Hola amigos!

You can find my last SPICY article in here:

Secrets (Behind the Pro Level Circuit)
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And the other ones in here

TOPICS:

Part A: Rage quit and tilting.
Part B: Boggle (GW Auras) Guide
Part C: GP Detroit

Part A: Rage quit and tilting

Urban dictionary definition:
Rage quit: Throwing the poker chips, flipping the Monopoly board, unplugging the Nintendo, taking your ball and going home.

Tilting: When you’re so pissed off from losing multiple amounts of games that you play worse and worse till you’re so pissed you begin leaning over your keyboard screaming over every little mistake you make and complaining about gaming imbalances.

How many times have you guys experienced some sort of similar situation?

I don’t know about you guys, but I used to complain A LOT when I was younger (like 3-4 years ago), I was constantly complaining about how lucky my opponent was, or about how I took several mulligans down to four cards in each game, blah blah blah blah who cares?

Seriously guys, who cares? Probably 95% of the people that heard your story didn’t care at all. I always try to be polite when people start telling me their story but most of the time it is not pleasant.

This is part of the game. You are going to lose in this way; you have already lost in this way, your friends have also lost in this way and you have won in this way. So unless it is a 1/9999 story probably nobody would like to hear it.
So my advice is to realize that this is going to happen, and to accept this part of the game. Obviously a situation in which tilting is totally comprehensible will occur. But this would help you focus in what really matter (your skills).

Being lucky is always going to be part of the game, so when you accept it you can focus in improving your game and increasing the percentages of you doing well at tournaments because you will be less likely to make mistakes.

Also in Magic there are always going to be some decks that requires less playing skills than others. Just because you are playing UWR Flash it doesn’t mean that you are a better player than the guy playing Boggles.

You know why? Because part of magic is deckbuilding and deck choice, so the guy who is playing Boggles chooses to play it in a certain tournament and he got rewarded, why would it be a reason to call a guy a noob? Or think he is bad?

Best example is Reid Duke at the World Championships.

And by the way the deck is not as #ABC as you think it is.

Part B: Boggle (GW Auras)

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Hello Mr. Rage Quitter

——————–

A couple of months ago I was playing a lot of MTGO and playing multiple queues at the same time, so I built for the first time the Boggle deck since is a very fast deck.

Since then I have been playing a lot of tournaments with it,

Mmm but… why Miguel?

Well the reason is simple, it is a metagame choice.
Basically the deck has some really good matchups and some really bad matchups. So that’s why you have to be really aware of the metagame and which cards each of the decks run in their sideboard.

As a player you have to know your strengths and flaws. I like to play combo decks in general, but I basically try to play “the best deck” available, unless I’m in a bad mood. For instance right before GP Kansas City I was deciding between Pod and Boggle (I was leaning a lot towards Pod even though I played a lot of Boggle and had fun with it) but like 3 days before the event my relationship with my (ex)girlfriend ended…
So I was really not in the mood at all of being in Kansas playing magic… But well… What could I do? Well I decided to play Boggle and make everyone feel as bad as me hahah, no seriously. (See part A Rage Quit)

It went better than expected; I finished in the money after some couple of misses in GPs before this one. But I learned something important about these type of decks, that they can be super good if you know how to read the metagame and analyze the data available (mtgo and the past GP results) and also that it involves more thinking that I thought.

GW Boggle – Miguel Gatica

Lands

4 Horizon Canopy
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Temple Garden
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Forest
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Dryad Arbor

Creatures

4 Slippery Boggle
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Kor Spiritdancer

Spells

4 Rancor
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Hyena Umbra
4 Spider Umbra
4 Keen Sense
4 Daybreak Coronet
3 Spirit Mantle

 

 

Tips:
-Never keep a hand without creatures.
-Good hands are the ABC ones. A. Lands B. Creatures. C. Enchantments.
-Investigate the whole metagame.
-Have fun.

Keen Sense
It just makes your deck a lot more consistent.

Spirit Mantle
First of all Unflinching Courage costs 3 mana. And that’s a lot for this kind of deck, Basically Spirit Mantle allows you to pass through a bunch of creatures for the full amount and besides that if you don’t have any other good auras attached to it you can still hit with it or block with it instead of staring at a Tarmogoyf all day long.

4 Misty Rainforest 2 Verdant Catacombs
This allows you to make your deck thinner (dropping the percentage of drawing more lands) and besides that you can search Dryad Arbor with them.
Also I choose to play the full set of Misty Rainforest instead of a 3-3 split or 2-4 because in some games you have to keep hands that your only creature is basically a fetchland (Dryad Arbor) or Kor Spiritdancer, so depending in which fetchland you play in turn 1 your opponent would tend to think that you are playing a certain deck, in most cases Twin or a blue deck. So that would help you lead them towards another path (which land they search, how much damage they take from their own fetchlands, etc)

8 Umbras
I don’t know why other lists didn’t use to play 8 umbras. They are cheap good enchantments that can prevent a blowout while pumping your boggle.

No Path to Exile in the Main Deck
I was playing 4 of them before, but the Spellskites are probably coming in game 2 so you want your deck to be as consistent as possible.
Also this could change if the metagame is leaning towards Twin and similar decks. But if that’s the case then Boggle is not a good choice.

Sideboard

4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Path to Exile
2 Dismember
2 Nature’s Claim
2 Torpor Orb
3 Stony Silence

 

 

Sideboard Plans:
*Note: You need to be really aware of which cards are running in each one of the decks main deck and sideboard.

——————————————-
UWR:
-4 Kor Spiritdancer
-2 Spirit Mantle

+2 Dismember
+2 Path to Exile
+2 Nature’s Claim

Basically this match is a bye. You just have to be careful of not losing to Spellskite or getting blown out by a Supreme Verdict (umbras) or if you control an umbra just be careful with Cryptic Command bouncing and then Supreme Verdict
——————————————-
Tron GR:
+3 Stony Silence

-3 Spirit Mantle

This is another good matchup, you have to be careful with Oblivion Stone and Pyroclasm

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Kiki/Melira Pod:
+2 Dismember
+2 Path to Exile
+2 Torpor Orb

-4 Keen Sense
-1 Forest
-1 Spider Umbra

(There are ton of different versions so this may vary)
——————————————-

Affinity:

+3 Stony Silence
+2 Path to Exile
+2 Nature’s Claim
+1 Dismember

-4 Keen Sense
-4 Kor Spiritdancer

It’s a race. 50/50 but with sideboard you have the advantage.
——————————————-

Jund/ GB/ Liliana/Deathrite decks:

+4 Leyline of Sanctity

-4 Kor Spiritdancer

Leyline has never been so good.
——————————————-
Burn:

+4 Leyline of Sanctity

-4 Kor Spiritdancer

Maybe some other changes, is you noticed more creatures you take out Keen Sense for Path to Exile
——————————————-
Scapeshift:

+4 Leyline of Sanctity

-3 Spirit Mantle
-1 Forest

It’s also a race. You have to be careful of Pyroclasm and Firespout
Also they can bounce your Leyline with Cryptic Command
——————————————-
Twin:
+2 Torpor Orb
+2 Path to Exile
+2 Dismember
+2 Nature’s Claim

-4 Kor Spiritdancer
-1 Forest
-3 Spirit Mantle

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Part C: GP Detroit and Decklists

This weekend I’ll be going to Detroit to play some modern and look for my 4th GP cash in a row. I haven’t decided yet what deck to play but Boggle is going to be for sure one of my options,

Something that you have to take into consideration is this:

(Taken from mtgo-stats.com)

So I’ll say just based on these stats, one good choice could be Tron, similar to Cedric Phillips’ list.

Lands

1 Eye of Ugin
1 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower

Creatures

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Wurmcoil Engine

Spells

4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Expedition Map
4 Karn Liberated
4 Oblivion Stone
4 Pyroclasm
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Sylvan Scrying

Sideboard:

3 Combust
3 Mindslaver
3 Nature’s Claim
2 Spellskite
3 Torpor Orb
1 Wurmcoil Engine

 

 

Also the affinity Ari Lax was playing is pretty sweet.

Creatures

4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Etched Champion
2 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge

Spells

4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
2 Galvanic Blast
3 Spell Pierce
4 Mox Opal
3 Thoughtcast

Lands

4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Island
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus

Sideboard

2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Etched Champion
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Dismember
2 Galvanic Blast
1 Spell Pierce
3 Thoughtseize
3 Whipflare

 

 

Wrap it up!

Well folks that’s it. If you think I didn’t cover something you would like to know about feel free to leave a comment in the section below, or contacting me via Twitter, Facebook or MTGO.
Until next time!

Pura Vida,
Miguel Gatica

Twitter: @MiguelGatica123
MTGO: MGatica