Brian Kowal
@bkowal23
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Owner of Misty Mountain Games. CubeCon org, MTG deck building boomer. Lover of Board Games, RPGs, Comics, Cooking, Food, Bernese Mountain Dogs. he/him
Madison, WI
Joined March 2010
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I hate hexproof, but sidestepping how the game ACTUALLY GENERALLY WORKS I also hate. What’s next? 1BB Destroy a creature or planeswalker a player controls?
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I am pretty upset I missed out on the Secret Lair featuring MY OWN DOG. Let me know if you have extras.
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I’ve been thinking about this Pia deck for the last week. Decided to tech it out tonight. Fiery Impulse was just awesome. Stonebinders were 2/2 or better most of the time. Mentors were great as extra Pias. Drum was solid.
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Lost in the top 8 of the North American Premodern Championship with my own take on URW AngelSolutionFire. Future Sight was bananas. 111 players and just an amazing tournament.
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ATTENTION!! That is MY DOG, the Bernese Mountain Dog HOPPER on an actual Magic card! I love it so much! Thank you Alyana!!!! Beautiful!
Dog (Park) Mountain for the new Raining Cats & Dogs Commander deck! I got to do 3 lands with a lot of cats and dogs T_T It was super fun
AD: Sarah Wassell
#mtg
#mtgart
#mtgsld
#fantasyart
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Please read Jenn's words about what happened.
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We have had a hard situation since CubeCon 2023. Here is an important and serious update on what has happened and how we will move forward. Please help us boost the signal here. Please follow and share our socials.
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In my day, Robert Bliss snuck a penis onto almost every artwork and we loved it.
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Wow! Did anybody know about this before 42 minutes ago?
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This obviously doesn’t need to be said, but we are not involved with “person in question”. What a weird thing to say.
@Viral_Drake
I am not at liberty to discuss the details of the complaint. As far as I am aware, the person in question remains a member of the reformulated CubeCon organizing committee (though I imagine that will change). The person in question is not a member of our group.
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@SaffronOlive
Legend of Zelda
World of Warcraft
League of Legends
Warhammer 40K
Final Fantasy
Game of Thrones
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You can’t just ban Brainstorm in Historic
1. It is a cornerstone of the format
2. People would just stop playing Historic
3. It is highly skill intensive and makes games more interesting
Brainstorm has really homogenized Historic. Banning Time Warp doesn't seem to have done much of anything to stop its rise. It might be time for another Historic shakeup.
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I hit Mythic for the first time ever playing only Bo1. (I don't get a ton of time to play per day in general) I even did it with my own clown shoes deck. This deck is basically awesome outside of the UW matchup which I would rate as ewwww but not hopeless.
@ArenaDecklists
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My favorite moment of LOTR PR, convincing my op who learned to play last week on Arena not to make a futile attack to “lose less” and instead work out the best play that kept him alive. He ended up top decking and winning the game two turns later at 2 life.
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@JoeyPascoMTG
They should just add the line “All permanents lose hexproof, ward, and indestructible until end of turn” to about 3 cards per set imo. I would keyword that.
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I love the new system where they remove players who get to 12 wins and just advance them to top 8. It should lead to more high stakes matches as the day goes on. We'll see how it all shakes out. Shota in top 8 before anybody else even gets to 11 is nice.
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I played RG Survival to a 5-1 in the monthly this month. This deck is great at keeping threats going. Sometimes I even start thinking it isn’t a worse Elves. It is one of the few Survival decks that I like keeping hands without Survival.
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My strategic LGS weakness is I feel passionately about the Standard format. I wrote this response to
@HueyJensen
’s Standard announcement in the WPN store group but I like how it turned out so I thought I would share it.
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This is something I have been very aware of as a store owner for years. You cannot buy players with prizes. People play MTG because they want to play MTG.
"Many people are asking my thoughts on why this is happening so..."
No they aren't. I just woke up, am pissed off that my foot hurts from running, and feel like answering this question, so I'm gonna answer it.
Steve, you rule and apologies in advance if this somehow fucks up
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@SamuelHBlack
wins the Premodern Spring Cup at
@MistyMTMadison
! He swept through the top 8 with his UWg Tax Control without losing a game against UW Dreadnought, Oath Devourer, and Gro-a-tog! Thanks to everyone for coming out. We will see you in July!!!
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EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!:
If you come to
#cubecon
Cube-e-oke, Hank's Burgers & Fish Fry will be serving up REAL FACTUAL PONZA!!! Made by my new second favorite person,
@pharr_sean
! I test drove one last night and it was AMAZING! Took me back to Waukesha. But what is a Ponza??
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@GwenDekker
and I had a phone conversation today. The first we had talked since he left CubeCon. Great talking person to person finally. I think we found some quality understanding, clarity, and consensus. He has my full support with his future endeavors and I wish him well.
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(1/11) A thing WOTC tried to teach players/stores at one point was that the word proxy doesn’t really mean anything as far as they are concerned. Here is the original article:
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You have siloed the game into multiple different games at this point. Standard used to be a touchstone for everybody of where the new cards come from. Now you have Modern power level and Commander power level so Standard is just where the bad cards live.
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I will cosign all of what Jonathan has said here. I apologize to the community for being a part of the group whose methods to resolve conflict led to this. 1/x
The organizing committee never had a great process for internal conflict resolution and certain communications. That, predictably, led to a lot of other issues. Everyone who was involved in the organizing committee is very strong-willed and that can be a positive thing, but we
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57 players at the Midwest Premodern Championship at Misty Mountain Games. This is a charity event benefitting
@briarpatchys
! Full streamed coverage at
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Created some nearly perfect forgeries to play with the MTGO Vintage Cube I assembled for
@MTGCubeCon
for when I don’t have access to
@SamuelHBlack
’s generous loans.
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Some friends have been working on a cube of all cards of 2 or less mana value. Here are a few decks from it.
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Holding our last Premodern event of the year the Misty Mountain Finals! This is a charity event to benefit Briarpatch Youth Services. You can buy raffle tickets for lots of great prizes. Check replies for some links!
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The original 5 Color Green deck just hanging out in a deck box all these years!!
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I would like to clarify how
@GwenDekker
left the CubeCon committee. They felt it looked like they left due to the sexual harassment investigation. This was not true. They left due to issues with the group dynamic and disagreement on how to ensure CubeCon's financial viability.
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The top 10
#premodern
cards according to MTGTop8. Note that there are no red or green cards in the top 10 but Wooded Foothills is the most played fetch land. And I don’t think that is inaccurate.
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#cubecon
Day Zero
-Roaming about Madison with
@Jbrostoff
and
@emmadpartlow
. Breakfast at Ogdens, Cheese shopping, merch pickup
-Huge turnout at Misty. Play a UW control match from
@aquaonecube
for
@raff_sputin
. Some epic games vs Cade from NH
-Much swagbag assembly
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My brain keeps cynically saying, nearly every decision WOTC has made in the last three years has been at the expense of Standard.
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Big change to the Premodern format. Land Tax is banned! I was a big proponent of this change. I do feel bad for the people the card really resonated with. Credit goes especially to Rich Shay,
@I_came_to_game
,
@PremodernMTGO
, and
@SamuelHBlack
for some great innovations with it.
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I won something with two of my oldest and best MTG friends. I played RB Aristo-Cats and only lost one match all day. I’ve been gaming with these two since 97.
Congratulations to Robert Castro,
@bkowal23
, and
@AdrianLSullivan
for winning today's Team Standard $1,200 Qualifier!
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Hopper in his happy place in winter at the dog park. I love it too.
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Tonight I am playing in the top 4 of the
#premodern
64 Deck Super Gauntlet 2022 Americas Division (I'll explain in a reply) with this crazy Tradewind Survival of all things. On at 7pm EST/4pm PST. We are playing out the whole top 4. Come watch the fun!
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Hate Secret Lair all you want, but my partner
@kristin_kowal
played Commander for the first time just yesterday and…
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Did you know I love
#premodern
? We are holding the Midwest Premodern Championship this Saturday! We made a super fancy plaque for the winner! We are going to raise a bunch of money for Briarpatch Youth Services! Watch it all on
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Remember Standard States? An event that was always a few weeks after the Fall rotation. That got players invested in Standard right when it was fresh and exciting. It was amazing.
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One of the most fascinating developments of LTR is that people are trying to assemble complete sets of it. They are building cubes they will never take apart. I don’t think I have seen so many people trying to collect a MTG set like this since the real early days.
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I am down to the low-hanging fruit. We do things because we want a compelling story. Show us great player narratives and we will want our own. Give us great formats and you will never lose some of us. I know you can do it. MTG is the greatest game of all time.
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I ran into Megan at InfiniTokens just tonight at GAMA trade show and bought everything she had left with her for
@MistyMountainWI
! Super excited to have their great products at our store!
InfiniTokens Dry Erase Tokens are the perfect gaming accessory for MTG, RPGs and more. These dry erase cards and counters will help make your gameplay easier!
Store thousands of token options in a single deck box. Anything you need, any time you need it!
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When Mike is the best MTG writer he is just the best MTG writer. He says this is the best thing he has written in years. I loved it!
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Congrats to
@Jbrostoff
on becoming the newest Alder of Milwaukee! You are going to do amazing things for your city! Proud of you! Hell Yeah!
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Super powerful Mythic rares that sell lots of packs only to get banned are clearly bad for Standard, but also severely punish whole strategy lines. I can’t even imagine wanting to build aggro decks with a card like Sheoldred around.
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Keep looking at this awesome latest
#Premodern
combo deck by Conor Abbott Brown. Can win with an EOT Intuition+Corpse Dance.
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I have so much to say about this I don’t know where to start.
Over the past few years, Standard play has dried up in many stores. I have my own list of possible reasons, but I’d love to hear from you about your store community. Why has sanctioned Standard play declined relative to other formats in your store?
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A great OP program with prestige and prizes would help a lot. Most players are not natural deck builders. The PT system where a Standard PT would roll out a week or two after the set and show players what was good was amazing.
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MY STORE!! Me Me!
@MistyMTMadison
The LGS is bumpin. Three tables of Yu-Gi-Oh, magic is down to two now, five tables of minis, and a d&d group with a whopping 10 extremely well behaved elementary/middle schoolers
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How do you rank the following films
Jaws (1975)
Alien (1979)
The Thing (1982)
Predator (1987)
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Best tweet yesterday from our 2023 Midwest Premodern Champs yesterday. Sam just ran a list he thought of that morning combining the two most powerful strategies in Premodern and won our whole tournament without losing a match (for the second time in a row)
The other match is Tax v Dreadnaught, so I have a mirror match either way
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Come play
#premodern
at
@MistyMTMadison
this year in Madison, WI! Our complete schedule is all set so mark your calendars! All events will be cast on Twitch with
@CloudgoatRanger
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Our Cubecon merch site is live and I am so happy with what our team has for this year. I am biased because I did the most work on them, but I love the counter dice the most.
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Remember when they printed like 1000 different Lord of the Ring cards and not ONE Misty Mountain card? Thanks WOTC
@MistyMountainWI
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I am playing the team NRG event with
@SamuelHBlack
and Aspa Amiridis in the Pioneer seat. I haven’t really tried to be competitive at Magic in a while and it was fun preparing this week. Check out the links for coverage and standings. Excited to game.
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I find the game exhausting to look at. I think this is going to keep compounding as time goes on.
An open letter to
@wizards_magic
.
Whilst I appreciate some will point the finger and shout 'kneejerk!', these are views and feelings I've had for a long time, yesterday just helped put them into words.
Appreciate RTs for visibility.
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4. It just wouldn’t feel like Historic without it
5. Discard would be too good
6. It adds consistency to the format
7. It’s not that oppressive
8. It could lead to other less fun decks being good
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When you remove things like organized play and free demo decks, it comes at the expense if Standard. When you prioritize Commander and Modern over Standard you are killing it.
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This Saturday in Madison, WI! The first of our 4 Premodern events this year! If you can’t make it you can catch all the action at
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Every time I see a new or reprinted the card that you would NEVER put in Standard the writing is clearly on the wall that it is not the game you are selling. Customers get communicated this even when they don’t realize it.
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Turned out super successful. No draws into top 8! Everybody playing for something.
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Jon is a force for good that just won’t quit. He accomplishes so much on a weekly basis. Caring for six kids. Working endlessly in politics for his city. Winning massive amounts of Cube trophies. Pushing himself and everyone to make CubeCon the greatest.
We wanted to take some time today to spotlight and appreciate
@Jbrostoff
, the CEO of CubeCon
Happy Cubing y'all! I’m Jonathan (AKA Jbro), one of the co-owners of CubeCon. Magic is the best game ever made, Cube is the best Magic ever made.
A little about me: I’m a loving husband
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@Ajelenbogen
It was something like
“God, why am I playing this.”
“Thinking the same thing.”
“Trade?”
“Sure”
“Really?”
And from there you just kinda have to
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I'm a Ken Yukihiro superfan. Best deckbuilder in the game. Every time I see a Ken list I wish I had thought of it.
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Yawgmoth’s Will and Underworld Breach are two of my favorite strong cards that get hideously overpowered due to free mana cards. I love them for the valuetown. A really cool design space would be small ball versions. Like BB You may play 3 cards from your graveyard this turn.
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We had our biggest event yet. Raised over $1500 for a Madison youth shelter. Did an amazing stream of the event with
@CloudgoatRanger
and
@Brazz99
. Had a star studded top 8 including
@CalebDMTG
and
@fpawluszmtg
. I got home around 4am after all the after event fun.
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Our next Charity Premodern event is coming up soon. Come out December 16th to play some Premodern Magic for a great cause: Briarpatch Youth Services. This event will also be catered. We have raised $3700 to help disadvantaged and homeless youth in Madison.
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@GavinVerhey
After you submit your deck they compare your list to the top 200 cards in the format. For each copy of a card in your deck that is not on that list you get a point. Most points gets the play
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The format is Urza’s Ante which is effectively sealed deck with open trading. A field of about 20 and there are a out five times more moxes than lands in the room. Having a blast. This is my current deck complete with super bomb Titania’s Song
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Oh look! Another adorable Premodern Blue/Green deck. EOT I’ll cycle another Tusker
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A 24 person tournament where multiple groups of 4-8 players are all playing the same deck months after the set came out makes the format look actively bad.
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#premodern
decks I submitted for the PSS4. Should be a wild ride. Matches start on Thursday 9/22 at 7 Eastern on
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My CubeCon bucket list
1. Draft
@aquaonecube
’s work of Magic art.
2. Eat 2 of
@pharr_sean
’s Ponzas at Cube-e-oke night
3. Get dinner with
@GavinVerhey
4. Dupe Sealed with
@landho
5. A Sprecher toast to CubeCon with
@Jbrostoff
6. Draft
@GLHF_Games
’s Old Border Foil Cube
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Back in 96 it was joked there were only 4 colors you could actually win with. Green was often considered complete garbage due to the removal being so much better than the creatures. Here we have Adrian Sullivan’s Green Machine. An LD, board control, recursion deck.
#Nov96T2
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@CubeConOfficial
I will always irrationally pick this higher than I should. Best MTG mini game ever printed.
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