One of the most important things for an aspiring MTGO Hero to remember is the need to maximize his funds. Magic Online may not be quite as expensive as its paper counterpart, but it still becomes very costly over time. Players on a limited budget should be looking for every possible way to increase their bankrolls.

There will occasionally be opportunities to gain real value on Magic Online—it is simply a matter of knowing where and when to find it. I recommend keeping up with the current news and events—which can be found on MTGOnline.com—in order to find those opportunities when they arise.

The latest example of free goodies to be obtained came along with a sneak preview of the beta client. Anyone who played in an online event on the new client during the preview period earned a free Avacyn Restored booster pack. Never wanting to pass up on an opportunity to increase my funds, I decided that I would enter into a Standard 2-Player Constructed match. The only problem was my lack of funds.

Poverty Stricken

After last week’s loss, I was left with 0.83 in bot credits. I would need to sell cards just to be able to compete in a Daily Event for the week, but I didn’t have a choice. I submitted a classified post, and after an hour or so, I was able to sell four Champion of the Parish for 5 tickets and four Silverblade Paladin for 3 tickets.

I won’t get into the details of the 2-Player match, but I was able to win against B/R Zombies and gain a pack of Avacyn Restored. That also meant that later in the week, I would receive my free booster pack for playing an event on the beta client. Things were already looking up! All I had left to do was to wait.

The Big Day

It finally happened:

I had received my free booster pack and was able to sell both packs for 6.40 tickets, which brought my total funds to 13.23 tickets. I immediately posted an ad in the classifieds that I was willing to pay 6 tickets for four Rancors. It took thirty minutes and two different traders, but I had myself a play set of Rancors and a strong desire to stomp some faces.

I just needed to decide what I wanted to remove from my deck in order to fit the Rancors in. After some testing and tweaking, this was the build I decided on:

"SavageBeasts3.0.dek"

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
• 1 Champion of Lambholt
• 1 Stingerfling Spider
• 1 Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1 Viridian Corrupter
• 2 Viridian Emissary
• 2 Wolfir Silverheart
• 3 Predator Ooze
• 4 Dungrove Elder
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Strangleroot Geist

• Spells (11)
• 2 Dismember
• 3 Green Sun's Zenith
• 3 Revenge of the Hunted
• 3 Rancor

• Lands (23)
• 23 Forest

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Blunt the Assault
• 3 Mental Misstep
• 2 Ratchet Bomb
• 2 Beast Within
• 3 Prey Upon
• 3 Crushing Vines

Buy This Deck

I finally had the cards that I wanted, and now it was time to put them to use. Once again, I entered a Daily Event ready to battle.

Standard 4-RND (Event #4128303)

Round 1 vs. B/R Zombies

Game record: 0–1

Sideboard:

+2 Blunt the Assault

−1 Green Sun's Zenith

−1 Avacyn's Pilgrim

Game 2 – I discovered that my opponent was playing the most removal-heavy build of Zombies that I had ever played against. I saw everything including the kitchen sink as far as removal went. A Pillar of Flame exiled my Viridian Emissary. A Go for the Throat killed my Champion of Lambholt. Then, a Mortarpod, Geth's Verdict, and Liliana of the Veil left me creatureless and without any cards in hand. Fortunately for me, I continued to draw into creatures while he only drew lands. I finally was able to play more creatures than he could handle and overwhelm him.

Game record: 1–1

Game 3 – This was a repeat of Game 2; however, my opponent was the one drawing creatures while I only drew lands.

Game record: 1–2

Match record: 0–1

The amount of removal my opponent had was very surprising to me, but this match was fairly straight forward—the player that drew the most gas was going to win. Fate was on his side this time, so I hoped to have better luck in round two.

Round 2 vs. W/U Delver

Game record: 1–0

Sideboard:

+3 Mental Misstep

−1 Predator Ooze

−1 Avacyn's Pilgrim

−1 Acidic Slime

Game 2 – My opponent began the game by playing a Cavern of Souls (naming Human) and a Delver of Secrets, which I killed on my turn with a Dismember. He played Moorland Haunt and another Delver, but I also killed that Delver with another Dismember in hopes that he was banking on those Delvers staying in play. My hopes paid off as he was mana-screwed for the rest of the game, and I was able to beat him down fairly quickly.

As a side note: It turns out that having multiple Rancor on creatures in play is at least as awesome as I had hoped it would be!

Game record: 2-0

Match record: 1-1

I must admit that I was very lucky against the Delver opponent. It’s possible that I could have won the match either way, but fate was definitely on my side this round.

Round 3 vs. Naya Pod

Game record: 1–0

Sideboard:

+2 Blunt the Assault

−1 Avacyn's Pilgrim

−1 Bellowing Tanglewurm

Game 2 – My opponent had a very aggressive draw and began beating me down quickly. My draw was much slower, and by the time I was able to play a Predator Ooze, my opponent had built an army. He continued to play creatures, and I mana-flooded my way to another loss.

Game record: 1–1

Game 3 – I had a very solid start with a Llanowar Elves, Strangleroot Geist, and Dungrove Elder. Unfortunately, I then continued drawing lands while my opponent played two Blade Splicers, Restoration Angel, Zealous Conscripts, Wolfir Silverheart, Wurmcoil Engine, and a Birthing Pod. That was more than enough for him to eliminate me.

Game record: 1–2

Match record: 1–2

Wrapping Up

That being said, I was once again nearly broke. At this rate, I would only have another week or two at the most to win an event. If I wasn’t successful, I would be taking one last chance by selling off the remainder of my cards and attempting to play Pauper.

Before I tried my hand at another format, I would make sure that I was as prepared as possible going into the next event. I had given myself very little time to test my deck with Rancor, and I would make sure that I was confident in my skills and in my deck the next time I played with it.

I will also be practicing offline with a paper version of the deck, which I will be playing in a Pro Tour Qualifier in my hometown of Spokane, Washington on August 11. Unlike in the StarCityGames: Seattle tournament, I will be truly representing MTGO Hero by playing an exact copy of the deck.

I never give up without a fight, and I will be putting forth my very best effort to get back into winning mode. Over the course of the next week, I will be grinding the Tournament Practice room with every moment of my free time. Then, it will be time to unleash the Rancor once again.

Until then,

–Tangent was here . . .