Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re in Memphis catching the sights and sounds of the World Championships, and in the meantime we’ll catch up on the StarCityGames $5K, see the final match complete with interviews, and a special song inspired by the Banned & Restricted List. Let’s go!
Special Text Only Section — StarCityGames.com Philly $5000 Lessons
So this past weekend I was in Philadelphia meeting, greeting, and slinging cardboard in hopes of taking home the prize. Unfortunately, my Five-Color deck couldn’t defeat the same Reveillark deck three matches in a row, so I was out by Round 4 with an unspectacular 1-2-1 Drop.
However, before we get to this week’s event montage and finals coverage, I want to cover something that came up during the event, in the last round. In Round 9 the two players who would end up playing each other in the finals were playing on the top tables. Just as the match was going to finish, with the Faerie player on the ropes and about thirty spectators and a judge sitting nearby, someone else who had already secured their spot in Top 8 blurts out, “You know you guys can draw.”
This is, to put it bluntly, the worst possible thing you can do while watching a match. Don’t ever, ever do this. Ever. It’s just dumb. I have a simple rule for spectating Magic: Don’t say crap even if you have a mouthful of it. Riki Hayashi spoke of a similar phenomenon this week, where he covered how not to interfere with a match when you spot a rules violation or an illegal gamestate. Instead, call a judge. If there is no reason to call a judge on the match, then hush.
The rules used to state that if you did something like this, you got an instant disqualification from the tournament. This is, as you can imagine, the harshest penalty there is outside of a banning for an extended period of time. As rules were changed, this penalty was downgraded to a match loss for the upcoming round, and in this instance it was downgraded to just a game loss in the first round of Top 8 for the guy who spoke up.
And all I got to say is this: It’s a miracle he didn’t get a match loss. Don’t let this happen to you. In such situations, no one ever got in trouble for not saying anything, so don’t start. If you need to say something and you’re near a match, walk away. If you want to say something to the players, don’t. I don’t care how obvious it is, or how much you just want to let everyone know, shut the hell up.
That way, this will never be an issue, and no one will ever suffer from it. This has been a friendly reminder from your friends at the Magic Show. So let’s take a look at the event, shall we?
Finals Coverage
In Game 1 Corey wins the roll and begins with a first turn Goldmeadow Stalwart, revealing a Figure of Destiny. Jonathan simply plays a Mutavault and passes. Chris attacks Jonathan to 18, then plays another Goldmeadow Stalwart revealing the same Figure of Destiny, before playing said Figure of Destiny itself.
Jonathan untaps, plays Secluded Glen revealing Bitterblossom and plays the two mana enchantment. Corey meanwhile plays Windbrisk Heights, pumps his Figure of Destiny and attacks, dropping Jonathan to 12. He plays a Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender and passes.
Jonathan takes his point from Bitterblossom and passes.
Corey attacks with everything as Jonathan activates his Mutavault and blocks with the Faerie Rogue token and the land. After damage resolves, Jonathan is at 7, and Corey reveals an Ajani Vengeant hiding underneath the Windbrisk Heights. He chooses to keep one of Jonathan’s land’s tapped, plays a Rustic Clachan tapped, and passes.
Jonathan goes to 6 from his Bitterblossom, plays another Mutavault, and passes.
Corey attacks and Jonathan plays a Spellstutter Sprite, and blocks with the Faerie token and Spellstutter Sprite. After combat Corey uses Ajani Vengeants second ability to deal three damage to Jonathan and gain 3 life, putting life totals at 3 for Jonathan and 23 for Corey. Corey then pumps his Figure of Destiny, plays a Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender, and passes.
Jonathan plays a Secluded Glen revealing another Spellstutter Sprite, activates his Mutavault, and attacks Ajani Vengeant. Corey simply blocks with Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender, untaps, and uses Ajani Vengeant’s second ability to finish the Faerie player off.
For their sideboarding, each player performed the following:
Jonathan took out three Thoughtseize, one Vendilion Clique, one Spellstutter Sprite, one Scion of Oona, and a Mistbind Clique. He put in one Terror, four Infest, and a Sower of Temptation.
Corey took out three Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender and one Ajani Vengeant for four Unmake.
In Game 2, Jonathan was on the play and kept the following hand:
2 Spellstutter Sprite
Sower of Temptation
Agony Warp
Sunken Ruins
Mutavault
Island
Corey keeps a hand of:
Plains
Rugged Prairie
Wizened Cenn
Spectral Procession
2 Unmake
Ajani Vengeant
After playing lands on Turn 1, Corey kicked things off with a Wizened Cenn, which Jonathan responded by playing Spellstutter Sprite at the end of Corey’s turn. On Jonathan’s turn he attacks with Spellstutter Sprite, taking Corey to 19. Corey then attacks with Wizened Cenn taking Jonathan down to 18, and plays Spectral Procession. Jonathan plays another Spellstutter Sprite at the end of Corey’s turn.
Jonathan plays Draw-Go and passes the turn. On the following turn Corey attacks with everything. Jonathan plays Agony Warp, killing Wizened Cenn with a -0/-3 ability and shrinking a Spectral Procession token with -3/-0. Jonathan double blocks a token in order to not be blown out with Rustic Clachan, and takes two damage from the unblocked tokens, falling to 16. Post combat Corey attempts another Wizened Cenn, but Jonathan has the Spellstutter Sprite to counter it.
On his turn Jonathan activates Mutavault and attacks with all of his creatures, taking Corey down to 14. Corey untaps and resolves Ajani Vengeant, using its first ability to not let one of Jonathan’s Mutavaults untap next turn.
Jonathan then activates his other Mutavault and attacks Ajani Vengeant with the team. Corey blocks two Spellstutter Sprites with Spirit tokens, allowing three damage through to take Ajani Vengeant down to just 1 loyalty counter. Jonathan plays a Bitterblossom and passes.
On his turn Corey plays his own Mutavault, uses Ajani’s first ability to not allow Jonathan’s Sunken Ruins to untap, and plays a Cloudgoat Ranger. Jonathan goes to 14 from Bitterblossom and plays Sower of Temptation taking Corey’s Cloudgoat Ranger. Spellstutter Sprite, meanwhile, attacks Ajani Vengeant down to just 1 counter again.
Corey plays Unmake targeting Sower of Temptation, activates Mutavault, and attacks with everything. Jonathan blocks a token with a token and drops to 10 life. Corey plays Ajani’s first ability not letting Mutavault untap, and passes the turn.
Jonathan meanwhile goes to 9 from Bitterblossom, plays Agony Warp on the Cloudgoat Ranger, and activates Mutavault in order to finally destroy the Planeswalker. Corey then activates his own Mutavault and attacks with the team. Jonathan blocks two tokens with a Faerie Rogue token and Spellstutter Sprite and drops to 7. Corey follows up this attack with yet another Cloudgoat Ranger.
Jonathan falls to 6 from Bitterblossom and plays another Sower of Temptation targeting Cloudgoat Ranger. On Corey’s turn he has the Unmake for the Sower of Temptation, activates his Mutavault and attacks. Jonathan activates his own Mutavault, trades land for land, token for token, and drops to 4 life. Post-combat Corey plays Figure of Destiny and activates it once.
Jonathan falls to 3 life from Bitterblossom and passes. Corey attacks with the team on his turn and Jonathan plays a Scion of Oona and activates Mutavault. The animated 3/3 land blocks Cloudgoat Ranger, Scion of Oona a Kithkin Soldier token, the Faerie Rogue blocks the larger of the two Figures of Destiny, while another Figure goes unblocked. Corey upgrades the blocked Figure of Destiny, as Jonathan takes 1 damage and falls to just two life.
After going to a single life for Bitterblossom, Jonathan concedes the match. Corey Mann is officially your Philadelphia $5000 Champion.
The Banned & Restricted Song
Written by Nate Vogt, while I provided the final verse. Sung to the tune of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
Oh banned and restricted list, you guide our way,
By telling us which cards are too good to play.
Sensei’s Divining Top made games last too long,
And Skullclamp and AEther Vial were obviously too strong.
Necropotence lets you have too many cards,
While Gifts Ungiven makes winning less hard.
Shahrazad was silly, Falling Star bad,
But Chaos Orb should be legal just because it’s so rad’.
Mirrodin was broken, the whole damn set,
It’s just so silly how good artifacts can get.
Urza Block was the same, it’s power level too high,
If Tinker resolves, you were so sure to die.
The card Gush is great, it’s card draw for free,
But Ancestral Recall lets you draw one, two, three.
Flash/Hulk was good, prolly the best,
Until the great BanHammer laid it to rest.
Moxes are great, you can play them for free,
Turn 1, free mana? That’s broken, I see.
Infinite combos can ruin your day,
Which is why Worldgorger Dragon was taken away.
In eternal formats, where turn one wins rule,
Force of Will roams, to keep Magic cool.
Lion’s Eye Diamond makes Dredge a good deck,
But in vintage, it’s power level had to be checked.
Bazaar of Baghdad is a really great land,
Too bad you can’t fetch it with a foil Flooded Strand.
Storm wins you games, it’s the best mechanic ever,
Mind’s Desire is so good, in Legacy, you’ll cast it never.
Yawgmoth’s Will can be a total blowout,
Time Walk is good, that is without a doubt.
Brainstorm works wonders for finding what you need,
So good, in vintage, it’ll hardly be seen.
This is my ode to the banned and restricted list,
Lots of those cards will surely be missed.
This is my tale from me to you,
So tell me the truth: Do you like those banned cards too? As much as I do? I mean, seriously, Fallen Star…Chaos Orb…yeah.
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
eerwin +at+ gmail +dot+ com
dubs dubs dubs dot misterorangeproductions dot coms
Written while in Memphis at Worlds. Also, my first widescreen format show. Woot!