MTG Gameplay - Mono Black Vs Black/Red Zombies

Hello everybody, this is Kevin from KlotzProductions and welcome to my first gameplay commentary blog. I plan on starting to do a written version of each of the games I do videos for and see how people like it. The biggest difference is that I will add my input on the game and decisions made and then I will also add the video at the end so you can go watch it if you like.

So let's get started.
For this game we have Jesse playing Mono Black and he is going up against Lars who is playing Black/Red Zombies. Some of the cards featured in Jesse's deck are Vampire Nighthawk, Duress, Sign in Blood, Geralf's Messenger, Disciple of Bolas, and Phyrexian Obliterator. Lars' deck features Geralf's Messenger as well along with the normal zombie package of Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul. He also carries burn spells like Galvanic Blast, Brimstone Volley, and Incinerate and he rounds his deck off with Falkenrath Aristocrat and Zealous Conscripts.

Lars ended up taking a mulligan down to six for this game and then Jesse was on the play. Both players just started out with basic lands, swamp for Jesse and mountain for Lars and then Jesse played a turn two Duress. He took a look at Lars' hand which contained a Dragonskull Summit, Diregraf Ghoul, Galvanic Blast, Incinerate, Falkenrath Aristocrat and Zealous Conscripts. Jesse chose to have Lars pitch the Incinerate which seemed like a good choice to me.

For turn two Lars played his Summit and cast his Ghoul. Jesse then used a Sign in Blood on himself going down to 18 and drawing himself two cards. Lars picked up another Summit and then attacked for 2 with his zombie taking Jesse to 16.

Jesse then played a Phyrexian Obliterator which set up quite a road block for Lars who unfortunately missed his next land drop and just passed his next turn. Jesse then took Lars to 15 with the Obliterator and then followed it up post combat with a second one which Lars didn't seem very excited to see as he currently had no solid way of dealing with either of them.

Lars did draw another land however and was able to play his Aristocrat and attack for another 4 damage in the air taking Jesse to 12. Jesse then attacked with both of his Obliterators so Lars blocked one with his zombie and sacrificed it to the Aristocrat to keep damage from being dealt and then took the other 5 from the second one going down to 10. Post combat, Jesse played a Disciple of Bolas and chose to sacrifice one of his Obliterators to gain 5 life going back to 17 and drawing 5 cards. This is a play that I personally feel was a mistake. Sure, he gained a lot of card advantage off of it but keeping the pressure on with 2 obliterators seems like a lot better board presence to have. Especially knowing that Lars had a Conscripts in his hand to take one of the Obliterators and then sacrifice to the Aristocrat. However, that is the play Jesse made and then he followed it up with a second duress revealing a newly found Skinrender and Brimstone Volley in Lars' hand so he chose to pitch the Volley.

Lars top decked his 5th land on his next turn which allowed him to cast the conscripts as I mentioned and take the Obliterator. He bashes with the team and Jesse chose to chump block with his disciple on the Conscripts and take the other 9 damage going back down to 8. Lars then sacrificed the Obliterator to his Aristocrat leaving him with strong board presence.

Fortunately for Jesse he had a Mutilate which he used to wipe out Lars' board and then follow it up by playing a Vampire Nighthawk which Lars ended up killing with his Skinrender. I was watching the game and saw that Jesse actually had Geralf's Messenger in his hand the turn before and feel like it would have been a better play over the previous duress or at least better than the nighthawk after finding out that Lars had the Skinrender in his hand.

Jesse then played 2 Geralf's Messengers on his next turn taking Lars down to 6. Lars then attacked with his Skinrender taking Jesse to 5. He then killed one of the messengers with the Galvanic blast in his hand triggering morbid which allowed him to use his newly acquired second Brimstone Volley to do exactly 5 damage to Jesse and finish him off giving Lars the win. Alternatively Lars could have just burned Jesse out for 5 points of damage, 2 from the blast and 3 from the volley. I am not sure which was the better play but either way, it got him the win.

So that is it for this gameplay. Unfortunately game two Jesse ended up taking a mulligan down to 4 and it wasn't much of a game as Lars just ran him over so I will not be doing commentary for that game.

This made Lars the winner of the match and took him to the finals against Mono-Green Infect.

Be sure to check out KlotzProductions on youtube to watch all the gameplay covered here for yourself.

It's been a while

Hey everybody, it has been quite a while since I posted my last blog. As I am sitting here at 12:30am waiting for my next video to render I figured I would go ahead and give a quick update with what's new.

A lot has changed since my last post, well, not really changed but more of developed. I am over 7,400 subscribers on my main channel now and am posting content everyday (for the most part). Youtube is currently my only job and this will actually be the first month I earn enough between youtube and my sponsorship to pay all my bills for the month. YAY!!! So I plan on continuing to create content for youtube for as long as possible which will hopefully be a really long time.



On that same note I am running THREE youtube channels now. I have the main channel for MTG and the second one for videogames like I did before. However I am now posting regular content on the gaming channel and I also have a Vlog now. The vlog isn't a daily thing but rather more of a "when I feel like it and have something to vlog about" thing. The truth is that most of my days are spent in front of the computer editing and thus I don't have a lot to vlog about, or the time to do it.



I did have help on my gaming channel from one of my friends but he decided he didn't want to do it anymore so I will be going back to creating content for that channel on my own. So what that means for anybody that currently watches that channel is that the Skyrim and FF XIII-2 LP's will not be continuing. He is going to record the rest of the Lara Croft LP with me though and then I will finish out the editing for that. I am also continuing my Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 LP, both the battles and challenges. After that is complete I may do some Archenemy videos but we will see. I do plan on doing lots of Guild Wars 2 content when the game comes out. I will still do other things as well but that will be my main game.



I think that is about it for now though. Be sure to check out all my channels if you haven't already and I will see you all later!

EPIC Face Palm!!!

So last Friday night I was playing some Magic the Gathering at my local shop (I mean, what else would I be doing on a Friday Night) and let's just say, I wasn't playing so hot.

During either round two or three, I don't remember exactly which one, I sat down across from my opponent with my Grixis Control deck and prepared to go up against Tempered Steel. My opponent was somebody from the shop who I had played against many times in the past but had not seen in a long while until this night. During many of the previous matches I had played against him I had defeated him and then afterwards explained to him how he could have won the match if he had not made certain play mistakes. So needless to say, combined with that information and knowing that he had just got back into Magic, I was feeling pretty good about my chances in the match.

So we shuffled up and started the match. I was on the play and at the end of his second turn he had three creatures on the board and I was sitting pretty with a Black Sun's Zenith in my hand ready to use it for one and wipe his board, of which I proceeded to do. I was feeling pretty good with an empty board and counter magic as well as removal in my hand. I wasn't worried about the turn three tempered steel that he may play because I figured it would be worth the three for one from the Zenith. So sure enough, for his turn three he played a tempered steel and passed.

I don't remember the exact events of the game for the next few turns but we came to a point where I had five lands in play with a dissipate and a devil's play among other cards in my hand and my opponent only had his tempered steel in play. For his turn he cast an Etched Champion. I could have, and probably should have, countered it but I figured he didn't have metalcraft so I could just kill it with my Devil's Play and leave mana open to counter anything he plays next turn. Now if you stop and think for a minute you will realize the flaw in this logic. Devil's play is not an instant and I only had five lands in play. If you don't see the problem here just wait and you will.

So he passed his turn, I untapped and proceeded to use my Devil's Play to kill the Champion as planned. So I tapped three lands and threw the Devil's Play at my opponents Champion for two damage to kill it. My opponent gave me a puzzled look and said "okay". I paused for a moment wondering why he wasn't proceeding to place his Champion into the graveyard. It was at that point I remembered a key factor, there was a Tempered Steel in play. So two damage wasn't enough to kill the Champion. So what did I do? I tapped one more land and said "oh, I meant to do it for three damage". My opponent looked at me again with a smirk on his face and politely repeated... "okay". At this point I was still wondering why he wasn't moving the Champion to the graveyard and asked "HOW BIG IS THAT THING ANYWAY" as I grabbed the Tempered Steel to read it. It was at this point I made the obvious realization that I had to do FOUR damage to the Champion in order to kill it. Feeling incredibly stupid I asked my opponent again, "can I take that back" wanting to cast the Devil's Play for four and actually KILL the Champion. He responded with, "no, I already let you take it back once, I am not going to let you do it again. Especially after all the times you told me my mistakes at the end of matches that cost me the win".

So there I was, with only one land untapped, counter magic in hand and a wasted Devil's Play in my graveyard. At that point I might as well have scooped it up because my opponent took full advantage of me being tapped out and I spent the rest of the game trying to deal with the Champion and ultimately lost.

Afterwards we had a good laugh about the game. My dialogue recapping my thoughts of the game went something like... "here, you can win, I don't want to... no seriously I don't want to win... I'll just punt the game right here and now". I then made a comment of how "It would be nice if I actually KNEW how to play Magic. I might actually be able to win!".

EPIC FACE PALM!!!

Oh, by the way, I made plenty of other dumb mistakes throughout the night that may or may not have cost me some games. But this was the worst. Maybe this week I will remember how to play MTG!

More MTG content to come!

Hey everybody, this is Kevin from KlotzProductions again. Today I am posting to let you all know what my plans are moving forward with the channel. I have been thinking about it a lot lately and I have decided to start putting a LOT of time into the channel and start posting videos 2-3 days a week. I am basically going to treat it as a full-time job. It doesn't pay like a full-time job however I want it to someday so I figure I should start treating it like one.

Now, it is possible that I will get into it and decide it is just too much to handle working on videos full-time and then going to work a "day job" at the same time but I am going to give it a shot and see how things go.

This means I am going to try posting full matches again, instead of just one game a week. I may also try recording two matches some weeks. Other things that I may post are the "deck of the week" videos again, however I am going to re-name it "Net Deckers" if I do start making them again. I also want to start doing playtesting with my friends on Magic Workstation (and even with you all if you would like) and then doing live commentary as I play and posting those videos on the channel as well in a "playtesting" playlist.

So that is where I am right now. Keep in mind this is something that I am taking on a "trial run" so to speak. I may stick with it for a long time or I may not. We will have to wait and see.

OH... I redesigned the channel as well. If you haven't seen it yet you should go check it out!

Later!


http://www.youtube.com/user/KlotzProductions

Building Grixis Control Post Innistrad Release!

Hello everybody, this is Kevin again and today I am going to take some time to discuss the deck I am currently working on and my gameplan for defeating the curent metagame.  I will start out by telling you that I still have a lot of testing to do and this is only an early analysis of the deck.  So feel free to leave your opinions and suggestions.

Here is the list.

// Lands
    4 [SOM] Blackcleave Cliffs
    4 [M12] Dragonskull Summit
    6 [ZEN] Mountain (4)
    6 [ZEN] Swamp (1)
    4 [M12] Drowned Catacomb
    4 [ISD] Sulfur Falls

// Creatures
    1 [M12] Grave Titan
    1 [M12] Inferno Titan
    2 [MBS] Consecrated Sphinx

// Spells
    2 [M12] Sorin Markov
    3 [M12] Chandra, the Firebrand
    4 [M12] Doom Blade
    4 [NPH] Dismember
    4 [MBS] Go for the Throat
    2 [MBS] Black Sun's Zenith
    4 [MBS] Slagstorm
    2 [NPH] Tezzeret's Gambit
    1 [M12] Sorin's Vengeance
    2 [M12] Druidic Satchel

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [MBS] Black Sun's Zenith
SB: 4 [M12] Combust
SB: 4 [M12] Dragon's Claw
SB: 2 [MBS] Phyrexian Crusader
SB: 2 [SOM] Memoricide
SB: 2 [NPH] Surgical Extraction

The deck was originally only black/red control however I decided to try adding blue due to the sheer power of the Consecrated Sphinx.  Like the other creatures in the deck he is large enough to survive a Dismember which I feel is critical in a deck with so few creatures.

The main idea from the deck originally came from trying to kill someone instantly by casting Sorin's Vengeance and copying it with Chandra.  Because of this I originally ran 2 Vengeance and 2 Diabolic Tutor's to seach for the needed cards.  (remember you can copy tutor to search for 2 cards)  You can also drop the opponent to 10 life with Sorin Markov at 6 mana and then kill them with Vengeance at 7.  All that being said, the deck now only uses that as an alternate win condition.  The main idea is to keep the board under control with all of the creature hate main deck and then drop a bomb like Grave or Inferno Titan or even Markov.  The Tezzeret's Gambit are nice because they have proliferate.  This allows me to copy them with chandra and keep her counters up.

The most recent addition is the Druidic Satchel.  In one of my most recent videos of Blue / Black Control I saw the card being used and realized how powerful it can be.  Not only is it going to excelerate my lands but it will also gain me a lot of life being that most of the cards in the deck are non-creature.  If you want to check out that game you can see it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqRI1BWNBN8&feature=channel_video_title

Moving onto the sideboard.

Combust - This is for use against U/W Illusions.  Not only is it solid creature removal against them but it also can not be countered which is very important.

Dragon's Claw & Phyrexian Crusader - These are for Mono-Red matchups.  The idea is to stay alive long enough in those matchups and these help with that.  Also, the Crusader does not die to slagstorm so I can keep those in post sideboarding and probably take out the Black Sun's Zenith.

Memoricide & Surgical Extraction - Both of these cards are intended for use against control decks and even more so against Solar Flare or other graveyard based decks.  I truthfully have never been too good at the control vs control matchups though.  Making them discard cards is what I feel is the best way to combat them though.  Other cards I have considered against them is Liliana of the Veil or Monomania.

That is pretty much it.  Like I said, the deck is still a work in progress and I may not even end up building it, but this is where I am right now.

New Job and other stuff

Hey everybody, it's Kevin again.

I haven't written a blog update in a while so I figured I would go ahead and do so to let you all know what is going on with me.

First of all I haven't been posting all that many videos lately because I recently got a new job working at a television station and so I have been really busy, and tired.  But I am in the process of editing new gameplays and they should be online before too long. 

Until then though I put together a booster pack unpacking of 12 booster packs I got for getting third place at the New Phyrexia launch party.  So head over to the channel and check it out if you haven't already.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN5_c-5lDoA

Other than that I have been uploading lots of Gears of War 3 beta gameplays on my second gaming channel.  I have recorded enough footage to upload one game a day until launch day on September 20th.  At that point I plan on playing through the campaign with my friend and uploading that for you all to see as well.  I also plan on trying to put together a Gears of War 3 Beta montage and uploading it on the 4th of July.  We will see how that goes though.  So if you like Gears of War you should definitely head on over there and check out those videos.  And if you like videogames in general be sure to subscribe and support the channel.

That is pretty much it for now though.  As always, you can access both of my youtube channels and the KlotzProductions facebook page by clicking on the image links at the top of the blog.

So until next time, I will see you all later!

Gears of War 3: Beta and launch!

Hello everybody, this is Kevin again and today I want to take some time to talk about Gears of War 3.

As some of you may know, Gears 3 is set to launch on September 20th (2 days after my birthday!) and the beta will be April 25th through May 15th. I am a huge fan of the Gears of War games and already have my copy of Gears 3 reserved.

So what does this mean for you all?  I'll tell you.

Since I will have the beta for the some 20 days it will be going, I am going to record as much gameplay footage as I can.  Then I plan on trying to post one gameplay a day on KlotzSquared until the launch of the game... if I can play that much.  Then I would also like to take all the footage I get and make a beta montage to release a day or two before the launch of the game.

So if you are a Gears of War fan, and who isn't, then go check out KlotzSquared and get ready for the gameplays!!!