Haha, game 1, so much Wurm.

Impressive writing and match-up as usual. Mana screw is unfortunate, and as interesting as it would be to see a legitimate third match, nothing of the sort would happen in a competitive tournament.

If I may, I have a question: how do you choose your match-ups?

Hey I like the change in writing style. Seems more fluid now. If you ever need any help with write ups let me know. I can't make them look like this but if you need a break, I am actually a good writer. And for the next showdown try my Return of RDW out. I haven't enjoyed playing a deck like this in awhile.

Thanks Spootyone for picking my deck! This was really helpful to help me see how it runs against some other powerful decks, and I'm surprised that I even won! I can understand that it was due to a mana screw, but hey, I'll take it. I loved the way game one played out though, as it really shows what I am going for when I run this build. The only thing I might have possibly done differently is possibly side in some Ranger's Guile to stop the Selesnya Charm , but seeing how many big guys were entering the field, I don't think losing one would have been terrible. I'm glad you noticed that my curve doesn't include 3-drops because those, and tokens, are usually my main targets.

Your suggestions are fair as well. Into the Wilds is just something that I thought could help as a one-of, but after this I'm not sure it is entirely needed. I'll probably run it and see how it plays, and if I'd rather have the extra creature, I'll throw one in there. I can see running 4 Polukranos, World Eater s in this deck, and I tested with that for a while. I was worried that because he was a legendary creature though that he would sometimes do more harm than good by sitting on extra copies in my hand. That's why I decided to go with Mistcutter Hydra s alongside Polukranos because they come in huge and smash in fast. I'll certainly take those things into consideration though.

Thanks once again!

Great write-up. That game 1 was epic and make me want to play mono-green stompy stomp.

As for how to handle game 3: it depends on what you want the article to focus on, the playtest itself or the matchup. It's always more interesting to me to read about the matchup and how the two decks interacted. One doesn't learn much for a mana-screw or mana-flood game, unless it happens frequently and is therefore a sign that too few or two many lands are in the deck, respectively. Personally, I would play the game out as you did and then do a "just for fun" game 4 at the end. In the "just for fun" game let both decks keep a reasonable 7 card hand (no penalty for mulligan, but no excessive mulligans to get to the nut draw either) and play it out. Ultimately, no one here is keeping score and can only gain experience and knowledge about their deck by adding the 4th game (when appropriate).

Great series, keep it up. And I have a deck for you:

Thanks for doing this series. I love reading the write-ups of games and for me it's much easier to digest than video replays.

As far as game 3 I am interested in how the decks interact with each other. I'd make a note that X deck got mana screwed and played literally 0 spells and then just re-game.

DeathByDragons: Much wurm. So trample. Wow!

boston89: I'm glad to hear I've improved! I will certainly take your deck into consideration when choosing the next challenge. And as much as I appreciate the help, I've actually enjoyed these so much that they seem less like work and more like fun :D

thePESSIMIST: Thanks for the input! Okay, so for you and anyone else who is curious, here is how I typically make my decision: Usually, a day or two before I plan on making the writeup I will come onto the previous article and open every entry into a separate tab. I then compare the different entries from each archetype for that which I find to be the most powerful/most interesting. And lastly, I decide which archetype I would like to face next out of the choices I have. This is the importance of making sure the entry is on here instead of my wall. I rarely remember to check my wall for entries when doing this.

It's also important to note that I'm doing this series as a method of teaching others about the standard competitive environment. Thus, decks who are obviously altered due to cost or not having cards available are usually not selected or asked to be changed to what they would have been if money was not an issue. Going against a 3-color deck with all guildgates and no shocks, for example, will likely not get selected since it would be insufficient in the testing purposes of this article.

And lastly, if someone reading this has posted a deck in a previous article and still want to be used, post it again! It's fairly difficult to go to every previous showdown and accumulate all the other entries. If you really want to be on here please do me a big favor and continue to spam that deck on each article you read until it's chosen. Not even joking.

Apoptosis: I really like this idea. I think I'll be doing this from now on because I also felt like I was just wasting everyone's time with that last game. I just didn't want someone to think I was being unfair to the opponent in whatever way. And I'll be sure to check your deck out, man.

potatoedoughnut: I'm glad to hear you like these! And I'll definitely do a replay in the future if the same thing happens once more.

golffore297: My pleasure! I really enjoyed your deck and had fun piloting it -- even if it meant destroying my very soul... :P

To All Readers

I just realized I forgot to mention that if you want to be in the next showdown, please post your deck entry here (i.e. not on my wall) and you could easily be chosen!

Additionally, I would like some opinions. What do you all think of me having a QOTW (Question of the week) asked at the end of each article? It could be a great way to interact and get some discussion going on different subjects in the magic community. Thoughts? ideas?

Here's my deck:

QOTW sounds interesting. Maybe a Magic brain-teaser, with the answer the following article? Although that might be a bit much to ask.

Also, I am considering trying to start an article series similar to this one for my deck, probably for pretty much the same reasons you are. It most likely won't happen for a month at least (need to keep up with school work), but I wanted to make sure that it was ok, as I got the idea from this and I don't want to steal readership or anything.

How about a deck that features a card that a lot of people think sucks? I have four words for those people:

Anyway, about the third game, I agree with Apoptosis. It's a good way to still play out a third game, since nobody really learns anything when the mana base is skewed for that game.

I like the idea of a Question of the Week. More discussion good!

Playing out the 3rd game even with a marginal hand can teach a valuable lesson. When is a two land hand bad or not? For what kind of decks? What kind of matchups? When is a 5 land hand not a keeper? Knowing what you're up against and whether you're on the play or the draw makes all of the difference. For example, with my esper control deck listed above: if I know I'm playing another control deck that will develop slowly I might keep a 5 land hand with no kill spells. But if I'm playing aggro, I know I need a hand that can address early threats (although no one can stop 3 Worldspine Wurm by T6), or will get me that T4 wrath. So there can be information learned by playing a hand where you mulligan'ed to 5, I've won games in those situtations, and it's worth playing out. But, 95% of the time you'll learn nothing other then mana-screw or -flood sucks ass, and playing that 4th "for fun" game will be more educational. But never just scoop the game 3 if you have to take multiple mulligans, fight it out to the death!

P.S. I just bought 3 Worldspine Wurm on eBay, they may never see standard play. But will definitely be used in some kitchen table stomp fests. Love it!

Mistcutters make it one hell of a hard match-up, but I'll toss this into the fray anyway:

I have really been enjoying your Showdown series so far. I really enjoy seeing this kind of interaction between users on this site and each of your match ups so far have been pretty solid. I really enjoyed your last one against the greed deck. Stompy green ramp decks are a favorite of mine so I like how that one ended up.

I have an interesting challenge for your deck if you would like to give it a shot. My esper project that focuses on taking cards from my opponent might be a good match up to your deck. It has a few similar cards as a normal esper control deck but a lot of the mechanics are used quite differently and the win conditions are based on what my opponent is playing. It might be a fun one.

Thanks for the fun articles and keep up the good work.

@Spootyone: If that's the case, then I'll submit a deck for the challenge that I've seen in varying degrees a lot: Dega. I uploaded it to T/O yesterday, and I think the server's glitchy because of how the deck looks, but still worth a shot.

deck-large: Dega-Times-Black-White-and-Read-all-Over

Also, where can I go to read your past articles? This is only the third one I've read, and I'd like to see what other decks people have been using, and how they match up with this particular archtype.

As usual, a great writeup. I would say the only recommendation I have is just try to catch all of the cards you can in the double bracket tags. It makes things a little bit easier to read and helps people who might not know the cards as well. You do a great job already, and I'm sure it can be tiring to try to keep track of them all while writing it up, but maybe put a notepad file that has the cards listed by tags so you can copy & paste them? (For example "[ [Fiendslayer Paladin] ]" without the quotes and spaces and then just c&p it however much you need).

In terms of the third game, as much as it sucks to have a deck draw poorly or get mana screwed (believe me, I know that feel =P), it's the only honest way to playtest, and as Apoptosis said, it teaches a good lesson to new players (and reminds old ones, too). Also, some decks CAN survive with a 1 land starting hand. Plus you want to know limitations, so it's good to keep dumb hands sometimes and see what would happen if you really had to keep that hand; how well can your deck recover from mana screw?

Great matchup and commentary! Too bad about the lack of mana in games 2 and 3 :/ I'd love to see my deck give it a try

What's yours is mine

or rather,

raithe000: I like that idea, too! I think I'll just try to do both haha. One for those who wish to offer opinions and one for those who wish to show they know something cool. I like it!

Also, I've noticed a couple people who wish to begin doing what I'm doing here. I say go for it! I am by no means trying to hog the article section haha. If you really want to avoid "stealing" the readers I have you could always post in between my articles. That way people have them available at different times in the week :) Again, it's totally your call.

GoldGhost012: lol that looks like an interesting deck. Glad you like the idea!

Apoptosis: You're very right in your reasoning and I'll be doing this in the future. Glad to see others agree too. haha I know right? I need to order some. I still need one for my Wurms tribal EDH deck.

GureiSeion: That's true, but I'll still give it a thought! thanks, man!

MR H3AT: Again, glad you're enjoying man. I'll give your deck a look-over.

thePESSIMIST: I thought it looked strange lol. I'll take a look. Well, the first 4 of these were not articles and were just posted in the forums. Here's 1, 2, 3, and 4. The rest can be found in the articles tab up top under features. :)

Nigeltastic: I've wondered whether or not people were bothered by me not linking all the cards I mentioned. Now I see I should alter that. Thanks for the input!

Temeraire: Thanks! I'll see how it looks!

Again, well written insightful article. I'm going to suggest that in instances of game 3, play through the game just as you did. It's more realistic. That helps in my view. Playing a game 4 "for fun" afterwards though I think you should do as well. (I'm greedy, I want both...). Like mentioned above I like the realism of getting mana-screwed but I have learned so much from these articles I'd really like that 4th game. Honestly have learned a lot from you doing this. I attribute these articles for my placing 20-32/32 each FNM to 13/30 recently. Thank you.

DDrew56936: Yep, no worries about greediness because I have decided to feed that greed from now on! :D That's great man. I'm happy to hear I've been able to help someone learn more about the game.

To those of you who keeps tabs on my deck (you crazy people :P):

I feel as though change is coming. I think I may rebuild this deck a tiny bit tonight. I'm finding things not to work so well in the metagame, so I'm going to take another good look at my options in G/W mid and will post the results here after some initial testing. My article series will still be going on though -- no worries there. And my deck will still be roughly the same. I just think there are some loose ends that need fixing.

Thanks for the support :)

APPLE01DOJ: Thanks for the entry! :) I'll give it a look when I look at the others.

Latest version of the deck is out! Let me know what you think.

deck-large:archangel-of-thune-tempo-breaker

deck-large:the-american-way-28-10-13-1 its be awesome for you to take a look at this, maybe test it, its been competitive, i just don't know what to tweak

FIRE AWAY!!!!! is my deck. I mean, it uses Five-Alarm Fire . That must be a reason to test it :D

I am pretty sure my deck won't hold up, but I want to see what is useful, and what isn't in the deck. I really hope some reanimation happens. Test her out plox!

Probably couldn't compete with your deck as it is budget, but I figured why not post it here and see how it could be improved? You have a powerful deck btw, shows how strong Selesnya can be.

Love your write-up. This deck is more of an experiment than anything, but I'd love if you gave it a whirl:

Although unusual, I've found that it performs best on the draw instead of on the play. Also, please ignore Vile Rebirth (exile it at the beginning of each match), it's only in the deck to trick T/O into generating Zombie tokens.

Thanks!

My biggest problem with your article is that you often don't link cards. I realize that you want to abbreviate, but every now and then I find myself scrolling up to read what the opening hand was so I can see what some card does.

Also, you could try my deck if you want. It's boros heroic super agro. Very easy to play. I even added a sideboard, though I'm not sure how much it would be needed against your deck.

something different; I actually tried it a few times against your deck. I won't tell you the results, but it was definitely not one-sided ;)

I got a deck for ya to try against, if you feel like it...Either this one

or this one...

Forget about my old deck submission, this one is where it's at! It's actually pretty crazy, it abuses Possibility Storm to great effect. I'm hoping to take it the FNM this week, but I would love it if you checked it out as well.

I'm actually gonna resubmit my deck, just because it now has the color pie and is no longer glitchy. I've also made a few changes since the last time, but that's not really relevant.

deck-large: council-of-the-warleader

By the way, how does one go about starting to write articles? I have asked for people to submit their competitive standard lists for me to playtest against also...mostly for my own benefit so I can "run the gauntlet" with playtesting on here BEFORE going to tournaments. It has helped me game alot

Just so everyone is aware, the new showdown will probably be up tomorrow evening. I've been kinda sick so I got a little behind. Plus I'm still working out a few kinks of the new build. BUT! I think I'll make it a double-feature to make up for it. Deal? :D

Sounds good spooty, stay awesome! >:3

@Spootyone: Double feature sounds pretty awesome, I'm looking forward to it.

I think we should donate to him so we end up getting a showdown a day. Deal? :D

GreyFawkes: How can I contain this awesome??

thePESSIMIST: Glad to hear it!

Galdes01: Haha you don't know how happy I'd be to make money off of playing magic...

You could wear a hat to contain it. I dunno. Maybe a scarf too?

Araganor: Ah, but how does one know I don't already wear such attire? The mystery shall drive you insane!

Wear a fedora. Fedoras have the ability to contain awesome while adding awesome of their own. Trust me, I'm an expert.

@Spootyone: So, you spend your days building magic decks on a computer while wearing a hat and a scarf? Seems legit. What else are you hiding?

He's hiding that under his mask, he is really just KrazyCaley.

Those are possibly the ONLY things he wears...hmmmmm...

Damn, is this going to be like when the spy takes off the mask, but then he's actually wearing another mask?

I don't know, but on his stream last night, we hypothesized that KrazyCaley was just KrazyCaley in descise as himself. Also, all of SpyParty is Caley.

I'm terrified.

@Snowstorm: I wouldn't be surprised. It would also make the Daily Draft Debate a huge sham.

@Araganor: The only thing to fear is, KrazyCaley himself. Don't worry about all his aliases.

Lol, I wonder how many notifications KrazyCaley gets on a daily basis from people like you guys...oh wait...

Oh god what have I done...

Inb4 KrazyCaley demands yeaGO! (KrazyCaley) to disable notifications...

...KrazyCaley...

He doesn't get all that many. I do feel bad for yeaGO! (KrazyCaley) and Epochalyptik (also KrazyCaley) though.

Notice how I super fanicly didn't tag them?

Oh man, I just logged on and saw this. I hope KrazyCaley isn't mad.

Hahahaha!

I'm sure KrazyCaley isn't mad. KrazyCaley is a pretty chill guy, for someone named KrazyCaley