This is usually the beginning of the article, where I set up the scene in Baltimore featuring the SCG Invitational. I wish I could bring you a story of how I won the whole thing, but I ultimately chose poorly for decks in both formats even though I began well enough with a 7-1 start. The feeling one gets when he recognizes his own failure is sobering to say the least, and the only thing you can do at that point is learn and move forward. I mirrored my decent start on Day 1 with a 1-7 finish to the tournament, ending up with no cash and nothing to show for it except a handful of regrets.
What I did learn was humility at the cost of opportunity, and that alone is something to hold dear. When you experience complete and utter defeat at your own hands, you begin to understand that you’re mortal. Even coming off a reasonable amount of success lately, I needed to learn that I can’t let it get to my head. I am only human after all, and humans make mistakes. God knows I’ve made enough of them, but I’ll continue to strive for my best because that’s all I can offer up. Because that’s what you deserve from me.
I can bring you decklists and regular, consistent strategy, but that isn’t what makes Magic so important. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, Magic can be useless. You need someone to teach you how to use it in order for it to be a successful instrument. Without learning how to use the tools properly, we’re left with a bunch of untapped resources that could make us better at what we do. And isn’t Magic just that? A learning tool? I know that I’ve learned more about myself and the people around me just by playing Magic with them, and that feeling is pretty incredible to me.
Watch someone playing Magic and you’ll see their personality. My friend Brian hates being in completely control but lacks the will to drive himself into chaos. He will always choose an aggro-control deck if he can. I know that my wife loves to be aggressive in pretty much every aspect of her life because those are the decks she enjoys playing with in Magic. She isn’t a control freak. She doesn’t like to be the one who makes all the decisions. That’s why she plays those kind of decks, because that’s who she is, and I think that each and every one of us can see something about ourselves just by looking at what kind of decks we like to play.Â
Earlier in my career I was addicted to playing aggressive decks because those were what I was good at playing. I knew my limitations within the rules of the game, and I knew that playing more complicated cards would only result in more wins for my opponent. As time passed and I learned how to wield those tools properly, I found out that I could be so much more. But isn’t that just it? Aren’t we all struggling to find that part of ourselves that we’ve been missing all this time? Why do you think Patrick Sullivan plays Mono Red decks all the time? I can assure you that it has nothing to do with how smart he is. He plays them because he loves to put the pressure on the opponent. He knows deep down that most people are inherently bad at the game and bad at what they’re trying to do. His job, in this case, is to do the most consistent thing possible, suspecting that his opponents will probably lose to themselves. And he’s usually right.
But I could be wrong. Some men want money, some want power. But some men just want to watch the world burn.
I could be looking way too much into this, but I feel like Magic can be an extension of our person. There’s such a negative stigma outside of the Magic community that forces people on the outside to stay outside so we can stay “safe.” We don’t like our “non-Magic” friends to know we’re driving four hours away to play Magic all weekend…but why? Whereas most people would love for others to know about their passion, we continually hide ourselves from the rest of society because we are drawn to this game, this thing we love that others wouldn’t really understand. We are broken individuals, those who are cast out from normal aspects of society, and together we form our own cliques. We form our own band of brothers and sisters. We find something in each other that we couldn’t find in anyone who is “normal” because we’re not normal. I’m the first to admit this because I’m inherently averse to being forced into a box.Â
Through faults of our own, and some that aren’t, we become damaged. We are damaged, and we are so desperately trying to fix ourselves that sometimes the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred. We work jobs just to get by, we drop out of school, and we find people just like us to share in our collective misery/ecstasy. We come together because we are driven to…because we have to. Regardless of the medium that brings us together, regardless of our various reasons for doing what we do, we put all of our hearts and souls into it because we have nothing else to put it into.
We aren’t what we want to be, but isn’t that what drives us? Contentment leads to boredom leads to unhappiness. The human error, the built-in flaw that puts us into a constant state of upheaval, but one that proves our worth time and time again. Without that drive, that need for success and progress, we would ultimately find ourselves stagnant. But what are we left with once we achieve our goals? What is happiness without suffering?
Work, long shadow day.
The lights above us flicker,
Ominous. Repeat.
A wise man once said, “Do what you love, and then find someone to pay you to do it.” To me, that sums up my goals in life because I know that I’ll never be perfect at something. I’ll never be the best, no matter how much success I feel. I’ll never be the guy who others always look to for advice. But that’s what drives me, because it takes everything in me to keep from shouting at someone who says I’m terrible even when I know what they’re saying is right. I’m not perfect, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not good at something. Magic is just a great device for showing how flawed we all are. There are maybe five people in the world who are just amazing at the game. They understand every aspect of it better than all of us combined, but those people would be naturally successful at almost anything they chose to do. The fact that they choose Magic should say more about the game than the people themselves.
When someone asks me what makes me the player I am today, I don’t really have a response. That is to say, I have a response, but it isn’t one that they will comprehend. I have drive. I have a will to succeed that rivals anyone I’ve ever met, but I only have that drive when it comes to something I enjoy. Getting good grades in school was easy and something that I did because I had to do. Once those restraints were lifted, I decided to focus on things that would make me happy. While some people might consider that reckless, I can think of nothing in the world I would rather do than play games for a living. Getting paid to write about, play, and invest myself in a game that I love is about as much as I could ever ask for.
As much as you might think, I’m not naive. I know that this ride isn’t going to last forever. How could it? One day we all have to grow up, but I don’t think I’m ready to do that just yet. There’s plenty of time left for me to figure out something else that makes me happy. Why not ride the ride as long as it’s up and running?
Call the engineer.
Out of Order. The sign sways.
Dreams, they died today.
Enter the obligatory jump back to reality, and you’ll find me once again coming to my senses. After all, this is a strategy column.
The following Maverick deck is the one I used to make the finals of the SCG Legacy Open in Baltimore after bombing out of the Invitational with a RUG Tempo deck.
Creatures (25)
- 4 Mother of Runes
- 1 Scryb Ranger
- 2 Aven Mindcensor
- 1 Gaddock Teeg
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 3 Qasali Pridemage
- 3 Scavenging Ooze
- 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
What can I say about this deck that hasn’t been said a few times already? Drew Levin wrote an entire article about Maverick a few weeks ago that you can read here. This article has a lot of useful information in it, and you should definitely read it if you want a primer on Maverick in Legacy.
I’ll go over a few of my unique card choices, as well as a few things I was considering right up to the beginning of the tournament. I think that my list was only a few cards off of being perfect, and no match I played felt very close in one way or the other. I lost a grand total of one game in the Swiss, going 8-0-1. I don’t feel like any one card in the deck is exceptional. Every spell has its role, and it was chosen because it’s the best at what it does. After all, we do have access to every card in Magic (that isn’t on the banned list of course).
Leading up to the tournament, I wanted to play a Life from the Loam in the maindeck. I felt like recurring Wastelands and specific lands against opposing Wasteland decks was very good. I also thought there were a few slots that were flexible, and I wanted some high impact one-ofs. Garruk Relentless felt incredibly synergistic with the deck, and I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t try him out. He’s obviously bad against combo decks, but aren’t most planeswalkers?
I also wanted to try out a singleton Oblivion Ring since it acts as a fifth removal spell and another answer to artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers. I also planned on playing an Enlightened Tutor sideboard, which would have allowed for the Oblivion Ring to act as a bullet after sideboarding should I need one.
Specific card highlights:
1. Thalia is just f***ing bonkers (I can’t stress this enough, hence the cursing), and you would be a moron not to play her. Just cast her once (ONCE!) against a RUG Delver opponent, a control opponent, and a combo opponent. That’s all I ask. Just cast her one time against each of those decks and tell me that they aren’t fighting for air for the rest of the game. If you happen to draw a Mother of Runes to protect her or (God forbid) a Wasteland, then the game is virtually over.
2. Stoneforge Mystic is a joke both in this deck and against this deck. Mother of Runes can singlehandedly invalidate a Batterskull, and you don’t want to waste a ton of slots filling your deck with cards that can’t win the mirror. After all, you already smash the other fair decks and equipment is bad against combo, so don’t you just want a bunch of cards that can make your draws better? Stoneforge Mystic creates card advantage, but why would you care about card advantage in a deck whose only goal is to create board advantage?
3. Main phase your Aven Mindcensors if your opponent is tapped out. If you don’t attack with a Noble Hierarch or Dryad Arbor and also don’t use them for mana, most people will see that the jig is up, and you’ll never catch them with their pants down. Just slam it down and let them read your Future Sight uncommon before sighing and realizing their entire hand now reads either:
           a) 1W: 1/2
           b) Pay 1 life: Sacrifice this
4. Linvala and Gideon Jura are absurd in the mirror. If you expect to play against a lot of G/W decks (as you should), then I would suggest running more of these. The mirror gets so convoluted sometimes with Mother of Runes that we’ve even been considering adding a Bayou just so we can freeroll Massacre when we fall behind. Just play bigger bombs than your opponent.
5. Don’t use Swords to Plowshares on Noble Hierarch unless they miss a land drop and you cut them off of non-green mana. They will draw out of it eventually, and you’ll really wish you could kill that stupid Knight of the Reliquary or Mother of Runes.
6. Scryb Ranger, Scavenging Ooze, and Gaea’s Cradle are all really good, and I wouldn’t cut them.Â
7. I didn’t play against any decks where Leyline of Sanctity was relevant, but I’m glad I had access to it. Mono Red seems like somewhat of a problem, and there are a lot of combo decks that target you “to death.”
8. Purify the Grave is your best anti-graveyard answer because it isn’t affected by discard. Alongside Scavenging Ooze, you just want to slow them down long enough to take over the game (usually). Purify the Grave is much better against Reanimator than Dredge but is fine against both.
9. If you ever cast Sylvan Library with a Life from the Loam in the graveyard, call a judge. It took about five minutes for him to explain to me exactly how it works. I won’t get into details because it’s too complicated, but just know that they should fix Sylvan Library. It’s really good, but really stupid.
Another interesting side story that happened during the Legacy Open was that StarCityGames.com Open Series is now using the new play/draw rule for the Top 8, meaning that whoever has the best Swiss record gets to choose whether they want to play or draw in the Top 8. After starting the tournament 7-0, I found myself in a very odd position. There was only one other player who was 7-0 and no players who were 6-0-1, meaning that the winner of our 7-0 battle could draw in round 9 and lock up the first seed, guaranteeing them the play in every match should they make it to the finals.
I feel like this was particularly important in Legacy and definitely something to write about. Both of us were locked with a draw in the last round regardless of whether or not we won or lost. There was no reason for us not to play, which wouldn’t make a lot of sense until it’s explained. While I don’t recommending playing in the last round just to up the chances of you moving up in the ranks a bit, I do think it’s worth taking the time to find out whether or not you should play in the penultimate round. From now on, I think drawing is probably a pretty bad option when you’re undefeated.
I know that a lot of you are going to read this article and come away with mixed feelings. It’s not often that I write about something that’s a sensitive subject, but I feel as if expression should never be punished. I honestly feel as if I share a sort of camaraderie with all of you, regardless of whether or not you like me or what I stand for. We play this game for a multitude of reasons, but ultimately we find it to be fun. If it wasn’t, we would just find something else to do to take our minds off of “real life.” Magic is just a game, albeit a wonderful game that we all love and share alike.
I know that there are different mediums of escape: drugs, alcohol, gambling. These vices claw at our throats trying to strangle us, while Magic remains different. It gives us the chance for release, for creativity and inspiration. We find ourselves awake at 3 AM trying to find another combo that people won’t be expecting. We write down decklists at work. We talk to our friends over Facebook and Twitter about what we’re playing in the Modern PTQ next weekend. Ultimately, Magic gives us life where we would otherwise have something much less. We have a purpose that we’re building toward even if we can’t see it yet, and Magic is the tool that can get us there so long as we find out how to use it.
But isn’t that what we’re best at? Isn’t life just a game we’re trying to be the best at?
Keep score however you like. Happiness and money can count as points. Accumulate as much of it as possible. Die knowing that you gave it your best shot.
Win.
Thanks for reading.
Todd
strong sad on Magic Online