Can you believe that Pro Tour Hawaii top eight?! The Jon Finkel vs. Brian Kibler match has to be the greatest match I’ve seen in my short history. Pure willpower and flawless skill almost took Jon Finkel from a seemingly terrible matchup to nearly making the finals in incredible style. We could all take a lot from that match too—what I took from it is the pace at which Jon Finkel played. Granted, there were quite a few lines of play involved, and thus Kibler’s speed couldn’t be matched, but if you watch that match closely, you never see either player change their mannerisms, the way they draw cards, or even the way they shuffle their hands.
Besides being an obsessed brewer, I’ve really strived to become a better player. My number one issue, and an issue I see too many people make, is they play too fast. This is largely a byproduct of playing Magic Online as well as not being a patient person. Standard feels like a format where you’re playing out the same game over and over, and when you are grinding the same matchups, you think you know all the lines of play. However in reality there are too many scenarios to ever know exactly how to play them all, and by convincing yourself to slow down and control your emotions, you often don’t need to grind that many games; you just have to know the format and the cards that exist in it.
One of the most noteworthy actions I see Finkel take is when he draws his card for the turn, he leaves it facing down and then fans out his existing hand, thinking for a moment before getting new information. In my opinion, this gives him a line of play without the distraction of another, which most likely leads to less blurred decision-making. Another thing I never notice Kibler or Finkel do is instantly play their land if they topdeck it. It’s good form to draw for turn and take a moment to think, if only to juke your opponent out.
So what’s the point of all this reflection? Well it gets me excited as a brewer all over again if that’s even possible! One of the largest traps I fall into when trying new ideas is playing them out too fast because I’m trying to move from idea to idea to not waste time (because I don’t have a lot of it). What’s even more ridiculous is I do this when I bring a new idea into a Daily Event or even a Friday Night Magic.
What’s the point? I have a 50-minute match, and I’m very rarely the last person to finish. What ends up happening is I make an incredible amount of misplays—some that I realize and some I don’t. New ideas need extra time for many reasons; one of the biggest reasons is the fact that you lose confidence in your ideas when you aren’t winning, and you lose because you aren’t giving your deck the same chance you would in a serious event. Your idea then gets tossed to the wayside because you feel it sucks after it loses too much.
This list by Shouta Yasooka made me think about deckbuilding from a different angle.
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (24)
Spells (22)
- 1 Doom Blade
- 1 Tumble Magnet
- 4 Ratchet Bomb
- 2 Sphere of the Suns
- 2 Black Sun's Zenith
- 1 Go for the Throat
- 1 Batterskull
- 2 Despise
- 2 Curse of Death's Hold
- 2 Grafdigger's Cage
- 4 Tragic Slip
Sideboard
There are plenty of ideas that instantly feel good, or even bad, where playing fast or slow won’t make a difference. That being said, there are many times you don’t stop to think about the other lines of play you could be making. Finding a rhythm, a technique, and concentrating on your poor areas can go a long way in becoming not only a better player, but a better deckbuilder.
Yasooka’s list is testament to the fact a good player, trusting himself and testing correctly, can make a good deck. Yasooka didn’t make the top 8, but his Standard deck did well, and he’s been playing Tezzeret at high-level events ever since Tezzeret came out. His list is constantly changing for the metagame, and he trusts himself to play it with a lot on the line. If anyone just threw this list together and tried to play it, they would quickly become disappointed and most likely throw it away, convincing themselves that “the pros aren’t playing it.” They would assume it wasn’t good enough. Yasooka would beg to differ.
A list like his looks fairly easy to play, but every line of play is extremely important to the deck’s ultimate success, and this couldn’t be learned through fast play; it would require concentration and thorough testing.
I think this is a large part of why Liliana of the Veil hasn’t caught on in Standard yet. I’ve seen a lot of misplays involving her; it’s hard to know when to use her +1 and -1 abilities as well as when to not use her. Most people see a line of play and use it as a Gatekeeper of Malakir without thinking about it. It’s no wonder Yasooka is the only one to ever put up results with the forgotten Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. What’s interesting is that in a tap-out list, you often have to think ahead further than someone with a list like Delver because one misplay could mean doom; you aren’t using the same sort of card advantage engine as most of the field. But if done correctly, your black spells are an utter beating.
His list caught my attention for a couple of reasons. I’m a huge fan of Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, for one. Additionally, the list is only using two different blue spells: Tezzeret and Flashfreeze out of the sideboard. It may or may not be right, but I saw potential to make even better use of the almost mono-black deck and improve the quick infect kills using Inkmoth + Tezzeret. My history with mono-black is solely based off one card—Lashwrithe—and what better deck for them than a Tezzeret deck?! It took a little work, and there’s much more to test; also there’s no certainty whether utilizing Lashwrithe is better, but I came up with this list after Pro Tour Hawaii.
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (24)
Spells (23)
- 1 Doom Blade
- 1 Tumble Magnet
- 3 Ratchet Bomb
- 3 Sphere of the Suns
- 2 Black Sun's Zenith
- 1 Go for the Throat
- 3 Lashwrithe
- 1 Batterskull
- 2 Despise
- 2 Grafdigger's Cage
- 4 Tragic Slip
Sideboard
The list is mostly ported, with a tuned manabase solely to squeeze in Tezzeret. At the onset of Dark Ascension, Grafdigger’s Cage was the card I believed could bring back Tezzeret decks, and it’s possible this could be the case. It also may seem odd that I want to work on this deck despite two ramp decks making the finals of the Pro Tour; however from prior testing dating back to before the beginning of Innistrad, I remember Tezzeret + Inkmoth Nexus being a strong game plan against ramp strategies. I don’t think anything has changed.
Flying creatures generally beat green and red strategies, and I believe Bloodline Keeper was in the list for good reason. Things are changing in Standard, and there is a rock-paper-scissors atmosphere, so the Pro Tour results will be targeted. This strategy has strong game vs. a large amount of the field. If you can find a strategy you enjoy, you’ll find yourself trying harder in matches and in the diverse Standard environment. Knowing and enjoying your deck can go a very long way.
I’ve been passionate about Lashwrithe and black card strategies for a while now. And after watching some amazing high-level play by Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Brian Kibler, and Jon Finkel, it makes me want to stop and slow down, try some powerful ideas from a different, slower perspective, and see what I’m missing in terms of lines of play. How many decks have you thrown to the wayside only to later see a similar list become a player in the metagame? Stop and think a bit about why that was. By just realizing some interactions or missing pieces, you could have found something great. Let’s all learn to concentrate, not only on the cards we are playing but the way we are playing them in both mannerism and in form.
Aloha!