Coaching session with Ethan from Lords of Limited! I took a stay-cation day and decided to try it. I’ve never done digital coaching before and it was astoundingly helpful. A little odd, since I’ve listened to 200+ hours of the Lords of Limited Podcast, it felt like being reunited with an friend/celebrity.
The Essay, Pre
During Lil’ Chandra earliest (and pre-earliest) days, I tried to keep a semi-regular journal of what was helpful and what was not helpful. What resources did we keep going back to and which baby classes had me pleading with the Benalish Momma to cut class at lunch. What’s funny about it is that the sleep deprivation is so real, I have almost no memory of any of this. However I have reason to trust the author knew what he was talking about at the time. –May 2019
So you’re having a baby! Congratulations! We’ll start off with the first rule: YMMV. You’re Mileage May Vary. Much like wedding planning (and anything else that is both expensive and emotionally fraught) the only rule is to figure out what works best for you as a couple. Plus, there is a major “N of 1” problem with all parenting advice: just because it worked for Lil’ Chandra does not guarantee that it will work for you. I tried to keep everything here at a higher level, more of a framework for the struggles we faced and how we made decisions. This is a sketch of what worked out for our family. This has into two parts, the pre-birth prep and the whole “omg baby” part.
Read morePost-Game: 8-22-20
Dark confession time: COVID-19 has lured me into getting into K-pop. A good overview article lured me, and let’s be honest, I’ve always been K-pop-curious. There’s also a decent chance that the Benalish Momma made an ill-thought out desire, “I wish he would stop listening to that stupid orchestrated video game music.”
(finger closes on the monkey’s fist)
Draft log
The Toddler Book Champs
Reading books to your loving, adoring child is a true highlight. Trapped into repeating “Lonky Zonky goes Kablooee” for the 39th time to your squirming, not-asleep child is a definite circle of hell. That said, for some reason there are books that are a delight to repeat. Also key: if there are multiples by the same author. This helps keep the books fresh while reducing search costs. Below are a selection of the Best of the Best for Team Benalish.
We are in a Book (or really anything by Mo Willems)
A grand champion of children’s lit, Mo Willems was a former Sesame Street animator and his books are just rock solid. From breaking the fourth wall (We are in a Book), to a trilogy of loss and redemption (the Knuffle Bunny saga), to a reluctant pigeon, Mo Willems is both prolific and shockingly funny/clever/heartfelt.
This is a little more Benalish Dad-centric, but it turns out that there’s a generation of D&D nerds who graduated to parenthood and are eager for instructional ABC books that read, “C is for Chupucabra with a lot to digest. D is for Demon who can be such a pest.” Fun, nerdy, and with delightful pictures, the authors have been branching out into some longer form material too.
Frankly, more children’s books would benefit from a touch of dark humor, and this story of a bear who lost his hat, and the lengths to which he would go to recover it, is actually pretty funny. Great art too.
Written by Neil Gaiman (of Neverwhere and other dark contemperary fantasy), it’s a story of a panda with a big, big sneeze. Also has a good building rhythm, (“Are you going to sneeze?” “Ah, AHH, AHHHHH. No.”)
Translated from Japanese, these books are an absolute delight. Also a very nice change of pace from Western toddler literature, these books follow two sisters on their semi-magical, very low key journeys through the woods, the town, the snowy day, etc.
Julia Donaldson is probably more famous for “The Gruffalo” but I really enjoy this one. Just infectiously catchy rhyme and rhythm. Let’s see how I do:
The witch had a cat
And a hat that was black
And long ginger hair
In a braid down her back
Part of the “Wordless Trilogy” these books are in fact, quite wordless. But the gorgeous art (and a modern retelling of “Harold and the Purple Crayon”) is very fun to read and create the story along with your Nugget.
Post-Game: 8-22-20
Draft log
Well *super* embarrassing that I just stone-cold overlooked an Enthralling Hold in P2p5. But green was quite open and I just build a fairly straightforward ramp deck with a blue splash for some removal.
This deck’s plan: ramp into bigger creatures and reasonable removal. It does that too!
Summary
Lost to a very good RW deck in round 1 that also combo’d with some unfortunate mulligan & land luck. The next two games I won in pretty rousing fashion. I particularly liked my final match where I got out both Shrines. It’s true that the green shrine is pretty underwhelming, especially without a splash. But when you have the blue shrine turboing you cards, they do work well together.
Interesting Moments
Keep or mull?
At first I thought this was a for-sure mull, with no action for way too long. Then I noticed that my oppo, with a slow-ish RB deck, put me only the play. And that ticked me over to keeping. If I knew I was facing RW aggro, I probably still mull with no action until turn 4. But I kept, drew a nice 2-drop, and never really looked back.
2-1
Post-Game: 8-16-20
Draft Log
Terror of the Peaks is a pretty easy P1p1, a stone-cold bomb that’s worth fighting for. Interestingly, that choice came up with a quasi-empty pack a few picks later (see below). Some light green signals late in pack 1 gave me the fortitude to jump aggressively into green in pack 2. That proved to be the Right Decision.
Summary
Fun deck to play. Lost a heartbreaker when I completely misread Soul Sear and took far far far too much damage from a Seasoned Hallowblade. Almost came back to win it, but fell short by one life. The rest of the games I stomped in pretty straightforward fashion.
Interesting Moments
P1p4
Doesn’t feel great to have red be THAT empty in this pack. Still, Thrill of Possibility is perfectly playable and Terror of the Peaks is sufficiently bomb-y that there is going to be mountains in my deck no matter what.
P2p4
Okay, a tough choice facing Leafkin Avenger, a very powerful gold card or the Llanowar Visionary. Do I dare to wheel? I DARE BABY. This is a low-splash format and I’m pretty sure red and green are both reasonably open at the table. Result: it worked and I snapped up the Avenger P2p13. Felt. Amazing.
The pool
One delightful thing about really carving out your lane is an abundance of riches when it comes to playables. At first I had some higher curve with a Cultivate, but Raiderray on the LoL discord talked me into adding Sure Strike and going a little more lower curve. I eventually cut a 6-drop and went lower to the ground.
2-1
Should have been a 3-0; felt like I let the Terror of the Peaks down a little. Even though it only deigned to show up ONCE.
Post-Game: 8-12-20
Since Magic victories are increasingly rare, let’s switch to parenting wins. On the way to daycare, Lil Chandra requested The Chocobo Song. Midway through, then she broke out into HER version of the Chocobo Song which went roughly like, “CHOOOO-COBO Chocobo-chocobo. CHOOOOO-COBO, Chocobo-chocobo”. See, this parenting thing isn’t really that hard. Easier than M21 at least…
Draft log
Not the P1p1 of dreams. Siege Striker, Capture Sphere or Spellgorger Weird. Stayed in lane for filler-ish white cards, though P1p3 Angelic Ascension is a touch late so that was enough reason for me to fill up on C/C+ white cards for a strong base.
Ended up in a perfectly fine GW shell.
Summary
Looks like a fine GW shell. Some mini synergies, with the Feats & the Canopy Stalker and some +1/+1s to toss around. Round one went quite smoothly. Casting Angelic Ascension on a 1-drop and then be protected by Feat is a very warm safe feeling. I ran over a lot of decks with this thing.
Interesting Moments
P2p5
Which 1-drop to take? The Selfless Savior is probably the more powerful card, but I have been impressed by the Chorister. Having a mana-sink in this format is incredibly nice, but without any lifegain synergies the vanilla test power of the Good Boy is too high.
3-0
I’m back baby!
Post-Game: 8-8-20
If this slide in performance continues unabated, I feel like I should start adding my recent cooking successes. Significantly less of a failure in that arena!
Draft log
Strange draft. Green was clearly my color in pack 1 with some good blue (though nothing showstopping) sprinkled in. Then white “opened” up in pack 3 and blue disappeared leaving me somewhat awkwardly straddling three colors. But I have a deck packing three Drowsy Ts and ways to wake them up, so I don’t feel too bad.
Summary
Not the ideal UG deck, as it’s a little aggressive and lacking card advantage. But there’s a plan, some decent removal, and some drowsy-Ts. WILL IT GET TO TWO WINS?!?!
Lost game 1 to stumbling on mana but won the round with SO MANY 3/3 dinos. Round 2 was against another similar UG tempo deck. We traded games. I almost pulled out game 3 agggainst a 9/9 Coatl and drove oppo to 1 life, but I stalled out and they reloaded with Rain of Revelation. Just a matter of time at that point. I lost the third round to a vicious little UW deck with aggression and Breath of Frost at Bad Times.
Interesting Moments
bant can’t
White bizarrely opened up for me in pack 3, with a second Conclave Mentor and Daybreak Charger just sitting there. However, upon putting it together, there wasn’t any “there” there. My only source of +1/+1 counters was a Pridemalkin and Hunter’s Edge, so the Mentors were really just glorified Bears that would give me two life.
Keep or mull
This feels like a classic “bad keep”. 5 lands is never ideal, but there’s early action and cantriping into another card. Result: 5 out of the next 6 cards were lands. I didn’t win this game you guys.
1-2
It’s official: 1-2 is the new 2-1.
Post-Game: 8-6-20
Once more into the fray! I remain a bit baffled why/how a Core Set is kicking my ass. the last 0-2 dropped my win-rate this set to 39%. That’s a yikes. Hopefully Double Masters lured some of the Spikes away so I can grind some wins in peace. Of course, it appears to be taking 8+ minutes to fill a draft pod. I NEED REDEMPTION FASTER PEOPLE
Draft log
Okay starting out with a pretty clear Garruk. P1p3 was tighter: keep cutting green with a decent Setessan Training or the more powerful Basri’s Acoylte?
Eventually my lane was clear in UG, but Missed out on two Lorescale Coatls hurts but I think both picks were correct. Maybe I should have taken the Rousing Read P2p1 over a 6-drop. There was a very late Kraken and I was flirting with blue at that point.
Summary
At this deck had a plan: stall out, reload with card draw and win with Garruk and/or bigger creatures. Had a great first round: I actually won! Second round I faced a superior UG deck and lost in three. Round three against UB reanimator which was pretty good! Any time you have to face double Goremand across the table, it’s going to be a rough go.
I played this deck on the draw and was never punished by a fast WR deck or any curve-out. So in a sample size of three, it worked out!
Interesting Moments
P1p3
So I’m pretty locked into green with opening Garruk (not a bomb, but Very Good) and a solid Brontodon. Then I get passed a Basri’s Acolyte vs. Setessan Training. ST will make every green deck (high floor, low ceiling kind of card) but Basri’s Acolyte is the nuts in the best deck: GW +1/+1 counters. I went for the Acolyte (white was subsequently quite cut) but I think it’s the right choice. The deck’s performance was not going to be wildly different with another Training.
Keep or mull?
I kept and opponent stumbled on mana and Burlfist oaks with a Rain of Revelation was hilarious. For me.
1-2
Post-Game: 8-5-20
Back spasms or 2-8 over my last 10 games? Both don’t feel great! I can blame the former on both turning 40 and feeling so healthy I became cavalier about my nightly stretching. There’s no such clear causal chain for the latter. And while technically not the worst part (the chronic pain is the definite, actual “worst part”), being unable to game of any kind while flat on my back was pretty frustrating. I did plow through a frightening number of books though.
Draft log
Dragonfire vs. Subirais an interesting P1p1. I think Dragonfire is just better, but I thought about it. Waffled through Mardu colors and thought I’d make a go of BW lifegain only for both white AND black being cut in pack 2 (which didn’t feel great). Limped into a decidedly mediocre RW aggro deck.
Summary
Not a great deck!
Tough round one, mulling into keeping a 1-land hand both times (see below). Came closer than I deserved to, though I definitely had no idea Elder Gargorth had reach. Mental note: always re-read mythics. Round two I started with some truly heroic flood followed by not drawing any red mana. Somewhat ironically, I did draw the plains I put instead of the dual land.
Interesting Moments
Keep or mull?
Already mulled a 1-lander. Do I go down to 5 cards? This only needed one mana of any color in two draw steps to be decent. Not a great feel-good keep, but I kept. And didn’t draw land for three draw steps and lost.
16th land?
I did have a RW tap land. Do I play it to improve my mana-base? Or, since my only game plan is pure speed and hope opponent hiccups, is it too costly to lose a turn? I opted for speed which I think was the right plan: variance is the friend of bad decks. But it did directly bite me in one game.
Benalish Dad 