This week on Constructed Criticism, I wanted to revisit an older article all about playing Magic Online PTQs. Today is no different, and I plan on giving a play by play as it happens, giving you some insight to the deck I’m playing, as well as the matchups and opponents I play against. Earlier this week when I saw my work schedule, my manager had given me a ton of extra shifts because one of my best friends had taken a “vacation,” and by that I mean he is getting paid vacation time to sit at home and play Red Dead Redemption. Other than that, I don’t know what else he is doing with his time, other than drinking beer and watching the NBA Finals, but he’s having a good time and works really hard, so he deserves it. After seeing I was scheduled for about 40 hours, mostly doubles with shifts of 10am-11pm, I asked if someone could pick up a shift for me today (Tuesday) so that I could play the Magic Online PTQ. I had a pretty tough time finding people do to it for me, but after someone swooped in at the last minutes to save me, and double checking with my manager to make the switch, I got to work on what deck I was going to play.
First of all, let me start by saying that I have been incredibly sick of losing to Jund lately, and my main goal was to find a deck or decklist that just annihilated Jund, but still had a decent shot against everything else. Who would have guessed that I would find myself reverting back to an old favorite, brought to you courtesy of an old friend: Michael Hetrick (forever infamous as _ShipitHolla). Hetrick recently crushed a Magic Online premier event with a new (or old) take on Blue White Control, and I immediately became intrigued. His one biggest change: No Spreading Seas. When I saw the list, I thought it had to be a mistake. Something was up, and I was just not buying it. But, as I’ve said in previous article, Hetrick knows a lot about Blue White Control, and is probably one of the best players with the deck I’ve met, including Brad Nelson. Hetrick is just a master, and continually finds ways to push his edge in each tournament he joins. After chatting with him for about 30 minutes the night before the tournament, all I had to say to him was one thing:
“Convince me to play this deck.”
After he told me the ins and outs of the Jund matchup, and why this version was so much better than previous versions of Blue White Control against Jund, I had to believe him. His reasoning for cutting Spreading Seas was that it made Path to Exile bearable to cast against a Putrid Leech, since half the time with Spreading Seas you are trying to cut off a color of their mana. If you don’t have to worry about that, and instead focus on getting the job at hand done, like surviving or killing your opponent, you should be fine. Spreading Seas was mainly for the Jund matchup, but it wasn’t necessary with the results this list was putting up against it. The “newest” addition to the deck, which I’ve been trying to put back into the deck for the last few weeks without success, is Knight of the White Orchid (and Fieldmist Borderpost). In addition to keeping you alive with blocking, Orchid lets you ramp into your late game spells much easier, and with greater resilience to Goblin Ruinblaster. If you read my article last week, you will know how much that card puts a hurt on the manabase of Blue White Control, and how much I hate playing against it. With Borderposts taking the place of Sejiri Refuge, and allowing Knight of the White Orchid to accelerate you, Goblin Ruinblaster is much less effective, on both the levels of destroying your mana and attacking into a 2/2 First Striker.
Another big cut, which I’m still unsure about but Hetrick thinks is 100% correct, is the absence of Gideon Jura. Now, in most aggressive matchups, Gideon is a pretty solid man. However, Jund has adopted the “bring 4 Pulse to the party or bust” mentality, and most every other deck in the format plays Oblivion Ring, so Gideon Jura is not nearly as effective as he once was, or possibly will be. His potential will skyrocket after the rotation of Alara Block, but until then he might just have to sit on the sideline while Baneslayer Angel and Elspeth make quick work of everyone. Gideon does a lot of things that your other cards sometimes fail to do, but you will be better off playing a more streamlined version of the deck. Having too many clunkers is bad for business, and cutting Gideon makes the deck feel like butter.
Without further ado, here is the list I’m currently battling with in the PTQ, after talking to Hetrick about some minor sideboard changes.
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Wall of Omens
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Path to Exile
2 Negate
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Elspeth, Knight Errant
2 Day of Judgment
3 Mind Spring
1 Martial Coup
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Everflowing Chalice
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Arid Mesa
6 Plains
4 Island
3 Tectonic Edge
Sideboard
2 Negate
2 Flashfreeze
2 Celestial Purge
2 Wall of Denial
1 Kor Sanctifiers
2 Day of Judgment
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Martial Coup
After figuring out a few of my sideboarding strategies, I decided this was the deck I would play in the morning. No ifs, ands, buts, or switchings. I had made my decision, and put all my faith into it. There was but a solitary problem: Elspeth costs 48 tickets, and my friends were all using theirs. I ended up having to sell off my Maelstrom Pulses, as well as a Gideon Jura (still useful for something!) in order to buy a pair of them as I was unable to borrow more than one.
This morning I woke up with a newfound fire. I heard the alarm buzzing, and Kali called me like I had asked her to do, ensuring the end of my snoozing. I chugged a Red Bull, showered, and signed up for the tournament, ready to battle. I’m writing this article as I go, and I’ll give you the play-by-plays from each round, as well as some reasoning behind the plays. If you want to see everything that happens for yourself, you can watch replays for a short period of time on the game server, as they are erased after about 6 hours. Let me just reiterate that all of these things are happening in real time. I’m pretty confident in the deck, but bad things can happen. Here is the report.
Round 1 against DeFaux playing Jund
I win the roll and we’re off. I keep a hand containing lands, Wall of Omens, and Jace, figuring I’ll draw me out of any sticky situations, and especially so when Jace is protected by a Wall of Omens. I also have a Colonande and a Borderpost for some spiciness should I draw a Knight of the White Orchid. I lead with a Borderpost, and him a Savage Lands, signifying Jund. I play the Wall on Turn 2, drawing an Orchid. This lets me accelerate on Turn 3, pushing me towards my topdecked Martial Coup. He Maelstrom Pulses my Borderpost, keeping me off double Blue mana for the time being, but I play Jace on the next turn and immediately +2 him targeting myself, putting an Oblivion Ring on top. He plays a Putrid Leech, as well as a Raging Ravine and passes. I draw Day of Judgment, use Jace to draw some more cards, and put my opponent very far behind. He Terminates a Baneslayer Angel, but I have a backup. I drop Elspeth with Negate in hand, and he can’t fight through it, even with a Bituminous Blast Ultimatum into Bloodbraid Elf into Maelstrom Pulse, and I take the game with a second and third Baneslayer, holding a Path to Exile in case of any 3rd Pulse Shenanigans. He disconnects, oddly, and I assume he isn’t coming back. However, he shows back up around 8 minutes later and we head to sideboarding.
Game 2 I mulliganed to 5, but my opener is okay. This is where the power of the Orchid really shines. My opener had a Borderpost, Orchid, and 3 other lands, including a Celestial Colonnade. My opponent fails to play a Turn 2 Putrid Leech, giving me infinite time to set up. He Duresses me early, taking a freshly drawn Path to Exile. He plays a Leech and passes, while I draw a Martial Coup. I attack with the Celestial Colonnade, holding back Orchid, while he plays Bloodbraid into Leech. I attack with the Orchid, baiting him to block with the Leech and pay 2 life, which he obliges. I cast Coup for 5 on Turn 5, even after mulliganing to 5. He plays a Ruinblaster to kill my Colonnade, but I topdeck Flashfreeze to keep him from doing any Sarkhan the Mad shenanigans. I draw 5 lands straight, but he has to 1-for-1 most of my tokens to stay alive, which ends up taking me a very long time to win. I draw Chalice, and play it for 4, followed by another land, Wall of Omens, and another land. He attacks me with a Raging Ravine, sitting on 1 life, and I finally draw a Mind Spring for 7. This lets me cast two Knights of the White Orchid, having a hand containing: Mind Spring x2, Baneslayer Angel x2, and Sphinx of Jwar Isle. He concedes after casting Duress.
1-0
After this game I’m feeling very confident. I really hate playing against Jund, and feel like I can beat anything just as long as I can beat Jund, and especially so on the mulligan to 5. I’m taking this tournament one round at a time, and focusing on every play. Most of the time on Magic Online, I play on auto-pilot, letting my instincts make most of the decisions, because they are correct more often than not. But that is not the right mentality to have. Perfect play yields better results, and I’m not looking for “more often than not.” I’m looking for the best of my ability. I’ve been slowing my play down a lot in this tournament, thinking out every line of play, and I think I’ve done well so far. I chat with a few friends between rounds on Facebook and the MTGO chat, including the infamous Will “The Complainotron” Cruse who won his first round playing Jund. Unfortunately, he chats to me in Round 2 with a slew of expletives, signaling that he lost. Boo.
Round 2 against H_Empire playing Mythic
Game 1 I mulligan into a hand containing non-basic lands, Borderpost, Negate, Day of Judgment, and Baneslayer Angel. He opens with a Lotus Cobra into Dauntless Escort, followed by Baneslayer Angel. I can’t really keep up, and he kills me quickly with an onslaught of Knights of the Reliquary, as well as multiple Sejiri Steppe to get around my topdecked Path to Exile.
Game 2 I kept a spicy opener with lands, Baneslayer, Elspeth, and Day of Judgment. I drew into Borderpost, which I cast, accelerating me into a Baneslayer Angel on Turn 4. He cast Birds and not much else until his own Baneslayer Angel. I cast Elspeth and made a token, holding back to protect it. I don’t think this was the greatest play, made evident by his Noble Hierarch that exalted his Baneslayer. I decided to keep around the Baneslayer around, and let Elspeth die. He played a Gideon and assassinated my Baneslayer that attacked, so I just cast a freshly drawn Martial Coup for 5, killing his squad and threatening his Gideon on the next turn. However, he halted my plan with a second Baneslayer, but a ripped Jace sent it packing back to his hand, and knocked Gideon down to 1 loyalty. I followed that up with a Knight of the White Orchid to protect Jace from a Gideon attack, and he conceded shortly after to my Celestial Colonnades, as well as active Jace.
Game 3 was a very one-sided blowout. I played a Turn 2 Orchid on the draw with a Borderpost, leaving up White mana and a Path to Exile in hand. I think I made a very good play on his Turn 3, after he cast a Lotus Cobra on Turn 2. His board was Forest, Forest, and he played a Misty Rainforest to add White mana to his mana pool. He cracked it, and I Pathed his Cobra in response, leaving him with a board of Island, Forest Forest, and a White mana floating (as well as a tapped land from Path). I assume he was wanting to cast Baneslayer or Gideon, and without a second White mana source in play, that wouldn’t be happening for a while. I rarely Path mana producers, but you can catch them with their pants down sometimes if you can hit a Lotus Cobra when they are developing early on. I cast a Jace on Turn 3 and Brainstormed, and followed with a Turn 4 Baneslayer Angel, Brainstorming again. He played a Gideon and forced me to attack it. I obliged, and landed a Wall of Omens to protect Jace from a Gideon attack. He scooped after having no real outs.
2-0
I felt really good about winning this match, having lost the first game. Game 2 was a bit closer early on than I made it out to be, and dragged on a bit, but when I stuck Jace there was not much of a chance of him winning. He did “accidentally” attack with his Dauntless Escort into a Celestial Colonnade, but I don’t think it mattered.
Round 3 against Maxx playing UW Control
This where the manabase really starts to catch up to me. In the first game, I mulligan a 1-lander into a hand with Path to Exile, Elspeth, 2 Borderpost and 2 lands. I play a Borderpost, follwed by another Borderpost on Turn 3 to accelerate. However, he has Jace, the Mind Sculptor on the third turn off of Everflowing Chalice, to which I never really draw an answer. I play the Elspeth, Path his Baneslayer Angel, but he starts to use the +2 on Jace. Unfortunately for me, the top card of my deck was a land or Knight of the White Orchid for the remainder of the game.
In the second Game, I mulligan another 1-lander into a Glacial Fortress, double Borderpost, Knight of the White Orchid hand. However, my other two cards are Negate and Oblivion Ring, so I’m fine with almost any land. I end up drawing zero lands before he casts Baneslayer Angel, and what I’m sure was Negate backup based on how he played his spells and tapped his mana.
2-1
As an aside, I think this particular version of Blue White is pretty vulnerable to the mirror. Everflowing Chalice is really important to help you cast your Planeswalkers earlier than your opponent, but that version is much weaker against Jund. By increasing your Jund percentages, you are decreasing your percentages for the mirror, so it is a bit of a gamble. The maindeck Negates can sometimes help, but I don’t think they generate enough of an advantage, and often your opponent will cast their relevant spells before you, and especially so when they are on the play. Unfortunately for me, I played zero games of Magic in the last matchup, resulting in the loss. Hopefully the deck will come together and pull through for the rest of the tournament. I’ll try to do my part and not punt a million times.
Round 4 against UG Eldrazi Monument
Game 1 has me struggling yet again with my manabase, as Borderposts and non-basics do not a happy couple make. However, I start to draw out of it with a Knight of the White Orchid after I draw a Borderpost, bouncing my Plains via my Island while floating a White mana off the plains, replaying the Plains etc. After this stumble, my opponent lands a pair of Awakening Zones, followed by an Eldrazi Monument. I had Negate for his Monument, but he had a Unified Will to shut me down and out. He played a Jace, bouncing my Baneslayer Angel that was only stemming the bleeding.
Game 2 was pretty epic, and had him playing a few early threats while I was manascrewed (and mulliganed) yet again. However, I used Negate on his Awakening Zone, which bought me enough time to land a Jace and a Baneslayer Angel. But, while I was tapped out, he ran out an Eldrazi Monument, which was going to be pretty difficult to fight against. I used Jace to draw some cards, and played a second Baneslayer Angel after he played a second Eldrazi Monument. I drew a few Flashfreezes and another Negate to shut off his token generation while his two Monuments literally ate all of his creatures. Phew.
Game 3 I mulliganed into a hand of 6 featuring Plains, Island, Tectonic Edge, Knight of the White Orchid, Day of Judgment, and Oblivion Ring. I failed to draw a land, resulting in my death on turn 6 when he had mana for Negate and Overrun. Disappointed, I’m still going to trudge on and figure out what this deck is missing.
Clearly something is wrong, since I’m having mana problems almost every single game. However, when the deck draws mana, I usually win. From the small amount of games I’ve played with the deck, I don’t want to drastically change anything just yet. However, I will tell you that Tectonic Edge has not been overly impressive, and I’m definitely cutting at least one of them to make room for another Plains. I also think the singleton Everflowing Chalice needs to be another Basic land, making your Borderposts and Orchids that much better. Only 22 land with the four Borderposts is just not enough, and I find myself wanting more mana every single game I play. With 3 Mind Springs, getting flooded should not really be a problem.
And, out of contention, this is where I’m going to end the report. While the results are not nearly as promising as I would have hoped, I have learned a good bit in a relatively short time-frame. With this new information, we can get back to the drawing board and hopefully make this work. I am convinced that Knight of the White Orchid is the route this deck wants to take, since it ramps you into your late game spells and helps you shut the door on Jund. If you don’t have Orchid, you will lose over and over to Goblin Ruinblaster, and I am having none of it. After adding a few Basic Lands, I think this deck will become fully operational, and have a few less problems mana problems to deal with. While I know that my mulligan rate was high (8 times in 4 matches), I was still winning lots of games off a mulligan. If I can increase the consistency of my draws by adding a few more Basic lands, or at least just changing a few of the lands in the manabase, then that should lead to less erratic draws.
After taking all of this into consideration, here is the list I would play if I had to go back in time:
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Wall of Omens
4 Path to Exile
2 Negate
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Mind Spring
1 Martial Coup
2 Day of Judgment
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Arid Mesa
7 Plains
4 Island
Sideboard:
2 Negate
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Day of Judgment
1 Martial Coup
2 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Flashfreeze
2 Celestial Purge
1 Oblivion Ring
With these minor changes, you are adding two more Basic land sources (one is a fetchland) to help facilitate your Borderpost plan. I also changed a few sideboard cards, since I believe that the fourth Oblivion Ring is necessary against Planeswalker decks, as well as against any Eldrazi Monument decks, which seem to be gaining a small amount of popularity. Oblivion Ring is rarely bad, but there are some matchups where you don’t want to draw multiples (Jund), but there are also some matchups where you need to draw multiples. I was fairly happy with the sideboard, as I had plenty of options for each of my matches against four different archetypes. However, the deck could be stronger against the mirror. In order for this to happen, Jace Beleren might need to make his way into the maindeck in order to fight off opposing Jaces. Since you aren’t likely casting your Mind Sculptor before them, casting Baby Jace is probably the next best thing. Hopefully, with a bit more playtesting, I’ll have this thing ready for an upcoming PTQ.
As an aside, I wrote this article in real time. I know that I sounded incredibly optimistic in the beginning, but that’s because I was. I have played versions similar to this one in previous tournaments, and rarely had this much difficulty with the mana. While this may not be the best end result to something that felt so promising, I do think it is an important exercise. Sometimes the best of ideas are found on a whim, and other times those ideas need a lot of fine-tuning. Hetrick convinced me to play this deck, and I have no regrets. I could have playtested it a bit more before this PTQ, but what is a PTQ but an environment to grow and learn? I plan on playing this deck for quite a while if I can get it to work, and I should have a streamlined list by a live PTQ in the next few weeks. Hopefully, that story will end in victory.
Thanks for reading!
Todd
strong sad on MTGO