Game Haven

Les is More #1-Calling a Last Minute Audible into Utah Magic States top 8

sguy — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:54:51 +0000

Hello all, and for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Les Pendergraft. I’m just your typical happy go lucky Magic player. Never been much for competitive magic but recently have made the move and have been happy with the competition.
I recently joined a group to do some play testing with and hopefully improve my skills. The group has opened my eyes to what it means to play next level Magic and as a group we are getting better. Some have made a goal to play in a few Grand Prix’s and maybe even make a run at the Pro Tour! As for me, I’m happy just hanging out kicking a few jokes and playing the game we all love. So when the Utah State Championship was announced I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to play. After mulling it over and finally making the decision to play, the next thing at hand was deciding what deck to play. There are always 3 decisions I consider when faced with deck decisions: Net Decking, Home Brewing, or playing someone else’s home brew. I spent a few days doing research and play testing I came to the conclusion that most of our “Meta” would most likely be playing some variant of control or midrange types of decks. Most people who know me know that I don’t have the patience or discipline to play control or midrange… I have almost always gone the way of agro. Through my research I found that the same deck I had built for pre-rotation (B/R Zombies) was still performing pretty well. Not much of the deck had rotated out and with a few minor tweaks this deck might get me somewhere.
My Pre-rotation was a fairly simple build:
CREATURES
4x Gravecrawler
4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Blood Artist
4x Geralf’s Messanger
4x Falkenraft Aristocrat
2x Fume Spitter
2x Bloodthrone Vampire

ARTIFACTS
3x Mortarpod
INSTANTS
4x Tragic Slip
2x Gut shot
2x Brimstone Volley
SORCERIES
2x Bonfire of the Damned
2x Pillar of Flames
BASIC LAND
10x Swamp
1x Mountain
LAND
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Cavern of Souls
SIDEBOARD
3x Vexing Devil
2x Pillar of Flames
2x Go For the Throat
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Zealous Conscripts
2x Smelt
2x Gut Shot

So in seeing that only a few cards rotated out, I had a fairly simple updating process.

OUT
2x Fume Spitters (main)
3x Mortar Pod (main)
4x Gut Shot (2 main 2 side)
4x Blackcleave Cliffs (main)
2x Go For the Throat (side)

The changes seemed fairly simple, where most of the dominant decks in standard were losing at least half their decks, I was only losing 15 cards, and not to mention the core cards of the deck were staying! So what was I to replace these with? The cards had to stay synergistic, with the deck. The creatures have to be an instant threat when they hit the board and advance my damage as this is and agro deck… So here’s what I came up with:
CREATURES
4x Gravecrawler
4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Blood Artist
4x Geralf’s Messanger
4x Falkenraft Aristocrat
2x Bloodthrone Vampire
4x Rakdos Cacklers
INSTANTS
4x Tragic Slip
3x Searing Spear
3x Brimstone Volley
SORCERIES
2x Bonfire of the Damned
BASIC LAND
10x Swamp
LAND
4x Blood Crypt
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Cavern of Souls
2x Rakdos Guildgates
SIDEBOARD
3x Pillar of Flames
1x Liliana of the Veil
1x Smelt
2x DreadBore
2x Slaughter Games
4x Bump in the Night
1x Tragic Slip
1x Searing Spear

With the build done, all I had to do now was get used to the deck again. After close to 20 matches played I noticed something wasn’t quite right with the build, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I liked the deck. I like how fast it was. I liked that people had to deal with everything I put on the table, and in most cases they were dealt with by an EOT Tragic Slip, or FMP Pillar of Flames, which was to be expected. As I played the deck more I developed a feel for the deck and soon forgot the gut feeling of it not being quite right, and decided it was the deck for States.
The morning of States I mulled over the last minute tweaks, the usual weather to main 3 Tragic Slip and 4 Searing Spears, or vise versa…. And then it hit me. What is the one card in my colors that doesn’t die to the turn 1 Tragic Slip or Pillar of Flames, and is a huge threat…? Vexing Devil! Knowing that the majority of the decks I would be playing against today were main boarding the answer to all my zombies, no one would be packing the answer to the Vexing Devil, and would most likely be forced to take the 4 damage to get rid of him or if the let him life I knew that had a sweeper so it would ultimately determine my next play late game… and not to mention that if I play him with a Blood Artist on board, it’s a potential for a 6 life swing! So with 45 minutes to go I audibled and went back to work and rebuilt the deck again.

Here is the final build I went with that ultimately got me to the Top 8 at States:
CREATURES
4x Gravecrawler
4x Diregraf Ghoul
3x Blood Artist
4x Geralf’s Messanger
4x Falkenraft Aristocrat
2x Bloodthrone Vampire
4x Rakdos Cacklers
3x Vexing Devil

INSTANTS
3x Tragic Slip
2x Searing Spear
3x Brimstone Volley
SORCERIES
2x Bonfire of the Damned
BASIC LAND
9x Swamp
1x Mountain
LAND
4x Blood Crypt
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Cavern of Souls
2x Rakdos Guildgates
SIDEBOARD
3x Pillar of Flames
2x Smelt
2x Dreadbore
2x Slaughter Games
4x Bump in the Night
1x Tragic Slip
1x Searing Spear

It was a fun ride and an awesome experience! I hope to play this deck again, and I hope that the play mistakes I made in the Top 8 don’t haunt me forever! Thanks again for reading!

Les Pendergraft

P.S. Keeping a 1 Land hand with 5 1 drops may seem like a good idea, but really it’s your deck just toying with you and temptation. Mull away and pray for better cards!

Cheers!

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Yu-Gi-Oh! is better than ever at Game Haven.

sguy — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:50:12 +0000

Hey guys it’s Anthony Chiechi, I fell in love with card games when I got my first pack of Yu-Gi-Oh! in the sixth grade, and have never looked back since. I have only gained further interest in the game over time and learning on how to be a better player and how to be able to play on a competitive level. Once you get the “hunger” of playing 9 rounds of competitive play in major event in another state, you just can’t stop yourself from wanting to go to everyone around the country.

Yu-Gi-Oh! has changed a lot since I have started playing it and I personally think it’s only going to continue to grow.

Game Haven currently offers two nights a week for Yu-Gi-Oh! player’s to come and compete in a tournament setting for prizes. Those nights are Wednesday at 6:30 pm and Saturday at 6:00 pm.

They offer great prize support and have a great community of players. I will also be there on those days running the tournaments, and will there a little early so if anyone needs help on their decks or want any ideas I will be glad to help in any way I can. My Yu-Gi-Oh! accomplishments include tons of Regionals’ top 8’s, and 2 top 150 finishes at YCS events.

Our first special event we are going to hold is on November 24th 2012. 1st place will be given a Secret Rare-Card Car D. a valuable and playable card that can spice up anyone’s deck. I’d love to see a lot of people come out to this and because this won’t be our last Card Car D tournament, there will be many more prize card tournaments in the future. See you there!

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5 Spooky games for the Halloween season

sguy — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 01:58:25 +0000

Here is a quick list of the top 5 board games and card games to make your Halloween party creepy!

1. Betrayal at House on the Hill: Explore an old mansion with your friends, have fun with the many twists and turns. What will happen as you unlock new rooms and find new mysteries:

http://www.yourgamehaven.com/products-page/board-games/betrayal-at-house-on-the-hill/

2. Zombie Fluxx: What better than a great game with a zombie theme:

http://www.yourgamehaven.com/products-page/card-games/zombie-fluxx/

3. Zombies!!!: Make your way through town, but don’t get infected.

http://www.yourgamehaven.com/products-page/card-games/zombies/

4. Arkham Horror: Something isn’t right in the town of Arkham, can you solve the mystery before it’s too late:

http://www.yourgamehaven.com/products-page/board-games/arkham-horror/

5. Munchkin Zombies: It’s the sickest, silliest Munchkin yet! You are zombies, kicking down doors and eating brains.

http://www.yourgamehaven.com/products-page/card-games/munchkin-zombies/

You can pick up any one of these great games at your local Game Haven store!

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Bountiful Grand Opening Was a Great Success!!!!

sguy — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:58:10 +0000

WOW!!

Thank you so much for attending our Grand Opening Celebration in Bountiful Saturday. It was a great success.

The morning started with pancakes and a game of Rock the Beat led by Shawn Guy. You could hear them pounding there fists to the beat of “We will rock you” from outside, it was awesome

We then had a full on paintball frenzy in our Warhammer 40K Paintball tournaments. It was a great day for the orks as they pulled ahead in both games. Those poor marines were a pretty dotted pink mess!!

We next had our Last night on Earth demo, and the first game went to the zombies as they ate brains and took no mercy, but the humans outsmarted the hungry verman in the next game as they survived and won.

We started our Heroclix tournament with a pretty big crowd, it was pretty crazy looking over the battle field and watching Superman beating up the poor Starship Enterprise!!

We then started the Hotdogs on the grill and started playing some Ticket to ride, and Munchkin!!

Each hour we were doing drawings and giving away fun new games, Dice, some cool earings made of dice , Game Haven Tshirts, and discounts.

Our Alara draft was next. People really enjoyed playing such a bizzarre multi colored set , and it was more of the same with our repack draft.

Overall, wether you were helping us eat our cake, or playing in our about the store scavenger hunt, it was a great day and we made a lot of new friends!!!

Thanks for coming everyone!!!

If you missed this event stay tuned for our new store opening in St George.. We will be having a Grand Opening down that way in not too long

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Geoff talks about Magic 2013 sealed and some upcoming events at Game Haven, West Jordan

sguy — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 15:47:02 +0000

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Return to Ravnica

sguy — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:59:14 +0000

Choose your guild.

Coming October 5, 2012.

Prereleases ($25) will be held:

September 29 at 12 am, 3 pm, and 7 pm.

September 30 at 12 pm.

Two-Headed Giant ($32/team):

Saturday, 10 am and Sunday, 4 pm

Pre-order Fatpacks for $39.99 and Boxes for $99.99

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Utah Food Bank Magic Celebration, Sept. 8, 2012

sguy — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 19:25:30 +0000

Come have a good time while supporting a great cause!

We will be collecting donations and non-perishable food all day. Anyone who donates gets 10% off any single item in the store!

Our Magic Celebration day will be held in honor of this event. Magic players will receive free packs to participate in a Mini Master event for Magic 2013.

Raffle tickets will be available for $1, and all proceeds are going to the Utah Food Bank. We will be drawing prizes such as foil judge promos, playmats, deck boxes, and even sealed boxes of Magic product!

This much-anticipated event runs all day.

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Game Haven Geeks Podcast: Episode 1

sguy — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:52:23 +0000

Episode 1 of our new podcast: Game Haven Geeks!

We talk about upcoming events and product releases in our store.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

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July 6-8: Magic 2013 Prerelease Weekend-Bountiful and West Jordan

sguy — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:14:40 +0000

We will be having tons of fun events for the prerelease of Magic 2013. Be sure to check out our calendar of events for dates and times!

The Prerelease card is Xathrid Gorgon, pictured here.

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Grand Prix Trial: Vancouver-Saturday June 2nd in West Jordan-Standard Format

sguy — Mon, 28 May 2012 16:26:52 +0000

$10 Entry, Registration starts at 11, Play begins at 12pm, Decklists required, Standard Format-Play for awesome prizes and 3 byes to the Grand Prix in Vancouver Canada.

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