Looks like Jim sent out some PMs to try to get more players.

I'll probably play the round with one card blind. I'm not likely to participate actively in any season without a silly ban, though.

This season has Panoptic Mirror on the ban list. That's every bit as silly as Wood Elemental or Flying Men, all being cards nobody uses or even considers except for comic value.


I've submitted a deck this week I've never submitted before (and hadn't even thought I'd seen before). A scan through the archives indicates it has appeared before, submitted by another player ... it hasn't done well, but hope springs eternal that this is the right meta for it.

It doesn't tickle my funny bone, though.

If someone submitted a deck that doesn't actually do anything until turn 9 (the earliest a Panoptic Mirror deck would actually be able to start casting its wincon spell), I'd at least chuckle.

it could beat some slower island sanctuary decks with lightning bolt, and probably draw some faster decks by hard-casting the bolt instead

Vanilla Redux Spreadsheet!

The middling result I expected and deserved. I expect a lot of middling results here though. At a quick glance, I think this will be one of the lowest variance rounds yet. The Blast decks may be the winners, and they're under 4.0 average. After only 2 rows were filled out it was already established that there were no undefeated decks (there were 2 last round). On closer look, it appears every deck scores at least 2 6's and at least 2 0's.

GS: Mana Vault is better than Mana Crypt in cast-a-4-cost-colorless-thing-on-t1.dec. Mana Crypt always hits you for 3 because random rule, Mana Vault only hits you for 1, giving you a much less oppressive clock if you're racing. One of my final candidates was much the same deck (cast-a-4-cost-colorless-thing-on-t1.dec), but with Thought-Knot Seer as my colorless 4-drop of choice, and Mana Vault as its masochistic mana rock.

i considered mana vault, i figured that mental misstep is generally going to be a much bigger threat given the current banned list configuration and lodestone's 5 power helps with outracing on the draw

(turn 1 thought-knot seer almost certainly would have to go with mana vault though)

How does Lodestone Golem beat Aether Vial?

This round involves two deadlines, so make sure to get a submission in by Monday night!

New Round: One Card Open
Mark one card in your deck as "open". After the first deadline, all "open" cards are revealed to everyone and players may change their other two cards until the second deadline.
Begins Friday, September 9th
1st Deadline: Monday, September 12th
2nd Deadline: Wednesday, September 14th

So, a Lotus festival? Revealing a Black Lotus is probably the least revealing choice. Or maybe Undiscovered Paradise, but that seems much lower in power than a Lotus deck.

One question: why do we even have to submit three cards for the first deadline? Why not just the open card?

So that if you submit something by Monday but forget to make your Wednesday resubmission, at least you have a deck to put in the grid, even if youn haven't made any informed reactive decision from it.

If a lot of Loti show in the reveal, ArtifactBlast.dec/DisruptingShoal.dec will have a field day. Assuming those decks actually showed a valid card for that (like a Dryad Arbor or Chorge). Even other Lotus decks will likely run a threat and Chalice of the Void and take the at-least-3 off the other Lotus decks.

Thinks "this is the round everyone will play Artifact Blast"...plays a deck vulnerable to Blast . At least I feel slightly better about not playing dual mayor because I thought people might overthink and play a bunch of anti-land tech.

PosV noted for our matchup:
"Are you sure this isn't 3? I see that I win when I'm on the play, but can't figure out the line when I'm on the draw. Seems like if I play Chancellor you win the race and I can't wait out smallpox because you'll win if I try."

No, I'm not entirely sure. Token swarm vs token swarm is always a logic nightmare. But the fact that you can Vial in your Mayor during my end step on a turn I played no spells and thus pop out a sacrifical wolf before I can smallpox really does seem to lean towards you.

I see 3 scenarios: one in which Smallpox is played after Mayor lands, one in which it's played as soon as possible, and one in which it's delayed one turn (and played in the first turn you otherwise would have been able to end-step in your Mayor, which you could still do but the transform would be pushed back a turn).

Scenario 1:
1. Peat Bog
1. Aether Vial
2. Bitterblossom
2. Aether Vial gets +1 (1)
3. Bitterblossom makes faerie1 (19-20)
3. Aether Vial gets +1 (2)
4. Bitterblossom makes faerie2, faerie1 swings (18-19); in end step Aether Vial puts Mayor into play
4. Mayor transforms, wolf pops out
5. Bitterblossom makes faerie3, faerie1 and 2 swing (17-17), sac bog play smallpox, Faerie1 and Wolf1 die, Changle discards, 16-16.

So from this point on it's me making a 1/1 flyer every myturn and getting pinged by Bitterblossom vs you making a 3/3 nonflyer every yourturn. I do believe that's a race you win no matter how much I try to make a blocking force (assuming you never attack Mayor into blockers that can kill it, but you can send wolves)

Scenario 2:
1. Peat Bog
1. Aether Vial
2. Bitterblossom
2. Aether Vial gets +1 (1)
3. Bitterblossom makes faerie1 (19-20), sac Peat Bog cast Smallpox (18-19), Changle is pitched, faerie1 dies.
3. Aether Vial gets +1 (2)
4. Bitterblossom makes faerie2, (18-20); in end step Aether Vial puts Mayor into play
4. Mayor transforms, wolf pops out
...

Scenario 3:
1. Peat Bog
1. Aether Vial
2. Bitterblossom
2. Aether Vial gets +1 (1)
3. Bitterblossom makes faerie1 (19-20).
3. Aether Vial gets +1 (2)
4. Bitterblossom makes faerie2, (18-20); swing with faerie1 (18-19); sac Peat Bog cast Smallpox (18-19), Changle is pitched, faerie1 dies. Could Vial in Mayor now or not but either way it won't be transforming til one of the turn 5s.
4. Opt not to put counter on Aether Vial. Could mayor this turn if not already done.
5. Bitterblossom makes faerie3, (17-19); swing with faerie2 (17-18); if not already done, Aether Vial puts Mayor into play
5. Mayor transforms, wolf pops out
...

So the way I see it, all three boil down to a race between my faeries and your wolves. And I don't believe I ever have enough of a headstart in that race to reach the finish line first.

Ah yes, I forgot I can eot with Vial to protect Mayor. I did all my math based on the "can't get Mayor down" theory. Given that blossom takes a life each turn and I'm putting 3 damage on the board each turn vs. your 1, I would agree I win.

Edit: Now I feel extra dumb, because I couldn't win anyway if I couldn't get a wolf token...I just wasn't thinking that match-up

Mana producers seem like the easiest cards to leave "open". I would not be surprised if we know nothing but people's initial mana base on Monday.
----

I'm surprised Jim agreed to a round with an earlier cutoff.

Edit: I like this round because it's going to be super obvious what I'm playing on Monday. Normally get in trouble for that.

Don't forget about the early deadline this round! One day left to submit your deck!

Also, the poll's up.

And we've hit the first deadline! Here are the open cards!

Player|Open Card
CommanderJim|Nether Spirit
Edacade|Energy Field
Golgari_Spy|Karakas
Hello World|Artifact Blast
mark777|Jinxed Choker
POSValkir|Black Lotus
Rubik|Mayor of Avabruck
thatmarkguy|Simian Spirit Guide
Zlehtnoba|Black Lotus

You now have two days to change the other two cards in your decklist.

i am feeling sorry for all those artifacts

Indeed. From just this list, it would appear that two decks will definitely beat the three artifact-based decks.