I’ve got a story to tell, a story about my quest for the record books…
This story starts in 1996, at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Philadelphia — so long ago that this hotel no longer even exists. The first Pro Tour Qualifier season was in full swing, and the format was the modified Type II format used at the first Pro Tour in NYC. This qualifier actually offered up three spots on the Pro Tour, if you can believe that: two for the Seniors Division and one for the Juniors Division. The winner of the event was John Chinnock, and second place went to Brad Swan, who claimed the sole Juniors Division qualification. In third place was a somewhat obscure 16-year old player, running a primitive (but powerful) Necropotence deck: me. This finish was good enough to qualify me for a spot on the Queen Mary at the second-ever Pro Tour in Long Beach, CA.
The actual Pro Tour itself was my first ever Booster Draft, so I’m sure you can imagine how that went: 0-3 drop. Also held this weekend was the first ever Prerelease, for Alliances, as well as the first Release event for Japanese 4th Edition. These events went considerably better, as I finished in the Top 4 in both events, so that coming out of the Pro Tour, I was actually ranked 40th in the world in Limited — with a monstrous rating of 1700. Hard to imagine, but this was a different era…
Flash forward to 2007. After the better part of 10 years away from the game, chasing girls and a college degree, I got out of Retail management and into an office job, finally reclaiming my weekends and specifically making it possible for me to compete in Saturday tournaments again. Friday night Booster Drafts evolved into Block Constructed, and as two years passed by, the competitive fire that drove me 10 years ago returned, and with it the desire to return to the Pro Tour, hopefully somewhat wiser (and certainly heavier, and with less hair).
As anyone who has left the game and came back can attest, this transition isn’t as easy as it sounds (and I don’t think it sounds particularly easy). A player who quit in 1997 exited at the tail end of 5th Edition, meaning that things like “the Stack” didn’t even exist yet. Batches of effects, anyone? Although it is relatively easy to get back into a Block Constructed Season and transition that into success at Standard, Extended is far more challenging — not only seven years worth of sets and mechanics to learn, but historical decks that need to be understood to play correctly in a PTQ. Heartbeat of Spring might have been “outmoded” by last season, but that didn’t stop people from playing it. Legacy and Vintage are, in their own way, actually easier to re-enter than Extended after a break from the game, because the number of cards that influence those formats is considerably smaller, despite the larger card pools available.
The first Extended season in 2008 was an unmitigated disaster for me, but I didn’t give up hope. Instead, I became even more driven to be successful in the 2009 Extended season, and this hard work finally paid off with a Qualification for Honolulu — and a record in the world of Magic: the Gathering, albeit an obscure one. For someone who loves the game, any record is still a significant achievement if it relates to Pro play. Thirteen years between qualifications — surely that’s a record no one is likely to beat for some time, considering it stretches from the very first Pro Tour one could qualify for all the way through the present day.
The End.
There’s just one small snag in this otherwise enchanting tale of a man and his dream… the last paragraph is fictional, whereas the rest is strictly autobiographical. Well, technically I like to think that the last paragraph is more of a prediction of the future with Nostradamus-like accuracy, rather than fiction, but that’s just semantics.
In a lot of ways, I think I am fairly representative of the average StarCityGames.com reader. I’ve had success in the (admittedly distant) past, and some relative success over the past six months, but my game is still a little short of where I want it to be, and where I need it to be if I want to win a PTQ on the East Coast and get back to the Pro Tour. I’ve beaten players like Brandon Scheel, Jacob Van Lunen, and Phil Napoli in tournament play, so I know I can play at a high level, but doing so for an entire event is still a challenge for me. Much like my beloved Philadelphia Eagles, I have a bad tendency to play down or up to the skill level of my opponent, rather than pushing myself to play at the highest level at all times. I’m also cognizant of the fact that my level of skill requires me to playtest as much as possible in order to get an edge. I’m not going to be the best player in the room at any PTQ on the East Coast, but I certainly can be the best prepared, and use that edge to have a shot to win a Blue Envelope. I’ve also played enough poker over the past 6 years that I think my ability to read my opponents is better than the majority of PTQ-level players, and certainly I can use that to my benefit as well.
So what’s the point of all this? My goal for this year is to make the record books by qualifying for the Pro Tour. I believe that this would easily be the longest gap between Pro Tour qualifications, which I think makes for a pretty compelling story. For me, writing has always been a two-way street when it comes to Magic. When I write about Magic, I think about Magic, and I discuss Magic, and I run ideas past my playtest partners, many of whom are better Magic players than I am. This helps me get better — and hopefully, for those of you out there who are in a similar place as me (that is, grinding it out on the PTQ and Regional circuit), learning from my mistakes and successes will help you get better as well.
What I’m going to try to write about isn’t so much cutting edge tech — what could I possibly offer that would be better than luminaries in the yellow boxes above me? — but I will go over the decks I play and why I played them; what modifications worked and which ones didn’t; which sideboard strategies were successful and which ones were the wild failings of an uninformed madman; these types of things. You also won’t see me proclaim any specific deck-list as the “best” in any format, nor will I attempt to impress you with my rating (which fluctuates between respectable and embarrassing with disturbing regularity).
I’ll also be honest and admit that when it comes to Magic, I’m a complete addict. I play most formats regularly or semi-regularly, as PTQ seasons rotate: Block, Standard, Extended, Legacy, Vintage, Elder Dragon Highlander, and I even have a second Peasant EDH tournament coming up in a few weeks (for those who are interested, here are the rules: No Mythics or Rares, 8 Uncommons total, and the rest of the deck is basic lands or commons; your General is any Uncommon creature that counts against your total of 8 and does not have to be Legendary — for the record, I played Psychtatog in the first event). This being the case, I hope to have something to offer on a wide variety of topics and formats, and I’m certainly open to discussing anything that readers would be interested in.
Right now, most people’s minds are on Extended, so after all of that rambling above, let’s get down to some actual relevant discussion about Magic.
Gerry Thompson wrote an excellent article a few weeks back reviewing what he considers the top six decks in Extended — or at least, the six decks you’re most likely to run into at a PTQ. Any PTQ player should start with that list: Affinity, Wizards (Faeries), Death Cloud (with, and without, its namesake, a la Michael Jacob list or the Conrad Kolos 1st place list from the Rockville PTQ), Burn, TEPS, and Elves. Once you’ve figured out which deck you’re going to play, either by choice, by process of elimination or available card pool, play the hell out of it. Play every match-up you can, play the majority of the games post-sideboard, and play the match-ups from both sides. In my opinion, that is the absolute best thing you can do to gain edge in this format.
Some of you are going to be frustrated by this Extended season. You’re looking for “the best deck” in the format. I can’t count the number of times someone trying to gear up for this season has asked me, “What’s the best deck in Extended?” I’m going to tell you what I consider to be the truth: There isn’t one. The margin, the percentage, between these decks is so small, and so related to not only the metagame in which you’re playing but your actual round-by-round pairings, that picking a “best” deck in this field is ludicrous.
That said… there is probably a best deck for you, and a best deck for any given tournament as well. For a lot of players, that best deck is going to be the Wizards deck, now and for the remainder of the season. When you’re talking about power level, match-ups across the board, and general level of success thus far in the season, Wizards is the best deck. If you want to battle with this deck, you need to know two match-ups inside and out: The mirror match, and Affinity. The former is probably going to be your most common match-up, while the latter is both common and, according to most accepted thought, rather difficult. Thus far in the season, these decks are the two most successful as well as the two most likely to make the Top 8 of any given PTQ. Many players are quite familiar with the play style of this deck, and will be best served by using the time they’d otherwise spend scouring the vast interwebs for new deck ideas on just playtesting the heck out of Wizards — mastering and memorizing your sideboard plan against the most common decks in the field, learning which cards matter in each match-up, and so on.
If you’re not comfortable with Wizards (and I really can’t recommend the deck to anyone that doesn’t feel comfortable in the mirror), Affinity remains an excellent choice. The popularity of Zoo seems to be on the decline, and hopefully with it, the decks that can comfortably and effectively run Ancient Grudge are decreasing as well. At the same time, the success of Wizards will lead more players to run it, regardless of whether or not they have the required skill and practice, or the latest tech as far as sideboarding in the mirror match. This match-up (Affinity versus Wizards) is usually favorable for Affinity, particularly pre-board. Anyone who prefers Aggro, or has experience from previous seasons with Affinity, should give it a hard look and long consideration as their deck of choice. Take a look at the Top 8s of the PTQs posted thus far — the level of hate for Affinity, while present, is far from intimidating, and the new tools available to the deck (Master of Etherium and Soul’s Fire in particular) are quite powerful. At this point, I think Affinity should to be the default Aggro deck, but as usual that rank will be in flux throughout the season.
Finally, I still believe the combo player’s deck of choice should be TEPS, and I don’t think that is going to change much, if at all, throughout the season. I see no reason that Wizards would or should decline in popularity this year, so for the time being, the Elves decks are going to remain in check — meaning that the most effective foil for TEPS is being hated out of the metagame. TEPS has a lot going for it in this environment, as the Affinity and Wizards match-ups are both quite winnable for the experienced TEPS player, even when hate cards come into play. I am of the opinion that as the season goes on, and more time passes by since GP: LA, TEPS is going to see considerably less play at the PTQ level. Despite it racking up 5 PTQ Top 8s thus far in the season, it has yet to actually win a PTQ. That fact alone is going to turn people off from the deck. At the same time, Affinity players are preying on the increase in popularity of Wizards, as well as the decks that beat Wizards (like Previous Level Blue or Tron). I believe many Wizards sideboards are going to be more focused on the Robots than they are on TEPS in the weeks to come. In this environment, main-deck Ancient Grudge probably makes more sense than main-deck Stifle. All of these factors contribute to a metagame that is going to get stronger for TEPS as the season progresses.
For many people, the question as to which TEPS list to play was settled by LSV’s results at GP: LA (as well as Gerry Thompson validation of that choice by playing the same version). However, if you check the PTQ results (as well as the Grand Prix Top 8 itself), in reality it seems not everyone is quite as sold on Tendrils as it would first appear. The Tendrils version has a certain elegance that the Grapeshot + Swath version lacks. Utilizing only two win conditions gives you more flexibility with your deck list, and opens up slots for utility cards like Vendilion Clique and Electrolyze, as well as extra ability to dig for the cards you need by playing Sleight of Hand, leading to an increased ability to find and resolve a Mind’s Desire as compared to the Grapeshot version.
The Tendrils version isn’t all upside, however. Although it is more likely to resolve a Desire, in my experience it has been less likely to actually win when a Desire gets resolved, because it MUST hit another Desire or Tendrils, or have Tendrils in hand and hit Lotus Bloom or Manamorphose (or access to BB from a Dreadship Reef), in order to win. The Grapeshot version has more avenues to victory, including multiple Grapeshots, Grapeshot plus Swath, or Grapeshot plus Remand (although, admittedly, when playing Tendrils, one might be able to use a revealed Remand to return Desire to hand and replay, riding that plan to victory). The Swath version also has a much more realistic chance of winning without needing to resolve a Mind’s Desire, particularly against any deck with a suicidal land base like Domain Zoo. Grapeshot itself adds at least a small bump in win percentage against Elves, for whatever that’s worth. For metagames infested with Affinity, a Lotus Bloom coming off Suspend gives you a shot at using Grapeshot to kill a main-deck Ethersworn Canonist, something the Tendrils version can only do with Electrolyze, if they’ve included that in the maindeck.
For the most part, I believe this choice comes down to personal preference more than one version being strictly superior to the other. If I had to guess, I’d say most of the preference for Tendrils is due to the fact that both LSV and GT played that version at the Grand Prix, as opposed to people actually play-testing both builds and making an informed decision on their own results.
I’d feel remiss if I didn’t provide at least one deck list, so here is the version of TEPS I played at the Rockville, MD PTQ (I came in 12th at 6-2, with both of my losses being more my fault than anything else), which I intend to continue to play this season. The main change I made after the tournament was to remove the Bloodstained Mires and replace with Flooded Strands – I lost round 2 on account of a second turn Blood Moon while I had a Bloodstained Mire in play, and was thus denied access to any Blue mana.
Lands (18)
Spells (42)
- 4 Peer Through Depths
- 3 Desperate Ritual
- 4 Mind's Desire
- 4 Seething Song
- 4 Remand
- 1 Sins of the Past
- 4 Rite of Flame
- 4 Grapeshot
- 4 Lotus Bloom
- 2 Pyromancer's Swath
- 4 Ponder
- 4 Manamorphose
Sideboard
Probably the most unusual choice is the singleton Sins of the Past, which I’ve included as a carry-over from the previous season’s version of TEPS. Once a Desire gets resolved, it functions as an additional Mind’s Desire that can be revealed to continue the Desire chain, and it is also useful to play against decks with Raven’s Crime or Thoughtseize, as at that point it functions as an additional Desire as well. I also added the singleton Gaea’s Blessing and Trickbind to the sideboard for the mirror match (although Trickbind has a whole host of uses in this format).
In the upcoming weeks, provided the folks at StarCityGames.com give me the opportunity, I intend on discussing Legacy as I prepare for Grand Prix: Chicago, as well as the results of the PTQ in Edison, NJ on 2/21. I also competed in a Vintage event a few weekends back, playing an updated version of James King’s Hellkite Oath with Progenitus (which I’ve ingeniously named Progenitus Oath), and I intend on doing a brief primer for that deck as well.
The name of my column symbolizes the journey I’ve taken, and the goal of self-improvement that I hope will ultimately result in my qualification for the Pro Tour — a long and winding road back, to be sure. I hope you’ll enjoy taking this journey with me.
Until next time…
Matt