Still my favorite block and time period for MTG. I got back into MTG when Dark Ascension came out, Innistrad was sooo good, DKA kept the flavor rolling, and then Avacyn Restored had all these Angels and Griselbrand, and I was hooked again. I watched this video when it first came out 9 years ago, and here I am, back for more.
this might just be generational bias but I sincerely believe Innistrad is responsible for the best standard format in the games history. Also I really miss Kibler at the pro tour 😢
Yep. I had just started playing competitively in Mirrodin/Innistrad standard. That period, plus RTR has stayed my favorite period of the format. Just such diversity in the format and so much fun.
Starting to learn this game at 23 (watching this to learn from the best). I'm amazed by it's complexity and style, so I can't understand how anyone could say it's "for kids". Everyone playing should try to make Magic as popular and known as poker or chess.
I agree 100%. Shuffling your cards in your hand like a maniac doesn't make you a better Magic player, it doesn't look cool, and it stalls the game. For example, at one point Kibler shuffled his hand for about 30 seconds straight, then played a Mountain and passed the turn. I was so furious after that. If I were Finkel, I would've raged.
I honestly dont know why he didn't block his 2/2 at the end. I mean he knew at the very least kibler was running red in the deck, In my opinion thats enough knowledge to at least start blocking when your at 10 or less health.
The fact that finkel got so far in this terrible matchup speaks volume on his greatness. It was just kibler’s time to shine, the dragonmaster’s legendary run
Am I missing something? At 1:10:00 , Finkel could have played the captain, copied it with the image, and swung for lethal (12 in the air via lingering souls). I must be missing something because there is no way he would have missed that.
Personally I found the absolute best way to get the hang of Magic was Duels of the Planeswalker. I love it and it introduces you to all the mechanics and makes it really easy to learn the turn order etc. Free to download the basic version on iPad too. Really recommend it.
@Anyguy4321: this was their first broadcast on TwitchTV. I'm sure they were worried much more about their quality of streaming more than their camera personnel's positioning and angles. Wizards has no control over that.
@Oiltuber He said it on his twitter account. During the game he thought he was playing around Inferno Titan, but later realized if he played Snapcaster->Mana Leak, that would tap Kibler out (9 lands) to let Finkel safely play his lord w/ Negate backup for the win.
In older formats there are cards that specifically reference a card in the graveyard by order placed, for instance 4th card in the graveyard etc. Hence changing it effects these cards
The judge said this was the first time they ever rolled back a game state before. What is DCI policy if something like this happened and it wasn't on camera?
+7mean7bunny7 They must have recently changed policy about making that kind of review. Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir, Patrick Chapin received a game loss after he failed to reveal a card off of Ajani, Mentor of Heros. He urged the judges to review the recording to prove that the card he was identifying was the card off Ajani. It was clear from video which card he got off the Ajani, yet he received a game loss for something like 'drawing extra cards'. Judges made a statement afterwards that the feature area does not receive extra benefits, such as review of recording.
You're supposed to do that. It stops observant players from tracking which cards you have in your hand and where they are. There are a lot of layers to Magic beyond just playing with the cards
I don't know if I would have blocked in that situation for fear of galvanic blasts, but with knowing their hands, there was soo much tension when he said "no blocks"
Brian Kibler - 1 colorless - legendary artifact At the beginning of your upkeep, start shuffling your hand in a very annoying manner and put a piss off counter on Brian Kibler. Once there is 3 counters on Brian Kibler, you may shuffle your hand at an increasing speed. If this effect persists for a full turn, you make your opponent jump over the table and try to hit you, effectively winning the game by disqualification.
To elaborate: Magic may have more overlap, but it also has way more cards, a much broader range of abilities (such as abilities that cause subgames, control opponent's turns, bring cards into play from outside the game, etc) and a superior economics system. The game state is also subject to a lot more change as a lot of cards straight up change the rules of the game. finally, has a lot more multiplayer associated with it. Just a few reasons why i say it's more complex.
finkel said in the interview after the match that he didn't block because he was expecting an inferno titan. he could mana leak the inferno titan or even if it resolves, will leave him with 2 more spirits which would have been lethal next turn with drogskoll captain. he can handle 2 galvanic blasts but lucky for kibler he had three. good match!
I like the whole idea of commercials, however, i think it would be better if they were recorded before. Like mute the studio, go to commercial, and back to studio. The way it is now it is kinda interrupting when BDM is talking and out of nowhere Rich starts reading the commercial.
Actually, not blocking was the correct decision, it was playing around an inferno titan. Which would you rather play around, an inferno titan, or 3 galvanic blast?
They reset the board state because they had cameras. Finkel just won when they continued to play and the casters didn't show or talk about it. They simply mentioned there was a Drogskull at the end.
He actually was on a website and explained that he was playing around inferno titan. He would be unable to win if Kibler had Inferno Titan. Pretty smart to play around inferno titan instead of triple galvanic blast huh?
you would think that wizards would make an effort with these videos and have a large image of each card being played appear in the upper corner so we could pause and read the cards.
No because he either targeted the captain while the spirit was on the stack or he used slagstorm to deal 3 damage to everything. Slagstorm doesn't target so that would work too.
Ok forget my earlier train of thought, I had a look at finkel's hand. The cars he was playing around is as follows: autumn's veil+titan+untap land+g-blast and combus(the last 2 he knows about.)
he plays the combust in response to the phantasmal image on the stack. If you watch it he is contemplating it for a bit, to combust now or to blow slagstorm to live.
Lots of people are missing that Finkel had 7 spirits in play at the time he chose not to block (two are offscreen). Finkel admitted that even if Kibler had Inferno Titan, Finkel could Snapcaster ->Mana Leak it to tap out Kibler to still win.
Congrats to both players, we probably should've seen Jon Finkel in the finals, but nobody can say that they would have expected to see three galvanics if you were in his shoes.
I can remember when I used to play this, I used primarily a pure Black or Black & Blue deck, with my deck's 'powerhouse' creature being the 8/8 Nightmare Horror, Hypnox, which has Flying, and exiles every card currently in the opponent's hand as long as Hypnox is is play, though you needed so much mana to summon Hypnox that if you did summon it, chances were good that you already had your opponent on the ropes, with Hypnox requiring the player to tap 8 colorless and 3 black mana to summon it.
It makes it so that your opponent doesn't even try to see what you've been holding since your opening hand. It also gets to be habit after a while and you just do it without noticing.
It wouldn't as both doubling season and parallel life are replacement effect ( they don't put the token themselves but state that the source put double what it should). In a similar the 2 PL +1DS will create 8 of the tokens and not 6 ( X*2*2*2=x*8) Basically it's goes up in powers of 2(if you got the full 8 pieces set you'll get 256 times the original amount of tokens).
Players don't do it because they think it makes them a better player or makes them look cool. They do it to calm their nerves and not show any importance of a single card in their hand (and against players like you they might do it just to irritate you and mentally pull you out of the game). Kibler wasn't taking 30 seconds to shuffle his cards in his hand. He took 30 seconds because he was thinking about what to play or not play. He just happened to be shuffling his cards while doing it.
he actually played the Rootbound Crag one turn one, Copperline Gorge turn 2. so when his turn 2 started, he was able to untap Rootbound Crag and had 2 mana available to him for his Rampant Growth
Ok I believe this was Finkel's thinking: He was playing around infernol titan. He has a total of 5 tokens plays a lingering souls. Which puts him up to 7. If he blocks with a token on wolf. he goes to 6. then infernol titan puts him on 3 tokens. Which is not lethal. He had 0 answers to the titan, so next turn he HAS to play the captain to try swing for lethal. in which a combust (Which he knows about.) kills his captain, then brian swings for lethal.
The thing is you can't own tokens of her for 2 reasons: Shes a legendary creature so one copy of her can be on the battlefield at any given time. Either players side for that matter. And populate is only for tokens. Trostani isn't a creature token shes just a creature.
@awdett Maybe slag storm+titan then? If finkel blcks, he goes down to 5 token, kibler cast titan, to maintain lethal damage, u have to manaleak it. Which which case kibler dont pay and play slagstorm instead? As to if he doesn't block, finkel lets the titan comes down, shoots down 3 tokens puts finkel on 4 tokens, still lethal?
@advisoralbedo Wrong, if Finkel blocks with both Captains then one whipflare will take them both out. Dungeon Geist will lose it's +2/+2 bonus and go back to being a 1/1 (3/3 with two -1/-1 counters) with two damage on it and die. If he blocks with just one, the result is the same, if he does not block he then needs two whipflares but takes 4.
A deck is 60 cards, usually, the sideboard consists of 15 cards you can substitute for cards in the deck in between games, if your you lost your first game in the match, for example, and you think one of the cards in your sideboard can help you gain and advantage in game #2. That's what the sideboard is for.
I may be late, but the wolf should have been dead after being blocked by the spirit. It was not removed from the board and Kibler then added a second wolf. Although, when the Inferno Titan resolved, I believe it would have not really made much of a difference.
While there is a limited card pool, it stretches across several sets, not just one. Also, which did you find yourself concentrating more on, the game or their shuffling? If it was the shuffling, even momentarily, then it was working. The shuffling of their hands does a number of things; it makes it harder for their opponent to think (as it distracts them, the main reason they do it), it helps some people brainstorm, and it releases nervous tension. Hope this helped, welcome to MTG by the way!
The other thing about game 5! Everyone says Finkel should have blocked the wolf, I agree, but there was another fatal decision Finkel made. He could have used the Negate on the second Sphere! Or am I wrong, and did Kibler control two nexuses, and could he have animated both and still have had 3 red up?
Link to their decklists should really be in the video description! I can't post a URL in a RU-vid comment, but search for "Pro Tour Dark Ascension Top 8 Decks" on Google.
@Drecon84 Finkel had a sick topdeck not in the video. To answer that Inferno Titan game 2, he ends up using Ponder, shuffling it all away, and topping Celestial Purge. 2 turns of flying later the game was over.
