usually wins out in the postseason. The Knicks are carrying around the millstone that is Elfrid Payton - the league’s worst starting PG - despite the fact that Tom Thibodeau has 3-4 superior guards on the bench. That didn’t hurt them too often in the regular season, but it’ll catch up with them now. — @ChinaJoeFlynn

Posting and Toasting: Hawks in 6.

Peachtree Hoops: Hawks in 7.

Sabreena Merchant: Knicks in 7.

Ricky O’Donnell: Knicks in 7.

Sydney Umeri: Hawks in 7.

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mindlesssportsguru-blog · 6 years

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2018 NBA Conference Finals

Well, we have officially reached the time of year where all that stands between us and the painful summer months of baseball season is the NHL and NBA playoffs. With the meat of the MLB season quickly approaching, I decided to focus on the last exciting sports story until NFL training camp starts up in August, detailing the final four teams remaining in the NBA playoffs.

Traditionally, the NBA playoffs are notorious for being predictable, lopsided affairs in which the team that was expected to win from the beginning, wins. Since 2000, the sport has been plagued by dynasties, meaning that certain franchises are so dominant over a span of several years that no other teams seem to have a chance. Whether it be the Tim Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs (1999-2007), the Los Angeles Lakers (2000-2002, 2009-2010), or the LeBron James-led Miami Heat (2011-2014), big market franchises monopolize the sport for several years at a time. The last couple years have been no different, as the Golden State Warriors formed a squad that would go on to win two of three championships, with the one loss coming at the hands of The King: LeBron James. After posting an incredible 73 win season (NBA record) and blowing a 3-1 lead (never forget) to James and company, the basketball gods gave everyone in the entire world the middle-finger when former-MVP Kevin Durant decided to take his talents to the Bay Area, joining Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green in a star-studded lineup. After much speculation on whether this team would gel correctly and blow everyone out of the water, the Warriors slashed and devastated their way through the 2017 playoffs with a record of 16-1 (T-NBA record), topped off with yet another title. Following this basketball killing spree by the Warriors, the rest of the NBA seemed to be in the sunken place, watching the new and improved “Lineup of Death” (yeah, that’s literally what they’re called) ravage the rest of the sport.

Fast forward to now. We are nearly a year removed from Durant nailing that three in LeBron’s face in game five, and things are relatively the same as they were then. The Warriors are PROBABLY going to win again, and they are PROBABLY going to beat LeBron’s Cavaliers in the Finals for the third time in four years. This post could end after that sentence, but where’s the fun in that? With both Conference Finals surprisingly knotted up at two games a piece, the next week could dictate the landscape of the NBA for several years to come. With the title (seemingly) up for grabs, here is some context on the two matchups thus far, and what each team must do to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy in June.

The East

Over the last 15 years, the rest of the Eastern Conference has served as the Avengers equivalent to LeBron James’ Thanos (sorry to anyone who hasn’t seen Infinity War). Every couple years, there seems to be a Thor-like team who looks like they may have what it takes to derail The King, and every couple years LeBron is forced to snap his fingers and eviscerate that “challenger” from existence. The Paul George Pacers, the Derrick Rose Bulls, and the Al Horford Hawks (lol) have been LeBron’s biggest competition, which is the equivalent to an average sized man standing in front of an Escalade traveling 80 mph thinking “Hey I might have a chance at stopping this thing.” Bottom line: LeBron James is a force the likes of the NBA has never seen before. These playoffs have been no different up to this point, as LeBron has single-handedly led this group to the conference finals. Averaging a ludicrous 33.7 points on 55% shooting, LeBron is on a mission to reach an unprecedented eighth consecutive NBA Finals. After being pushed to seven games in the first round against a gritty Pacers team, the Cavs embarrassed a 59 win Raptors squad, a team that has been stopped in their tracks by LeBron for years now. With his game-winning buzzer beater in game five, LeBron ripped the hearts out of every player and fan associated with the franchise, including famous rapper Drake, who had been chirping James from the sidelines throughout the series. The Cavs would go on to decimate the Raptors in game four, leading to the firing of Head Coach Dwane Casey, a Coach of the Year candidate.

What has been most noteworthy about this Cavaliers team is the absence of anything resembling a supporting cast. Other than Kevin Love who, when healthy, is an all star caliber player, this is undoubtedly LeBron’s worst supporting cast since his first stint in Cleveland. Playing themselves into the fourth seed in the East, these Cavs looked both offensively and defensively challenged throughout the season. The strategy is simple: surround LeBron with perimeter shooters and hope it is good enough. JR Smith and Kyle Korver could be viable assets on a championship team, but both lack dimensions to their game other than perimeter shooting. Adding Jeff Green looked to be a promising move right up until the playoffs, when everyone remembered Jeff Green is a bonafide playoff scrub. Many players came and went this season through various “panic trades” the Cavs made in an attempt to appease The King. Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, and Larry Nance Jr. are all solid role players, but their ability to compete against the likes of Golden State or Houston is seriously doubtful.

The most glaring absence from this squad is all star PG Kyrie Irving, who voiced his dissatisfaction with the Cavs last year and was traded to the Boston Celtics. For the last seven years, LeBron has always had a “sidekick” to help in his quest for the Finals, and Kyrie was just that. Kyrie’s performance in the legendary 3-1 comeback against Golden State was nothing short of transcendent, and his scoring prowess is widely respected throughout the league. His departure from the Cavs this off-season certainly took a toll on the Cavaliers’ internal situation, and perhaps more importantly, created an Eastern Conference foe unlike any LeBron has faced in the last ten years.

Enter the Boston Celtics, arguably the greatest franchise in the history of the sport. General Manager Danny Ainge has worked like a maestro the last five years, acquiring draft picks and assets like low hanging fruit. More importantly, he scored big time with his last two first round picks, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. These two potential all stars, in conjunction with defensive expert and “team dad” Al Horford have created a threatening team in the East, playing themselves into the two seed. What is more impressive, however, is that Boston is without their two best players. PG Kyrie Irving and SF Gordon Hayward. After losing these two stars over the course of the regular season Boston has seen tremendous support from role players such as Marcus Smart, Marcus Morris, and Terry Rozier.

So, how does this team match up with the Cavaliers? Surprisingly, the Celtics can stand toe-to-toe with the Cavaliers and have been very successful thus far. While the Celtics cannot match LeBron’s size, speed, and athleticism, their role players have been outperforming the Cavs’ up to this point. Their outstanding bench, along with terrific performances at home are going to make this team a tough out for the Cavaliers. That being said, let’s bring this back to the Marvel Universe. With all my heart, I would love to see the good guys come back and defeat Thanos. It almost feels like it needs to happen. As much as I want to believe in the Celtics and their youth movement, I simply cannot pick against LeBron James until it is proven that he can lose. Whether it be next year or in 2026, LeBron will eventually decline, but this is not the team that is going to get it done. PREDICTION: Cavs in 6.

The West

No matter which team comes out of the East, they are going to have their work cut out for them against the Western Conference Champion. In one corner, we have the Golden State Warriors. You can learn pretty much everything you need to know about this team in a couple sentences, so here it goes.

This is the greatest team ever assembled. Period. End of story. A lot of romantics like to look back on the days of Michael Jordan’s Bulls and say that they could defeat this Warriors team, but that is wrong. At point guard, the Warriors have Steph Curry, who has broken the NBA 3PT record for 4 consecutive years, and is widely regarded as the best shooter in the history of the game. He led this team to a 73 win season without Kevin Durant, and is the engine that makes the team roll. Did I mention he is a two-time NBA league MVP?

Next up, we have Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Thompson is widely known as the second best shooter in NBA history, which is a bit ridiculous that he is teamed up with Curry. His ability to knock down shots and get hotter than Hell in a matter of minutes is terrifying for any team they play against, especially considering he is their third best offensive weapon. He is also a flexible defender, specializing in taking out the other team’s best perimeter scorer. Draymond is a freak defender. While Klay is an outstanding perimeter defender, it is Draymond’s versatility that makes him unique. He can guard every position on the floor, making him a valuable asset that allows the Warriors to play their “Lineup of Death”. He also possesses a terrific basketball IQ, allowing him to run the pick and roll with Curry to perfection.

Those three together form an unstoppable core that allowed them to set the NBA record for wins in a season. Any team in the league would find it nearly impossible to matchup with all three of them. Now that we have finished covering the Warriors, let’s move o-...wait...wait a minute...nevermind we’re not done talking about the Warriors. If those three players weren’t enough, God thought it would be funny if the Warriors went out and signed all-time great scorer Kevin Durant, a former MVP. His 6’11” frame matched with his ability to handle the ball and shoot from anywhere on the court make him a lethal weapon. Many consider him to be the best pure scorer in NBA history, and he has certainly earned that type of reputation. He is the second best player in the NBA, behind LeBron, and now rather than having to score on his own, he can play his part in the well oiled machine of the Golden State Warriors. Before KD, the Warriors were probably going to win the championship. With KD, it is nearly a foregone conclusion.

Unless the Houston Rockets have anything to say about it. The Rockets were constructed specifically to defeat the Warriors, and thus far they have performed, tying the series 2-2 last night in Oakland. Built around All-Pro scorer James Harden and the “Point God” Chris Paul, the Rockets won 65 games during the regular season, leading the league. With those two ball handlers on the team, the Rockets can play night in and night out with 48 minutes of elite ball handling and decision making. Their role players are primarily perimeter shooters, and they play their roles to perfection. To bring it all together, C Clint Capela has proved himself to be an elite rim protector and scorer inside, perhaps garnering a max contract this offseason.

With stars like James Harden and Chris Paul, this team looks poised to make a run into the NBA Finals. They have great coaching, a great scorer, a great point guard, and a greater than average bench. These are all the aspects we usually see in a Championship team. However, if you have not realized yet, I am more so a realist than a romantic, and I do not believe the Rockets will beat the Warriors. The Warriors have been to this point for the fourth consecutive season now, and their experience will be tested over the next three games. That experience coupled with their ability to rip your throat out at any given point with their three point shooting, makes me believe they will not only defeat the Rockets in six games, but they will go on to win the NBA Finals in four games (five if they feel like being nice). PREDICTION: Warriors in 6.

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dailynewswebsite · 4 years

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Heat are ailing, but insist NBA Finals vs Lakers aren't over

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Jimmy Butler had a bandage on his proper knee and a wrap on his left ankle. His staff’s place to begin guard and heart are each uncertain to play in Recreation 2 of the NBA Finals. And his Miami Warmth are coming off a one-sided loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Given all that, Butler believes a notion exists that this sequence is already over.

”I urge to vary,” Butler stated Thursday.

Say this for the Warmth: They’re down however refuse to imagine they’re anyplace close to out. Recreation 2 of the finals is Friday night time, with Miami bracing to be with out level guard Goran Dragic due to a torn left plantar fascia and All-Star Bam Adebayo because of a newly recognized neck harm on high of his ongoing shoulder points.

”When it rains, it pours,” stated Butler, who’ll play by a sore ankle in Recreation 2. ”All in all, although, we’re nonetheless anticipated to win. We bought right here for a motive. We understand we belong. … Clearly, we undoubtedly want these two guys, do not get me mistaken. However I’ve at all times stated, subsequent man up when a person goes down.”

The Lakers gained Recreation 1 116-98, a rating that did not precisely present how lopsided issues had been for a lot of the sport. Miami began on a 25-12 run; the Lakers scored 75 of the sport’s subsequent 105 factors – a staggering burst. A 13-point deficit halfway by the primary quarter turned a 32-point lead halfway by the third for the Lakers.

That, mixed with Miami’s harm issues, certain appears to point that the Lakers have full management of this matchup. Dragic had been Miami’s main scorer within the first three playoff rounds. Adebayo is the staff’s greatest rebounder and blossoming right into a famous person.

Lakers coach Frank Vogel stated he’ll plan for Dragic and Adebayo to play. However even when they cannot go, Vogel stated Miami’s fourth-quarter lineup from Recreation 1 – a bunch that included Kendrick Nunn and Kelly Olynyk, each of whom would see a lot larger roles if Dragic and Adebayo are out – offered some challenges.

”They’ve a military of fellows that play an amazing type of play, that is very, very troublesome to protect,” Vogel stated. ”They work extraordinarily laborious on the defensive finish and we have to arrange for whoever’s in uniform.”

The Lakers have a locked-in LeBron James – who was one help shy of extending his file for finals triple-doubles – and Anthony Davis made his finals debut look simple with 34 factors. However James is taking nothing without any consideration, revealing that he was up till 4:30 a.m. Thursday watching movie from Recreation 1.

James stated he noticed loads of methods the Lakers may be higher.

”We’re enjoying in opposition to an distinctive basketball staff,” James stated. ”Clearly, great-coached. We have need to proceed to grasp that coming into Recreation 2 … they’ll make changes in Recreation 2 and we have to be prepared for that.”

Nunn had 18 factors in Recreation 1. He was Miami’s starter all the common season, completed second within the rookie of the yr voting, however has been used sparingly within the playoffs – partly as a result of Dragic has been so good, partly as a result of Nunn missed Miami’s first 25 days within the bubble due to his restoration from the coronavirus.

”I am able to play,” Nunn stated. ”I have been prepared, been all season. I needed to step up, and easy as that. I will be able to play and compete and go on the market and attempt to get a win.”

The numbers clearly present that Recreation 1 winners usually prevail in a sequence. The Warmth know it isn’t an absolute rule. So does James. All three of Miami’s NBA titles got here after Recreation 1 losses within the finals. James was a part of two of these comebacks, and his third championship in Cleveland was gained in the identical vogue.

This feels a bit completely different, in fact, given the harm issues.

”That is while you really feel most alive, while you’re being examined competitively and challenged in new methods, other ways,” Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra stated. ”It is a high quality opponent. That is the way in which the entire playoff system is meant to be arrange. It is presupposed to get more durable and tougher each single spherical and should the most effective staff win on the very finish.”

—

Extra AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports activities

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/heat-are-ailing-but-insist-nba-finals-vs-lakers-arent-over/ via https://growthnews.in

#Growth News

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hoops-etc · 4 years

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A Novel Idea: Let’s Expand the CFP

Here’s a novel idea: what if we expanded the College Football Playoff? Since its inception, people have been talking about changing it. Four teams are not enough. It should be eight. It’s only a matter of time…

When the announcement came that a four-team playoff would begin in college football’s 2014 season, its accompanying 12-year TV rights deal was a bit of a brow-raiser. It was as if the powers that be at the CFP were saying, rather lazily, “Alright, we gave you what you wanted. You’ll have a true champion. Now let us be (to make our money) for the next decade.” It’s a no-brainer if the goal is to make more money, just add more teams, more games. Money is certainly a factor, one of many, to be examined when bringing up the topic of expansion.

A couple of years ago, Bill Connelly of SBNation came up with a comprehensive plan for college football as part of his Connelly for Commissioner series. Among his many ideas, one that I had not yet seen discussed was that Playoff expansion cannot be “responsibly” put into place unless there is an established way for the players to “benefit from the extra money” that the extra games they are being asked to play in (thus risking their health, and depending on who you are - more importantly - conflicting with their classroom responsibilities) would produce.

This piece is not going to delve into how to make fair player compensation work, but I do believe in Connelly’s assertion. With that said, let’s see if we can figure out a way to make “more teams” work. Because TV deals can always be re-negotiated early.

Who Gets In?

An easy one, right?

Each Power 5 champion, the best team from the Group of 5, and two at-large bids make up the field. Sure, when more teams make the CFP, some will argue it cheapens the regular season. Well, if we want regular season games to remain meaningful, every team needs to play meaningful opponents. Most fans will agree and we are seeing teams and conferences put more emphasis on strong non-conference scheduling. That isn’t enough, however.

Power 5 teams should play at least ten P5 and eleven FBS opponents each year. (Yes, we’re looking at you, SEC). If you really are among the country’s elite programs, step up and earn it. There aren’t many things less interesting in college football than a slate of SEC-FCS matchups in November.

An Eight-Team Playoff Schedule

The biggest hurdle when adding another round of games could come right back to television. With a quarterfinal round, it makes sense to spread the four games over two days to avoid overlap. This would place them around Christmas (dominated by the NBA) or earlier, when the NFL schedule is still in full swing.

If we keep the semifinals on or near the last Saturday of the year, the quarters would naturally come a week before that. When Christmas falls on a Saturday, the semis would be on New Year’s day, as they are scheduled for January 2021. Half of the CFP quarterfinals could be played on Christmas (heck, the NBA and pro football co-exist when it’s on a Sunday), but this is where another TV partner or two would need to come into play as ESPN/ABC have all day hoops coverage. Not a problem.

It’s extremely likely the other broadcast networks, plus Turner which holds a major piece of college basketball’s biggest event, and even a streaming service would show serious interest in this expanded package. We’re getting into the weeds here, so let’s map out a schedule…

If Christmas falls on a Sunday…

Quarterfinals: The preceding Friday and Saturday - December 23rd and 24th (meaningful Christmas Eve college football!)

Semifinals: January 2nd, to avoid the NFL overlap

If Christmas falls on a Monday...

Quarterfinals: The preceding Friday and Saturday - December 22nd and 23rd

Semifinals: December 30th

If Christmas falls Tuesday - Thursday…

Quarterfinals: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Semis: New Year’s Day

If Christmas falls on a Friday or Saturday…

Quarterfinals: That Friday and Saturday (December 24th and 25th, or 25th and 26th)

Semis: The following Saturday (New Year’s Day/January 2nd)

(Note: It could get problematic when the Rose Bowl is one of the semifinal hosts, as they usually insist on playing on New Year’s Day - barring Sunday. We want the semis on the same day while maintaining at least six days rest for each team. The Rose Bowl should budge here; play on Jan. 2nd, even if it is a Saturday.)

Where Do They Play?

Popular opinion points to the higher seeds hosting the quarterfinals. That is a nice reward for finishing in the top four, however, I prefer a hybrid option. The first two seeds get a home game against the 7th or 8th seed, while the 4-5 and 3-6 matchups are played on a rotating basis in two other New Year’s Six bowls. Some bowls, namely the Rose, will probably lobby to be left out of a quarterfinal rotation as it would push them farther away from New Year’s Day, and only be part of the semifinals. In this case, I would allow it for the Rose Bowl, given they agree to any potential January 2nd date.

Attendance at these “new” games is, of course, important. With a non-neutral site (i.e., played at someone’s home stadium), since this is the postseason, ticket sales would be handled like a traditional bowl game, where both teams get a more or less “fair” allotment of tickets. Whether or not the “away” fans would generally be more likely to travel to a non-neutral site vs. a neutral site (bowl), on or around Christmas, remains up for debate.

As you’ve seen, expansion is not as simple as just adding more teams to the CFP. There are numerous moving parts and stakeholders that need to be considered. Though with so many people talking about the idea at large, be hopeful a great one will rise to the top and soon become reality. How soon that actually happens, is anyone’s guess.

#college football #cfp #college football playoff

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diegrootkrokodil · 7 years

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The Russell Report - UR Gifts Storm - 27th at GP Birmingham

Although it has been a bit late coming, I have finally got around to writing a report from my Top 32 12-3 finish at GP Birmingham earlier this year. I had started out 8-1 and managed to run moderately well Day 2 to cash my first event and make a good start to the Pro season for 2017/8.

Background

Prior to the event I had managed to roundly 2-3 two MTGO Competitive leagues and go 3-1 at a friendly mid-week paper event down at Dark Sphere in London. Although my results were far from stellar, I more or less understood why I was losing games and was making steady progress to knowing how the deck is supposed to play. My closest corollary thus far in Modern is UG Infect.

Infect requires you to be able to do two things; the first is a tight balance of composed and patient play, amassing a critical number of cards and forcing through the win over a long and drawn out game. The other is having a good read for the situation and knowing when to go “all in” on a turn and be stone dead if they have the right card, with the prize usually being winning the game on the spot. Storm more or less plays the same way, with the debate on playing a turn 2 cost reducer usually being matchup dependent and/or how critical the Baral/ Electromancer is to your ability to win.

Why Storm?

Having established that I wasn’t doing very well in my initial testing, you might very well be wondering what ponderous set of decisions led me to registering what most people consider to be a challenging deck to play at a GP. Well, let me reveal a little secret to you about Storm in Modern: it isn’t that hard to play.

While I don’t put it into the category of Titanshift or EldraziTron which both genuinely have very few meaningful decisions and whilst the Storm deck has a lot of sequencing optimisations to consider, it really only requires you to be able to do basic maths and and count to something like 20. Or at least, I think that is true for the in game decisions, which are typically only truly interesting with the second Gifts pile you make. The “hard” decisions I believe are mostly made in sideboarding and mulliganing, where experience in the matchups comes to play an extremely important part of the decision making process. Many decks while sideboarding are not necessarily boarding into hate for your opponents sideboard cards. You are also typically not pivoting in a totally different way or even removing what might appear to be your slam dunk namesake card, something that is quite unintuitive to some players.

Storm is fundamentally good for the following reasons:

1. It has a reliable Turn 3 goldfish kill. Speed and consistency are everything in Modern, the format where dying on T4 is usually guaranteed.

2. It can kill on Turn 2 with the perfect hand using grapeshot and pseudo kill on Turn 2 /3 with goblins a greater percentage of the time. Even the bad matchups can sometimes be won, meaning that you’re never truly cold when you sit down to play.

3. The deck is very redundant with 8 cost reducers, 12 rituals and 8 cantrips. Most hands with a Bear, Cantrip and some Rituals are a keep.

4. Two colours and many basics means you take minimal damage from lands/ the coloured requirements are quite good. This allows us to sometimes play Blood Moon and register 3 basic islands in our deck.

5. Most decks don’t have good graveyard hate game 1, meaning that they have very few axis to interact with you on.

6. The opponent tilt value from playing storm.

The Event

Started 2-0 with byes, a critical aspect to success at Grand Prix.

R3 Titanshift 2-1

R4 Elves 2-0

R5 Eldrazi Tron 1-2

R6 GB Tron 2-1

R7 GW Company 2-1

R8 4C Shadow 2-1

R9 Jeskai Control 2-0

R10 Bant Eldrazi 0-2

R11 Eldrazi Tron 2-1

R12 Abzan Coco 1-2

R13 Abzan Midrange

R14 Eldrazi Tron 2-0

R15 Burn 2-0

My List

Maindeck

4 Baral, Chief of Compliance 4 Desperate Ritual 1 Empty the Warrens 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Gifts Ungiven 4 Goblin Electromancer 3 Grapeshot 3 Island 4 Manamorphose 1 Mountain 2 Past in Flames 4 Pyretic Ritual 4 Remand 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Serum Visions 4 Sleight of Hand 4 Spirebluff Canal 3 Steam Vents

Sideboard

1 Negate 2 Dismember 2 Dispel 1 Echoing Truth 2 Empty the Warrens 3 Lightning Bolt 2 Pieces of the Puzzle 2 Shattering Spree

There are a few rules in Modern and one of the main ones is that you have to be as proactive as possible. The inherent variance of the format mostly comes in your match-ups which means that you often have lost the round when you sit down to play. A good example of this is Titanshift against most fair green midrange decks. As the fair deck you are something like sub 20% to curve out and kill them fast enough before the inevitable Primeval Titan or Scapeshift kills you all whilst you are busy durdling about.

Storm bucks this trend and has the ability to more or less win against anyone given that you have the speed and resiliency necessary to beat even your tough matchups. Landing a turn 2 Baral or Goblin Electromancer puts them to the test immediately and usually means they have to respect the possibility of dying the next turn.

My Sideboarding Guide

Storm is the kind of deck where sideboarding is very important to get right, as you aren’t bringing in your generic haymakers and the rest of the maindeck is a finely tuned engine meaning you can’t start cannibalising all the parts whilst still expecting it to function.

Without further ado:

Grind through their heavy removal and kill with Goblins matchups (Abzan, Jund, Grixis Death’s Shadow etc.)

The philosophy here is to transition to a more value orientated deck that is probably not going to go off early and instead try to slog through their removal. You can pivot your win condition from Grapeshot to Empty the Warrens and make their spot removal suffer as you offer them a paucity of good targets. Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push don’t line up very well to lots of Goblins and you can usually hold onto the mana bear until such time where it is actually useful in play. Do not run them out into certain death for no value, you must be a patient Peter.

Pieces is great against graveyard hate and lets you dig for the right pieces whilst also filling up the yard for future Past in Flames. Empty is the backup win condition and is generally quite hard to beat for these sort of spot removal heavy creature decks. I personally like Dismember against the Angler/ Tasigur/ Goyf decks as a way to stop you randomly dying to creature beats. I might cut these on the play in favour of leaving in a few Remands, especially against the Delve threats or sweepers.

Cutting gifts might not seem very intuitive but as many decks board into Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace or Surgical Extraction you are usually incentivised to reduce your vulnerability to those cards. The third Grapeshot is less essential given the newly diversified threat base and Remand isn’t very good at stopping the cards we really care about in these matchups (it also sucks against Inquisition or Thoughtseize).

- + 2 Pieces of the Puzzle

- +2 Empty the Warrens

- +2 Dismember

- - 4 Remand

- - 1 Grapeshot

- - 1 Gifts Ungiven

Kill them as fast as possible matchups (Burn, Tron, Affinty, Titanshift, Elves, Ad Nauseum, and Infect etc.)

Other combo decks frequently feature Artifacts that we care about. Even Titanshift will usually board into a mix of Relic of Progenitus, Grafdigger’s Cage or Chalice of the Void. We are really looking to go as fast as possible and try to race them, which usually means not playing around things too much apart from stuff we cannot beat or want to try and head off. Most of these decks also don’t have a plethora of removal for our bears, which means that we can often keep hands with only one and even board down to 6 in favour of more meaningful interaction such as Shattering Spree or Echoing Truth. The plan is to be prepared for their interaction and also prepared to beat them on a slightly different axis. Having access to lightning bolts against decks like Infect, Elves and Affinity allows us to win on the draw and slow down their fastest possible starts. Often T3 with no interaction on the draw against Affinity spells doom. Burn is sometimes called an unwinnable matchup, which is usually true in the face of an Eidolon game 1, but is quite beatable in post board games. Lean on your bolts and be careful using them. That Goblin Guide might kill us in the long run, but if you can’t take an Eidolon off the table then it’s game over my friend.

- + 2 Shattering Spree

- + 3 Lightning Bolts

- +1 Echoing Truth

- - 2 Electromancer

- -1 Empty the Warrens

- - 2 Remand

- -1 Gifts Ungiven

Patience and knowledge of the stack matchups (UW, UWR Control etc.)

The name of the game here is once again becoming patient Peter and forcing them to interact on one of their main choke points, which is usually either mana or cards. What this means practically is waiting, playing out land and then finally going over the top of their counter magic using our Remands (which are great on our own spells) and making use of Past in Flames / Gifts to grind them out of cards over the course of a longer game. Spell Queller can be a pain, so be careful not to walk into that one. I typically find this matchup to be favourable if you don’t run Gifts or another crucial spell into counter magic for no gain.

N.B. This is not an exact guide but more following general themes. Please do not bring in Shattering Spree against Elves or Lightning Bolt against Titanshift.

A quick matchup rundown of the Top 10 decks on MTG Goldfish:

Storm: It’s the mirror. Don’t mess up.

Affinity: Great for you on the play, still probably favoured on the draw.

Jeskai Tempo: Moderately favoured.

Eldrazi Tron: Draw dependent for them, probably a slight dog if they draw averagely.

Titanshift: The unlosable matchup.

GDS: Not good. Can storm them out if they go low enough. The critical mix of disruption, stubborn denial and removal makes this tough.

Tron: Moderately favoured.

Eldrazi and Taxes: The bears can help overcome Thalia, otherwise a moderate dog.

Burn: You’re going to die. Can maybe win if they don’t land Eidolon T2.

CoCo Decks: Favoured. They can’t usually interact with the combo Game 1 and Game 2 they are relying on a small list of cards to interact meaningfully (Eidolon of Rhetoric, for which we have Dismember/ Echoing Truth and precious little else).

A few more closing points regarding UR Gifts Storm:

1. Try to play around graveyard hate by boarding into Pieces and away from Gifts/ PiF.

2. Try not to expose yourself to Surgical Extraction if possible, this should be done by not putting your Grapeshots in the graveyard unless absolutely necessary. Try to draw them naturally if you suspect a Surgical. You can set up Gifts piles with cantrips and more Gifts to do this.

3. The magic number for mana left over after a Gifts is 3. With 3 red mana they are dead and it doesn’t matter which two cards they put into your hand from the classic “ PiF, Desperate, Pyretic, Manamorphose” pile. You will always have enough to cast PiF and keep going off.

4. Early Goblins can often do the trick, you need the stomach to go in hard on what can appear to be quite risky. Know when it is a good idea and when they are likely to just have a Ratchet Bomb to make your day go south quickly

5. Shattering Spree is very good against Chalice. The copies can go through the trigger and blow up multiple annoying artifacts.

6. Remanding your own Grapeshots is an easy way to generate more Storm without using the graveyard.

7. Don’t forget your loots from Baral when countering spells. This is also a good reason to hold excess lands.

8. The god hand is a Turn 2 kill. “Land, land, Baral, Desperate, Desperate, Manamorphose, Gifts” can often turn into a win if you draw a second ritual off a manamorphose or a cantrip you find along the way.

That’s all for now but I’ll be playing Storm in Madrid on one of the Mana Gaming Teams we send there for the team event. I’ve also been attempting to grind out a few wins with the deck in recent PPTQs to no notable success as yet.

Until next time:

Tom

#magic the gathering #storm #modern #gpbirmingham #ur gifts #baral #MtG

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dpinoycosmonaut · 5 years

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‘THE GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT IN TENNIS’

by Bert A. Ramirez / June 13, 2019

Rafael Nadal raises the Coupe des Mousquetaires after his 12th French Open title victory. (Photo by Getty Images)

Rafael Nadal’s recent victory in the French Open not only set a record that may never be broken, but may have also set standards of excellence that may not be matched in the history of tennis.

Right after Nadal’s 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 triumph in the finals over Dominic Thiem, whom he also beat in last year’s finals at Roland Garros and whom he has now beaten 5-0 in Grand Slam events and paces 9-4 head-to-head, praises came pouring in for the legendary Spanish tennister. This, after all, is not only his 12th French Open title, which made him the only player in history, male or female, to win as many as 12 singles titles in any Grand Slam event, breaking the record he previously shared with Margaret Court, who won 11 Australian titles and holds the most Grand Slam titles overall with 24; it also raised the number of Grand Slam championships he has won to 18, just two behind Roger Federer’s 20, the first time he has come within that number of his arch-rival’s total.

“Amazing – Nadal did it again!!! The greatest accomplishment in tennis IMO...” fellow legend Martina Navratilova, who’s tied for fifth overall among female players in number of Grand Slam titles won with 18, said on Twitter.

“There will never be another Nadal. Congratulations to @RafaelNadal on an incredible 12th French Open win. A genius on clay, with a tremendous work ethic, he’s a role model both on and off the court. Well done!” said another legend, Billie Jean King, seventh on the women’s Grand Slam list with 12.

“Simply magnificent @RafaelNadal. Winning a Grand Slam isn’t easy. Winning 12 French titles is beyond belief. Congratulations King of Clay!” Rod Laver, one of the greatest players with 11 Grand Slam titles and the only player to win all four Grand Slam events in the same year (doing it twice in 1962 and 1969), also tweeted.

“Once again @RafaelNadal proves why beating him in a best-of-five set match on clay is arguably the biggest challenge in all of sport. I mean have we seen consistency and dominance like anywhere else?” tweeted Australian and 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash.

“12? Really @RafaelNadal? Totally run out of superlatives for this kind of clay court tennis. Never to be matched in my lifetime and still going. Congratulations legend,” one-time world No. 4 James Blake of the US said.

Even Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia could hardly believe it.

“Amazing @RafaelNadal! 12 @rolandgarros titles! Like John McEnroe would say, ‘you cannot be serious!’” Garcia said.

“I see it but I don’t believe it… (that) someone can win 12 @rolandgarros singles titles. @RafaelNadal what a performance! #TheKingOfClay,” Hewitt, a former Wimbledon and US Open champion, meanwhile, said.

But what does Nadal’s latest French Open title really mean in the larger scheme of things? He is 24-0 in both the semifinals and finals of the event, and holds an astounding 93-2 record there overall, an amazing 98 percent winning percentage. Those two losses incidentally came in a fourth-round match in 2009 against Robin Soderling and in a quarterfinal in 2015 against current No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who now trails him in Grand Slam titles with a third-running 15.

Greg Rusedski, a former top-ranked British player who was once ranked world No. 4, thinks that Nadal’s feat will be talked about more than 200 years from now.

"This is the unbreakable record," Rusedski told BBC Sport. "Most players don't win 12 titles in their careers; he has won 12 clay-court majors at Roland Garros. When we're dead, in 200 years from now, people will be talking about Rafael Nadal winning 12 French Opens.

"It is incomprehensible. This is the Tour de France of tennis and to do it 12 times is superhuman."

Daniela Hantuchova, the former women’s world No. 5 from Slovakia who now works as a tennis analyst, simply says Nadal’s supremacy at the French Open surpasses anything either Federer or Djokovic has achieved in his career, calling it the “single greatest achievement in tennis.”

This would trump Federer’s record 310 weeks as the Association of Tennis Professionals’ world No. 1 (114 weeks more than Rafa’s sixth-ranked 196 and 45 more than Nole’s fifth-ranked 265), or Roger’s record 347 Grand Slam matches won (that’s 87 more than Rafa’s third-best 260 and 77 more than Nole’s second-best 270), or Roger’s leading 101 tour-level titles (19 more than Nadal’s second-best 82), or even Djokovic’s being the only man to have won all nine Masters 1000 tournaments, or his possibly tying Pete Sampras for the most times with the top rank at the end of the year with six if he ends up 2019 at the top (Nole is currently tied with Federer at five while Nadal has four).

“It’s really difficult to find words to describe what kind of achievement that is,” Hantuchova said of Nadal’s 12 French Open titles. “When you see nice words from other great champions, that just shows you’ve done something extremely special. That hashtag (the ‘King of Clay’) is going to belong to him forever because there’s no one that will ever change the history that Rafa has been able to achieve here at Roland Garros.

“It’s something that we’re not really realizing to the fullest potential, that this will never be broken in any sport, what he is able to do,” the Slovakian declared.

Dissecting Nadal’s four-set victory in this year’s finals against Thiem, Hantuchova said Nadal again showed just how mentally tough he is as he fended off Thiem’s strong challenge particularly in the beginning of their matchup.

“That’s where his mental strength is better than anyone else’s. Obviously it was very disappointing for him to lose that second set,” Hantuchova recalled. “The way he started off playing the third, even better than the first two sets, it was just incredible. From then on, it was just one-way traffic.”

“The physical toll that Rafa puts on you in a 3-out-of-5-set match is perhaps the most underrated thing he does to you. Impossible for anyone to know that hasn’t experienced it first hand,” former world No. 7 Mardy Fish attested, and Hantuchova could only agree with the American’s assessment.

“Dominic did stay with him for two sets but then it almost felt like he hit a little bit of a wall in the third set because it took him so much energy, the first two sets,” the Slovakian said. “Still he was able to fight until the end but this is where Rafa is the best we’ve ever seen on clay. I don’t think we’re still able to appreciate enough what Rafa is doing in sports in general. As (his trainer) Carlos Moya said, maybe in 100 years people will finally realize this is the best thing that ever happened in the sport of tennis for sure.”

So is Rafael Nadal’s 12 French Open titles indeed the greatest accomplishment in tennis? Is it the most unbreakable record of all? Let me share how a respondent to Jon Wertheim’s Sports Illustrated mailbag going by just the name Anthony put it:

“Say what you will about Federer and Djokovic’s incredible records (and they are incredible), but 12?!? TWELVE French Opens? I’d put it at the top of not only tennis’s unbreakable records, but in the top tier of sports’ unbreakable records. The only possibility it has of being broken is if Nadal himself makes it 13, 14, etc. I also really feel for Dominic Thiem. It makes me think of all the generations of players Nadal has prevented from winning the French. First, Federer, as he’s a bit older. Then, his own generation of Djokovic/Ferrer/Wawrinka. Now, it’s Thiem’s gen. Next year, it might be Tsitsipas’s.”

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deathbyignis · 7 years

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Drautos x Reader

I have no idea how this ended up to be so long, but whatever. Annoyed with the lack of love for our Captain, I might have gone a bit overboard. My first foray into FFXV Smut. Very very smutty. You have been warned! You almost fall to your knees as your name is called. The rugged voice of the Captain ringing in your ears. Your brain has shut off, but your sore feet automatically carry your weary body forward to the center of the training ground arena. The chilled air that you breathe feels more like water as strain to inhale. You then wait for the Captain to announce your next opponent. "Luche" comes the bellowing voice from above. The Glaives encircling you begin to laugh and cheer as they know that Luche was praying to the Six, hoping to avoid this matchup. Nonetheless, he arrogantly walks to the center of the arena with his hands held up in a Victory pose. His disgusting display wipes any hesitation you had of facing the gunman away, and replaces it with rage. You steal a glance up to your superior, and your eyes connect. He is amused by Luche's display, and appreciates your reaction. You cannot help but to send him a grin. As you turn your head back to face Douché, you cock your head slightly to the right, anxious to wipe that disgusting smirk off his face. Drautos speaks for all to hear; "You know the rules". "No magic". Your audience of war-hardened Glaives begin to boo their Captain, to which he replies, "No Guns", eliciting even more colorful language from your friends. Without saying a word, Drautos gives them a side-look that only a father could illicit to silence his rowdy children, to which The Glaives make futile attempts to disappear into the ancient walls, which in-turn earns a small chuckle from you. "Knives, swords, and hand-to-hand only". "First blood wins, Understood"? The two opponents lock eyes. You nod. Luche nods. "Good, lets go" comes the voice from the balcony. BOOM! The sound of Drautos' gun erupts in your ears, signifying the start of your tenth battle on this never-ending training day. As is customary in the fine art of samurai, you bow to show respect for your opponent. In this particular instance, however, the bow is not for Luche, but for your Master. Stationed next to Drautos on the balcony, Cor watches you intently with slivered eyes, looking for any mistakes so he can "correct" them in your next training session. Luche quickly raises his knives and steps clumsily to his left, so loud and ungraceful you could land a death-blow on him in the dead of night, you think. Your instinct takes you to your right. And so the dance begins. Luche owns all the tell-tale signs of fear. Sweat collecting on his brow, even on this rare chilly, overcast day. His eyes race from your hands, to your feet, to your eyes, and back again. His movements are jumpy and skittish. His visible breath is quick and shallow. This is what happens when Luche has his toy guns taken away. Coward You must admit, though, that you too weren't your usual self. After fighting your entire platoon of Glaives, you were tired and hungry and just done. Drautos locking all of you up in the training ground at 4:00am yesterday and seemingly working and starving the lot of you to death, was his way of "simulating real-world war conditions". Asshole. One more, you thought to yourself. One more victory and you could go home, take a luxurious hot bath, eat a delicious dinner, crawl up to your man, and get some sleep. Just.One.More. And so the not-so elegant dance dragged on for several minutes. Growing weary of watching this man make a fool of himself, and desperate to get out of here, you roll your eyes, take a deep breath, and you strike at Luche with the speed and ferocity of a Coeurl. First swing to his head, then to his torso, immediately down to his thighs. Luche shifted north, south, east and west to avoid the razor-sharp blade that was whistling all around him. Your goal was not to maim or kill the man, however amusing that may have been, but to get him on the dirt floor so you could end this quickly and efficiently, and just go home. Desperately out of his element, the gunman did his best to put distance between himself and his samurai foe, and after several successful dodge rolls and blocks, Luche clumsily tripped and face-planted himself a mere 10 feet from you. The strange sound his vocal chords made as he hit the floor reminded you of spring days in Duscae hunting Anaks. Whoopsies. Cheers and applause from his peers erupted in the small arena as he looked up at you pathetically, silently begging for you to take mercy...he had an image to uphold, after all. He was a terrible mess. His normally well-groomed dome was disheveled, and he had a pretty bad raspberry on his chin from the fall. You almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Looking directly into his eyes, you raise your blade just enough to place it on his clavicle. At that moment it was Luche who sprung. Pushing the blade away from himself with his forearm, he raised his leg, reaching for something at his ankle. A gun. He pulls the huge revolver it out of its holster, hand shaking uncontrollably. Luche then jets himself upright to his feet, and points the massive thing square-on at your head. You stop moving. Coward The End, you think, as you stare with disdain and disgust into your opponents eyes. He was heaving, mouth open, pupils blown, eyes darting from you, to the balcony, to your crew, and back again. Being careful not to upset him greater, you simply lower your gaze, sheath your sword, and wait for Drautos to sound his gun signaling that the match had ended. You wait. And wait. Perplexed at the silence, you furrow your brow and turn your gaze to the balcony above. Looking down upon his two soldiers was Drautos. Smug grin on his face. Your eyes connect and you silently beg him to end this. Drautos, ever the gentleman, throws his hands in the air as if to say "continue, please". Asshole. You turn back to Luche, gaze still lowered so as to not tip him off to your next move. Sword still sheathed, you throw it onto the ground in defeat, and as a true samurai does, you kneel to accept your fate. In that moment, Luche made is fatal mistake. He lowered his gun to his side....and smiled. Your hand shot up so fast he had no time to react. The wall you surrounded yourself with gave him zero opportunity to land his shot when he fired a round at your head. As fast as your wall went up, it came down again and a bolt of lightning hit him square in his abdomen, sending him flying into the concrete wall behind him. Clearly stunned from possible head trauma, he tried to regain some sense of lucidity as you approached his position, your face and chest rose-red with anger. The gun was within his grasp, a mere two feet from his hand, so you quickly kicked it away with such intensity that it slammed into Tredd's boot, standing some 20 feet away with the other Glaives. Looking down at Luche, you kneeled next to him and dragged the sharp nail of your thumb along his cheek, an instant four-inch welt appearing, a minuscule trail of blood making its way southward. Taking hold of his chin, you force his head to the side away from you. You position your lips within millimeters of his ear, and use the faintest whisper to ensure he understands who won. "First Blood". BOOM! Your chest heaving, you stand, and turn to glare at Drautos. Your breath hitched. Bloody hell curse the Six! No wonder your peers were being uncharacteristically quiet. Standing between Drautos and Cor was The King himself. Your eyes darted from one man, to the next, and back again. "Bravo" shouted King Regis from his perch. "Bravo"! "Never have I seen a Glaive utilize my magic in such a manner, a rare treat indeed"! Stunned, you turn to look at your crew. They are all kneeled, looking at the ground nervously. You turn back and drop instantly to one knee and begin your apologies. "Forgive me, your majesty, I did not realize..." "Stand, please...all of you". After the day you have had, you really didn't feel like standing, but you rose up in unison with the rest of the Glaives. You sneak a look over your shoulder at Pelna, silently asking your friend "WTF"? He shakes his head, and starts counting the rocks on the dirt floor. "What is your name, Glaive"? The king asks in a much softer tone than before. Glancing up to see who King Regis is addressing, you see that his almond shaped eyes are peering directly into your soul. "Y/N", your majesty" "Lovely, and where are you from"? "Born in Tenebrae, your majesty". "Wonderful. We should have much to discuss over dinner". Of course, leave it to fate to get a bug stuck in your throat at that very moment. You begin to cough uncontrollably, believing that the king just asked you out for a date while your love is listening. Sensing the source of your coughing fit, King Regis chuckles toward Drautos and elaborates on his invitation. "You are all invited, of course. But for now, I must take my leave. Fine work, Titus. It would please me greatly to see all of you tomorrow evening". Drautos nods and gives you a grin. As the King exits the training grounds, small audible chuckles can be heard in unison with your hacking. You do the only thing you can. You fall back down to your knees and throw up what little liquid is left in your stomach. Crowe is instantly at your side, not knowing if she should laugh or cry. Maybe both? "You ok there, sister"? "Fine" you say hoarsely as you silently beg the Six to return moisture to your still ticklish throat. Suddenly you recall the battle happening just moments ago, and your eyes dart over to Luche. He is still on the ground, mumbling something about Yojimbo. Tredd and Sonitus are applying potions to his head and face, shaking their heads while shooting you darts. You look back at Crowe, who by this point is pissing herself with laughter. "Stop", you plead with her. "Not if I wanted to" she replies, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "He's fiiine" Nyx interupts. "Should have never brought that gun out in the first place, you'd have no cause to fuck him up like that if only he would have played fair" he says, mocking Luche. You shoot him a knowing grin and nod your head. "He got what he deserved" Nyx says giving you a hand to raise you to your feet. "Whatever, I'm fried like a three minute egg. I'm going home" you state so quietly with utter exhaustion that only Nyx and Crowe can hear. You take one last look at Drautos, wave goodbye to him and Cor to gauge their reaction, and when there is no dissent, you take your broken body home. --------------------- The hot bath is heaven. Your tight muscles melt away and the fight with Luche seems little more than an after-thought. You decide to not think of it at all, and sink your body lower beneath the water line. Your slumber is interrupted by the sound of a dog going crazy downstairs. You turn your head in the direction of the annoyance, and listen for a moment, when there is a break in the noise. Calm overtakes your spirit once more when the little shit starts back up again. Daddy is home. The door to your utopia creaks open, and you hear the scraping of little feet on the tile floor, tiny whimpers echo in the small bathroom, but you cannot conjure the strength to open your eyes and greet your audience. "How are you feeling" he asks softly, approaching the tub gingerly. "Fine, no thanks to you" you reply quietly, eyelids still heavy as concrete blocks. You hear him sigh, and he leans in to give you a gentle kiss. He pulls away and you blindly chase his sweet lips. You have yet to lay your eyes on him since exiting the training grounds, but listening to the sounds of him removing his layers of clothing is quite possibly the most amazing symphony your ears have ever heard. "Scoot up sweetheart", he whispers, gently touching the back of your neck. You have no desire to move, but you follow his orders and do as you are told. He steps into the tub, his large frame pushing water out onto the tile floor as he sinks further down. When he is fully seated behind you, he puts his hands around your waist and gently pulls you back to lay on his immense chest. Gentle kisses pepper the top of your head, temple, and cheek as you raise your hand up to caress the back of his neck, he speaks. "Mmm, you're an amazing woman", he says as he wraps you in his arms around you and gently caresses your abdomen,. "I love watching you in training". You sigh deeply, reach down under the water and pinch the interior of his thigh causing him to jump, spilling no less than two more gallons of hot water onto the bathroom floor. "Ow! What was that for" he asks, feigning pain, while trying to hold back a chuckle. Your eyes still closed, back nestled into his chest, you don't have energy for much more than a whisper. "That was for today, asshole". You can feel his smile appear in the crook of your neck. Seeing as though it is a rare delicacy for you lately, you finally have a reason to open your tired eyes. Using his thighs for leverage, you quickly spin yourself around to see it. There it is. The thing you love most about his beautiful face, but it has eluded you for months now. You decided weeks ago that it was stress. Stress from the job, stress from hiding your relationship, stress from the Kings decisions, stress from the rambunctiousness of his Glaives. You study his sweet dimpled grin like it was the painting of Etro in the Citadel. The grin fades and he looks you dead in the eyes. "I'm tired" he says, barely above a whisper. You stare into his eyes quizzically, believing that you had set the perfect trap, he eagerly walked into it, and now he doesn't want to fuck? "I'm tired of hiding this...us". The tears came so quickly, it was like you walked into an onion factory. Eyes burning, you cup his chin, raise his face to yours, and kiss him square on his bee-stung lips. It was gentle and sweet...at first. When his mouth opened fully, you knew boss-man meant business. He lifted you slightly so you could straddle his waist, and with one swift movement you were being lifted up and out of the tub while your tongue wrestled for dominance with his. As he carried you swiftly to your bedroom, you moved your attention to his ear, neck, and clavicle areas licking every inch you could reach....it was important that his vision was not impeded by your head...wouldn't want to take another spill because he couldn't see where he was going. Matching non-battle related injuries are difficult to explain in the Kingsglaive, a lesson learned well. He is so strong. You love that about him. He is so gentle. A part of him that you love more. When you reach your destination, he places you on the bed, with the gentleness one would use with a newborn. Legs still wrapped tightly around his waist, you begin to grind your clit against his already hard cock. He delves his tongue into your hungry mouth and it becomes harder for you both to breath. Hands are everywhere, flying blind. As he pulls away, you let out a small groan, to ensure he knows you are not happy about it. He chuckles, places his full weight on your eager body, his muscular arms wrap underneath your shoulders, he places his hands on each side of your sopping wet head to ensure you had nowhere else to look, and drops a bomb. "I love you". This was new territory...he had never said those words to you before. Not sure if he had used them ever. Cue the onions. "I love you", you rasp, and kiss his chin. This has not been an easy relationship for either of you to maintain for a multitude of reasons, but especially given the secrecy. The Kingsglaive & Crownsguard is much like a co-ed dormitory. Everyone knows everyone else's business, and eventually everyone has fucked someone in the dorm. You had been propositioned multiple times by multiple Glaives & CGs for dates, be it coffee, dinner, bar crawls, and on more than a few occasions, just to fuck. You wanted so many times over the past two years to tell the man-sluts like Tredd and Luche to "go ask The Captain" if it was ok for them to fuck his girl, just to watch them literally piss themselves. Titus never wanted this. You never wanted this. He is your boss, in charge of dealing out life-and-death assignments, including your own. In his past life, pre-Lucis, he lost everyone he cared about to war, ensuring he would spend his life repelling any and all invaders of his heart. Your history in Tenebrae was as horrific as it gets for a young bride forced into marriage. You married very young, believing in love and Santa and leprechauns and happily-ever-afters. The constant rapes and beatings you suffered for 18 months up until the day of your escape three years ago, introduced you to the harsh realities of life. There is no such thing as a fairy tale, even if you do marry a prince. You were adamant that you would never allow another man access to hurt you again. The two of you don't even mention the twenty-three year age difference. But here you are. Wrapped around each other, not giving a single fuck about your past lives. Each believing that the other is worth all the risks. After the gentleness of that sweet moment, you were brought back to your present, your body being ravished by the man you loved and respected. His sweet plump lips release yours, descend slightly south, and wrap themselves around your tender nipple. Titus' skilled tongue teases you in a way only he could, spinning rapid circles before the entirety of his mouth engulfs your little tit, trying to suck the whole thing in. Your breathing became shallow as he took your other titty and performed the same magic maneuver upon it while never losing connection with the first by rubbing the nipple between his thumb and index fingers. "Shit", you whispered, grabbing the back of his head and arching your back off the mattress in a silent plea for more. "Mmmm, you like how I do that", he asked between nibbles. "You know I do baby" you sigh in return. Nothing he could do would ever arouse you faster than playing with your little mounds. What your breasts lack in mass, they more than make up for in performance. It was the fastest route to your core, and he was taking the express lanes tonight. You could remember eleven times exactly when you came hard, just with tit play. Titus is the champion of tit play. You know he is in a good mood tonight, as he smiled for the third time within the hour. Laying gentle, open-mouth kisses down the center of your ribs and abdomen, he continues southbound until his knees are on the floor. Titus reaches up with his right hand to lift your left leg up. "Time for my dinner" he says coyly. You raise yourself up onto your elbows and look at him. "Sorry I didn't cook for you tonight, my boss ran my ass off today" you retort, arching an eyebrow. Another grin. And with that he takes your right thigh in his left hand, spreading you fully, and gives you a full swipe of his glorious tongue from your ass to your clit. "Fuck"! He does it Again. "Uh" And Again. "Gods, baby, fuck me with your tongue". Your affirmation spurred him on as Titus latches onto your clit with the ferocity of a starving man invited to an all-you-can eat buffet. You decide to be a good hostess and vow to feed him well. You place your feet upon his broad shoulders and raise your cunt higher into his mouth. You feel the heat from his tongue spread throughout your body, chest burning, bath water in your hair turning to sweat, small pool between your little tits. The nasty sound of him lapping up your juices just makes you gyrate even more into his face, and he grabs hold of your hips in a futile attempt to slow your roll. Full stop. You look down with a silent plea and see only his beautiful green eyes peering at you from above your mound. Another grin. You know what is about to happen, and you smile back while bracing for impact. His eyes divert back to your cunt and he slams two of his oversized fingers into your sopping wet hole. Gasping for air, you dig your nails into the forearm still holding your right hip, tears forming in your eyes. "Oh Gods, thank you". Another grin. You watch him through lidded eyes as he lifts himself to one knee and turns his body slightly to his right to gain more leverage...he is strategically planning his full-on assault of your body. "Here we go" he whispers to himself. He's not fucking around tonight and sets an unprecedented pace for finger-fucking. Legs spread open, you grab onto your inner thighs and pull hard because, well, not much else you can do in a moment like this. Titus' eyes dart from your sopping cunt to your sweaty face and back again to gauge how long he has until your sweet nectar comes flooding out of your body. Not long as it turns out, as it only takes a few more deep pumps of his long, manly fingers for you to lose your mind. He pulls them out quickly, and you can hear the spray hit him in his face as your body spasms. Not yet content, he begins to tongue fuck you again, licking you clean, and you cum once more to his delight. "Fuck babe, I love this shit" he says, spreading your pussy lips wide as his eyes peer over your mound once more. He gives your swollen bud one more languid kiss, flicks your clit several times with the tip of his tongue, and raises himself to his feet. He towers over you, his hands landing at your sides, he stares at your heaving, sweaty body, admiring the mess he has turned you into. You feel like you should look at him lovingly after he so enjoyed the meal you prepared, but lust is in your eyes, and now you are the famished one. You glance down at his fat cock hanging just inches above your wet hole. Beautiful. You feel it instantly. That sharp bee sting deep in your pussy that tells you that you need to be fucked. Fucked hard. Fucked hard right the fuck now. "Get on your back" you command, in a voice that lets him know that you're not fucking around, either. Titus loves it when you take charge. "Eh, eh, eh...What's the magic word"? "Now"! Well, he wasn't going to argue with that, and he completed his mission without further complaint. You were on him before his shoulders hit the mattress, straddling his waist, grabbing his swollen member and rubbing the thick mushroom-head against your slick entrance. Satisfied that he was sufficiently lubed by your own juices, you got to your feet, took a deep breath, and began your descent. The only difficult part in giving Titus entry was always the bulbous head of his cock. Once that entered your pussy, everything else was easy. But damn. "Fuck" you murmured to yourself as you pushed yourself downward. Titus placed his hands on your knees, and looked intently at your face. He didn't like this part because he knew it caused you discomfort, but he also knew a trick to help things along. Titus brought his hands up to your breasts and began tweaking your nipples. Your leg began to shake, and he broke through. The hard part was over, so you lowered yourself the rest of the way until he was fully sheathed inside your warmth. The sensation sent waves of pleasure throughout you and your hips jerked up a couple of times. Your body was wide awake now, and began to move fluidly, and seemingly on its own accord. Hips starting a delicate dance of back and forth, hands grabbing at his chest, breath shallow and quick. You began with slow, methodical strokes up and down while closely watching his beautiful face for responses to your ministrations. "Fuck baby, you feel so good" he mumbles, his beautiful expressive face lets you know he isn't lying. You smile, more to yourself than him as his eyes are closed, and you begin to pick up speed. Eyebrows flutter up at the change in pace, so you increase your uptake and drop, which contorts his face into another direction. His quick but heavy breathing tell you that it won't be long. You drop your upper body onto his so you're chest-to-chest, your mouth within millimeters of his ear. "Feel good baby"? You whisper, followed by a long swipe of your tongue tracing his ear, ending in a teasing suck of his lobe. "Fuck yes"! He gives back a loving slap on your ass. "I love your fucking cock"! You say with a growl as you push yourself upright and increase your speed, slamming yourself down onto his cock, becoming hyper-aware of the sound your bodies make as they connect. "Fuck....I love how you fuck me" he groans, and in that moment you know he is holding himself back. But you don't want him to. He is turning a deep shade of magenta, blood vessels in his neck are enlarged, and his breathing is erratic. He is ready. His body covered in sweat now, you place your hands flat on his slick chest and give him one more command. "Cum for me Titus"! In an instant, he wraps his arms around you, pulling your body tight to him. You raise your lower body, but not much, and he begins to pound into you mercilessly, his cock reaching places deep in your body you had no idea existed. His giant hand reaches up to grab a fist full of your hair and he brings you close so the two of you nose-to-nose. "I want to cum inside" he begs. "Give it to me" your reply comes in jagged bursts as he continues his brutal pace. Both of you soaked in sweat, you grab his head and give him quick flicks of your tongue at the base of his jaw before engulfing his flesh. He reaches for your little mounds and squeezes them before using his trick to send you tumbling over the edge. Your cunt immediately cliches his cock into a vice grip of ecstasy, and he joyfully follows you over that cliff, jointly committing the most beautiful form of suicide. You stay positioned on his chest and locked in his arms for some while, not wanting nor willing to move from your personal haven. As your breathing and heart rates begin to return to normal, he pulls out of you, and the two of you roll in unison so he has you pinned beneath him once more. Titus cups your head in his hands, as he did before, and swipes the wild wisps of soaked hair from your face with his thumbs. "I love you" he reiterates. You smile at his touch, look up to your beloved, and reach up to bring him in for a kiss. But he pulls away. A solitary tear falls from his eye. "I need to tell you something".

#FFXV #kingsglaive #nyx ulric #titus drautos #luche lazarus

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combatnewsnation · 5 years

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MMA Top 5 Pound for Pound

As a long time fan of MMA, the UFC matchmaking in recent years has been the best it's ever been. Going into 2018 my most anticipated match ups were Khabib vs Conor and the Jones vs Gustafsson rematch, which the UFC delivered on. Even the recent announcements are amazing and I’ll be tuning in to some great match ups scheduled all spring and summer. With that being said we’ve also seen a good amount of super fights and champion vs champion match ups. As of right now there doesn’t look to be any more super fights in the works, as most of the divisions have newly crowned champions or clear cut contenders in the rankings. That makes this a good time to make a pound for pound list based on what i factor into pound for pound. There are many factors to consider when making these which is why everyone’s opinions tend to differ so much compared to boxing, however I’ve narrowed mine down to these 5 in this order.

1. Skill Level in all areas (striking, clinch work, ground)

2. Level of opposition beaten

3. Gameplanning/ fight iq

4. Physical attributes (speed, reach, KO power, etc..)

5. Heart (will to win, determination)

Here is my list for the top 5 pound for pound fighters in the world today:

5. Amanda Nunes (UFC Bantamweight & Featherweight Champion)

This was the toughest spot to determine with plenty of other fighters who could make a good case but looking at what Nunes has done you cannot deny her. She has the skills in all areas, KO power like a female Tyson and one of best resumes in the sport male or female. First she destroyed Miesha Tate to win the title and that was more of a beat down than competitive fight. Then gave Ronda Rousey an even worse beat down in her return and attempt to reclaim the title. Defended against probably the most well rounded and skilled women’s fighter in Shevchenko in a hard fought decision. Her greatest feat in my eyes that propels her to this height on the list is knocking out Cris Cyborg, who was on a 20 fight win streak, looked unbeatable and is naturally bigger and fights 10 Ibs above Nunes’ weight class, was considered the women's GOAT. For Nunes to go and knock her out in that fashion, instantly makes her the GOAT for women’s mma.

4. Max Holloway (UFC Featherweight Champion)

Out of every fighter on this list Holloway is the youngest and really has potential to be number one for many years if he continues the momentum he has right now. Holloway is currently on the longest win streak in the UFC with 13 consecutive wins and most of those wins coming against in my eyes against the toughest level of opposition other than the number one fighter on this list. He came in at 20 years old basically as just a striker and has evolved into one of the most well rounded fighters in the sport. His boxing skills, footwork, cardio and pace is just a puzzle that no one's been able to solve while hes on this run, and he gets better every fight. Beating Pettis a former lightweight champ for his interim title and then beating Aldo for the undisputed belt twice is such an impressive feat. Both of those guys were at some point in the top 5 pound for pound and then he goes on to dominate Ortega in a one sided beat down of a title fight. He just gets better every fight and if he is successful in his next fight against Poirier for the interim lightweight title next weekend, it sets up a clash for pound for pound status against the next entry..

3. Khabib Nurmagomedov (UFC Lightweight Champion)

Years before Khabib was even in the top rankings the mma world usually referred to him as the “uncrowned champion”. Now that he is the champion we see what the hype was about, as he’s displayed the best grappling skills, tenacity and high pace we’ve ever seen against other top competition. There’s not much else to say all we’ve seen him do is get a hold of his opponent and just maul them round after round. His striking and stand up skills has also come a long way which he displayed in his two most recent fights with Conor and Iaquinta. His skills are undeniable and his fights with Johnson, Barboza, Iaquinta and Conor were complete dominations other than a select few moments in fights. He’s one of the few fighters that look to be almost unbeatable, with a 27-0 record, almost unheard of in the sport. The only factor holding him back from being number one is oppositions he’s faced. Not to discredit him any way because i do believe he’s the best lightweight in the world and favour him to win against anyone in the division. I can’t ignore the fact that Ferguson and Poirier have both fought against tougher and more stiff opposition on their rise through the ranks and arguably have a better resume of recent wins. I don’t think a bout with Poirier would be very competitive, however him vs Ferguson is the fight needed to establish who the best lightweight is and establish Khabib as the greatest lightweight of all time and possibly fighter of all time.

2. Daniel Cormier (UFC Heavyweight Champion)

DC is one of the greatest wrestlers the sport has ever seen, and has used that world class wrestling base to rise to the status of one of the greatest of all time. He has beaten and dominated almost all of his opposition except one man, and had a close hard fought win over Gustafsson. His clinchwork and dirty boxing is one of the hardest to deal with for any opponent, he has an amazing chin and big KO power in his hands, especially has a heavyweight. He also has one of the best resumes ever beating names like Stipe, Gustafsson, Rumble Johnson, and Henderson. His greatest feat which puts him this high on the list is holding both the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles at once, the second fighter ever to do it after Conor, against a much more dominant champion than Conor beat to win his second title. The story of Cormier’s career would be picture perfect and he might be regarded as the greatest of all time if he happened to exist in another era. However there is one fighter that has been his kryptonite in terms fighting and championship legacy and he also happens to be number one on this list..

1. Jon Jones (UFC Light Heavyweight Champion)

Jon Jones the current UFC light heavyweight champion where do you start. Firstly i’ll address the controversy surrounding his drug tests and failures for PEDs. If you do not agree with him being on the list due to the drug cheating controversy you have every right to feel that way and i would not argue against you. With that being said he is still an active fighter at the moment and the commissions clear to him to fight so being as objective as possible I include him on the list. Now to his fighting, Jones was the youngest champion ever at just 23 years old and has never been beaten in the cage. Skill wise he checks all the boxes coming in as a wrestler, now developed into one of the most dynamic strikers and most well rounded fighter in the world. He also has the most impressive resume of any fighter ever to me here’s just a short list: Cormier 2x, Gustafsson 2x, Machida, Evans, Shogun, Rampage, Vitor etc..

That’s 6 former champions he's beaten more than any other fighter ever and other than his first fight with Gustafsson he’s dominated every single one of them. He has the longest reach in UFC history and manages distance better than any fighter i’ve ever seen, and has the heart to dig deep even when losing which he showed in the first Gustafsson fight to edge out the decision in the championship rounds. Since his comeback he beat Gustafsson to clear up any debate in that matchup finishing him this time and also outclassed Anthony Smith for 5 rounds. He's fighting smarter than ever now and with his skills, physical attributes and approach. I don’t see him losing at light heavyweight however he does have one weakness in his game but i think only a select few fighters have the skill to exploit it and execute it at heavyweight where one punch is all it takes.

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whirofinvention-blog · 5 years

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My Brief Encounter With the Sun

It has been a while since I've posted here, at least relative to the rate I would like to be posting and to the events I would like to be attending. To start, I guess I should come clean and admit I didn't attend GP Portland. By now I've drafted three separate posts about my not attending, but they all sounded self-indulgent. Instead of a dedicated post, here's the bullet points:

- I did not know anyone playing in the main event. When I started this blog, I knew two people locked in to the event, but leading up to the event they all dropped out. This is not the end of the world, but it is nice to have friends around to celebrate and commiserate with.

- My deck choice was up in the air. As I have mentioned before, I own Hardened Scales and Lantern Control. My results leading up to the GP with Scales were middling at best. Lantern on the other hand has a better track record, but underperforms against skilled opponents. Plus both are faced with the daunting amount of sideboard hate present for KCI decks right now.

-Lastly, and most importantly, social anxiety was the big roadblock. This is something I have struggled with for awhile. It is far from crippling, but it is stifling at times. I get in my own head about it. Though the other two points were factors, they probably could have been ignored. My anxiety just let them become excuses.

There were still silver linings. I had a great time at the event site with friends playing EDH, and I bought and sold a lot of cardboard.

Plus, the Friday of the GP, I registered for Oakland. Maybe that little bit of disappointment in myself was the perfect push to get me to register for Oakland.

If you're reading this, it means you probably keep up with Magic pretty frequently and are already aware that I did not top 8 the GP this past weekend. It was the most successful weekend (in fact it was pretty heartbreaking), but I had a great time. Friday night I got into Oakland pretty late so did not have time to go to the convention center. Instead I went to the home of my friend David and his partner Kayla who graciously housed me this weekend. We ate some dinner and stayed up way too late drinking, catching up and playing games of Scales versus Mono-Red Phoenix.

Saturday, we got up and made our way to the hall for what was going to be a long day. Before Round 1, I got my beautiful full-art Bolt promo as well as my not-so-beautiful Tigtone playmat and sat down for my first round. Unfortunately for me, I got paired against a pretty rough matchup to start my tournament: UB Faeries. If you have never read the card Mistbind Clique, I would suggest giving it a look cause it is a very messed up card. We went to game 3, but ultimately, the tempo power of his deck combined with his suite of removal and counters proved to strong for my robots.

Round 2 can be described pretty easily. If you are playing against TitanShift and your opponent fails to ever draw a Primeval Titan or a Scapeshift, then their deck looks pretty atrocious.

The following round was the one that really hurt. Most of it is a blur besides the last turn. My opponent was on Grixis Death's Shadow and sitting at 5 life with a few cards, two shocks, a fetch, and a Gurmag and Death's Shadow. I had three lands (2 Nexus, 1 Citadel), a Hangarback on 4 counters with and activation up, a Mox, and a Ravager on three counters at 15 life. My opponent cantrips main phase, plays a second fetch, and goes to combat swinging with both. I know that if he has a Temur Battle Rage, and I don't block the Death's Shadow, I am dead, so I immediately block the Shadow. He then goes to 1 life by fetching a shock and fetching a basic and TBR's the Shadow. I activate Hangarback and the Inkmoth and sacrifice all of my permanents besides the Welding Jar and a Thopter to the Ravager. We do the math. I have a 13/13 Ravager to his 12/12 Shadow. He tramples over for 11 and deals 5 with the Gurmag for lethal. There were two mistakes I made here. The first you may have noticed. If I was going to sac the Hangarback, why not block the Gurmag first. This one felt bad. The other was that I simply did the math wrong and thought the attack put me to 14.

This round spawned the quote of the weekend when I texted Dave: "I just punted my round 3 into the fucking sun." Unfortunately for Dave, he also made a round losing misplay this round, so we vented to each other which helped. Having a friend around can really help alleviate the anger/stress/sadness from moments like this.

Round 4 is where my tournament ended. My opponent was on Devoted Evolution. Game 1 I had a Hardened Scales and Ballista and was able to kill all his creatures easily. The other two games he assembled infinite mana and a mana dump with the first four turns. The only really relevant statistic I have is that all of the games where I resolved a Hardened Scales and was able to put a +1/+1 counter on a creature while it was out, I won easily. The deck felt extremely strong in those instances, and it won a couple games without the Enchantment. Overall, I can't be too disappointed given the amount of preparation I put into things and walked away proud of the fact that even though I scrubbed out early, I took my opponents to game 3 every time and had a nice time.

The rest of the weekend was side events which were super fun. I managed to play a couple Battlebond drafts with Dave which were great, but I want to quickly tell you about my ridiculous Ultimate Masters draft.

The draft started with me taking a Demonic Tutor and getting passed an Unholy Hunger followed by a blue card. Pick 4 I saw a Spider Spawning and went all in. By the end of the draft I had an absolutely insane U/B/g self-mill deck that's win cons were pretty much just a Spider Spawning, Rise from the Tides and a Lab Man I picked up pack 3 pick 7. Round 1 I was paired against Dave, of course, and proceeded to slowly crush his U/W Heroic deck and killed him with Lab Man in 2 quick games. Round 2 didn't go as well. I got paired against the only other competent drafter at the table who was on G/W Heroic and made a 4/4 on turn 3 both games while holding up protection for it. After the games, my opponent told me that she thought my deck was the sweetest and probably the only other good deck in the pod which was nice.

There's not much else to say about the event, except it was a ton of fun, and I am already looking forward to the next one (GPLA in March maybe?).

Before I end things, I feel obligated to talk about the bannings announcement scheduled for two weeks from now. I know most of the world will never read this, but I want to stake a claim and call my shot now.

Modern has a problem that needs to be fixed: KCI. In a typical tournament 4 of the top 8 decks being the same archetype isn't the end of the world, but KCI has been showing a dominant performance in the modern metagame for months now. No matter how many copies of Stony Silence and Rest in Peace are running around, the deck still puts up amazing results. Plus the addition of Sai has made it so some games they just attack you to death. None of this even takes into account how the deck can have 10 minute turns and is a nightmare to sit down across at your local FNM.

As I see it there are a few different permutations for possible bans and unbans that may be on the horizon.

The first, and perhaps most vocalized ban, is Ancient Stirrings. This card is probably the best card draw spell in Modern and sees play in KCI, so it seems like the logical card to target with a ban. Unfortunately, I don't think banning it would actually do too much to KCI. If it were banned, I would expect the deck to just abandon green in favor of more blue sources to take advantage of Whir of Invention. Plus, if you ban Ancient Stirrings, then you are also hurting Tron, Amulet, Hardened Scales, and Lantern/4-Color Prison. Some people might say that it is for the good of the format to take the card out of it, but I have to ask, when is it good for a format to hurt 5 different decks with one banning?

The next most likely banning in my eyes is Faithless Looting. Much like Ancient Stirrings, this card is extremely powerful and is the only other card in the running for most powerful draw spell in the format (at least in my eyes). Looting is almost never used as a fair card and has shown how strong it can be in the recent resurgence of Dredge as well as the new Arclight Phoenix decks. The only reason I write about it here is I believe you cannot ban Ancient Stirrings without also banning Looting. If you get rid of Stirrings it will make the Looting decks stronger in the format. Now, if you ban both of them, you would be hurting a huge chunk of the format. Maybe this is what WotC wants. A fairer looking field of decks in modern. Personally, I don't want to play a format where the combo decks are Storm and CoCo with the other decks all being things like GBx, UW Control and Spirits. I cannot imagine a world where they ban just Looting and not Stirrings as well.

This brings me to the card that people have been asking about banning almost as much as Stirrings. Krark-Clan Ironworks. KCI as a deck obviously couldn't exist without the card KCI. The free sacrifice outlet is powerful and maybe is too powerful for Modern. It creates the mana to cast the spells. If WotC banned KCI, I think it would be a fine decision while only impacting one deck in the format.

Still, I don't think banning KCI is the answer. The card has potential and provides a unique effect to the format, that could see other uses. Maybe people start turbo-ing out their Emrakuls or making giant Walking Ballistas with it. I don't know, but the options are there. Scrap Trawler on the other hand doesn't really seem to have the same potential and is the card I would most like to see banned. If KCI makes the mana, Scrap Trawler is the part that makes the loops actually happen. It gets you back the Spheres and Stars to draw the cards. Plus, it is hard for me to imagine this card ever doing anything other than degenerate interactions with egg-like artifacts. Just like with KCI, banning this would have no effect on the format other than hurting KCI, but I think KCI has more potential for fair things and for that reason should be left in the format.

A few other thoughts I have on the current ban list. Though at this point in time it is pretty much a meme, I do believe Stoneforge Mystic would be a safe unban. It is rare that I find myself in a game where Stoneforge Mystic would be too good. Though it is a powerful card and will assuredly see play in fair decks, modern has become a strong enough format over the past few years that I doubt it would be an issue right now.

The other unbanning I could see happening, and actually want to happen more, is Preordain. Green and Red should not have the best one-mana cantrips in modern. Blue is the card draw color and blue deserves the best cantrip. There are a few worries with unbanning Preordain, specifically blue based combo decks like Storm would become oppressive. That may happen, but I believe that has more to do with storm being a bad mechanic than Preordain being too strong for the format. Plus, I think this might be the best solution to avoid having to ban Stirrings and Looting anytime soon. Maybe this would make the format too combo-centric, but this isn't Legacy where we have Ponder and Brainstorm. Fair blue decks would play Preordain and be better off for it.

Also, they should unban Punishing Fire just to see what the fuck happens.

Well, then. See ya soon I guess. Next time I will probably write about an EDH deck.

#modern #magic #magic the gathering #modern magic #hardened scales #gpoakland

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