Long ago, my teammates and I were tearing up the Lorwyn-only Block Constructed format on Magic Online. At first we were running a four-color control deck based in Blue/Black, splashing for Oblivion Ring and Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, and eventually we were running the full five colors for multiple Commands and Horde of Notions. After enjoying those decks so much, I couldn’t help but play the new Five-Color Control deck (that Manuel Bucher took to the Grand Prix Top 8) at my local PTQ.
Usually I have complete faith in a netdeck. I pretty much refuse to change cards in the lists I get from big tournaments until I’ve had a long time to play with the deck, but Manuel was recorded as saying that he wished he had another maindeck win condition, and so I added one. I took out one Mind Spring for one Oona, Queen of the Fae, and we were off to the races.
Five-Color Control, by Manuel Bucher (almost)
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Meadow
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Mystic Gate
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
3 Island
2 Forest
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifter
3 Cloudthresher
3 Shriekmaw
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 Plumeveil
4 Cryptic Command
4 Broken Ambitions
3 Firespout
3 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Mind Spring
2 Austere Command
Sideboard
3 Plumeveil
3 Jace Beleren
2 Primal Command
2 Mind Shatter
2 Twilight Shepherd
1 Shriekmaw
1 Firespout
1 Cloudthresher
This deck might look familiar to those who followed only the Pro Tour; it’s very nearly a port of Wafo-Tapa’s “Quick n’ Toast” deck. In general, the idea behind the deck is that you are playing all of the best cards in the format, so as long as you don’t get killed before your lands come online, you should be able to win.
Speaking of winning, I really wanted to win this PTQ. I mean, usually I don’t go to a PTQ if I don’t want to win it, but it was more than just that. I took better notes at this PTQ than I have ever before, and I think that I was playing at or near the top of my game. It’s funny: the only PTQ I’ve ever won is also the only PTQ I’ve ever brought my checkbook to (before the days of plane tickets to the winner), so it’s pretty clear that the simple desire to win can greatly affect your tournament’s outcome.
I didn’t quite make it there, unfortunately, but I did learn quite a bit in the process. Due to my summer internship and family commitments, I wasn’t able to actually play any games with the deck until I sat down for round 1, but I think that my tournament, and my thoughts afterward, should help anyone looking to play Five-Color Control in any upcoming tournament.
Please understand that I’m basing my game summaries on the notes that I took, which list the sources of damage but not the actual plays. This means that you likely won’t hear much about Cryptic Command or Broken Ambitions in these games, unless I specifically remember using them at some point. However, that doesn’t mean that these cards weren’t key throughout the day, it’s just harder to remember the spell that you countered away than the one that hit you for seven damage.
The Tournament
Round 1 — Red/Green Midrange
He led the first game off with Brighthearth Banneret, which ran into my Plumeveil. He accelerated with a Farhaven Elf, then used two burn spells to clear out my Veil and hit me for one. I dropped Oona into play after clearing out a Colossus with Austere Command, but I only attacked with Oona’s tokens, fearing a Cloudthresher. However, it never came, though he eventually assembled enough burn to take out Oona. Tapped low with no blockers, I cast my own Cloudthresher and came across for lethal.
-1 Plumeveil
-2 Kitchen Finks
-3 Firespout
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+2 Primal Command
+1 Cloudthresher
+1 Shriekmaw
This is the beginning of my sideboarding saga. Each round I was coming up with sideboard plans on the fly, but I generally just thought about my plan for victory and my opponent’s same plan, and went from there. For this round I wanted to increase my threat count and my supply of answers for big guys. I didn’t expect a weenie rush, so the defensive three-drops and Firespouts seemed like the worst cards in my deck.
The second game was an absolute beating. He started off with a first-turn Heap Doll, which actually seemed pretty good against Persist and Mannequin. However, he didn’t follow up with anything until a fourth-turn Countryside Crusher. I had a Finks to go up to 19, hoping to block the Crusher, but then he revealed six lands during his upkeep, followed by a Bramblewood Paragon. This meant that the least I would take was eight damage as he trampled over my 3/2. Instead, he just cast Puncture Bolt and hit me to 9. He passed the turn without casting the Paragon, so I decided he was leaving mana up for another removal spell, which meant that I couldn’t just chumpblock with Mulldrifter and go to one life. I Evoked it, digging for a Shriekmaw, but I didn’t find one and died.
We both started slow in the third game, and the first threat onto the board was my Mannequin’d Twilight Shepherd, which fell to a Tarfire. However, my opponent seemed confused as to what was going on, and followed Tarfire up with a Lash Out that dealt me three, but left my 4/4 Shepherd quite alive. It poked him three times before he came up with two more burn spells to take it down, and I fell to 14 from another Lash Out clash. I went right back up to 21 and found a second Shepherd, though, and that was enough for the game.
1-0
Round 2 — Five-Color Control
When my opponent led with a Vivid land and a Reflecting Pool, I felt pretty confident about the matchup. My only previous Lorwyn Block Constructed experience was with Four-Color Control in pre-Morningtide Block, and I had a very good record in that mirror match. He Evoked a Mulldrifter and then built up a Kitchen Finks army. I hard-cast my Mulldrifter and then played two Finks of my own on the next turn. The Finks had a stare-off while my Mulldrifter pecked away, but a Cloudthresher eventually ambushed my threat. This left him open to Oona, which I dropped into play post-combat. He had no removal for Oona, and had to try to race with his Finks and Thresher, but he could only get me to sixteen before Oona decked him.
-1 Plumeveil
-4 Kitchen Finks
-3 Firespout
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+2 Mind Shatter
+1 Cloudthresher
+3 Jace Beleren
The old Four-Color mirror plan was to maximize every card you could; and then eventually get someone to tap out so you could land a huge threat. In those days you were talking about Nath of the Gilt-Leaf or Horde of Notions, but Oona and Twilight Shepherd both do the trick quite well. It’s also perfectly fine to just resolve a Mind Twist for their hand and then go from there. On the other hand, the defensive cards are largely dead against the threats that actually matter.
The first spell from either of us was a fifth-turn Mulldrifter from him, which I hit with a Shriekmaw that took him to fourteen. He regained some life with Kitchen Finks, but the Shriekmaw kept going while the Finks just ran into Mulldrifters and their Mannequins. However, when I tapped out to hit him with a huge Mind Shatter, he was able to keep two cards and then turned his mana advantage into a huge game advantage when he completely refilled with a Mind Spring for seven cards. From there, I was on the back foot completely, and when I tapped low, he was able to push a Horde of Notions past my counterspells by backing him up with Negate. Once the Horde was in play, it seemed very unlikely that I could win, even though I was still at a very high life total and with plenty of action in play. He had the ability recur Cloudthreshers and Mulldrifters, so I conceded with fifteen minutes left to go.
He played a Kitchen Finks on the third turn, and then announced “I’ve lost” when he Evoked Mulldrifter but didn’t have a fourth land. Meanwhile, I had plenty of mana and cards, as I was able to hardcast my own Mulldrifter. I had a Shriekmaw to shrink his Finks and keep up the pressure, while he started to draw out of his manascrew. However, he was still relatively mana-light, and when he put his own Mulldrifter into play I answered with Twilight Shepherd. He used another Mulldrifter to dig for answers, so I just popped another Shepherd into play. A Cloudthresher cleared his chumpblockers and let me attack for lethal.
2-0
Round 3 — Kithkin
I started off with a mulligan, and he started off with a first-turn Goldmeadow Stalwart. All he had for the second turn was a Mutavault, but I was already at 12 life when I cast my third-turn Kitchen Finks. He hit me to 9 (back up to 11 from Finks) and cast a Spectral Procession. I was in a huge amount of trouble, and knew that he had a Liege in hand, but thought that I might be able to pull out a miracle if I tapped out to draw four cards with Mind Spring. I tapped out, he end-stepped the Liege, and then swung and showed me Mirrorweave.
-4 Broken Ambitions
-3 Cloudthresher
-2 Mind Spring
+3 Plumeveil
+1 Shriekmaw
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+2 Primal Command
+1 Firespout
I’ve talked about this sideboard plan with a few different people, and I’ve heard a few different things. Some say that you can’t afford to take out Cloudthreshers because you need big win conditions, but those people didn’t have Twilight Shepherds in their sideboards. Almost no one disagrees with the removal of Mind Spring, but many people think that you need to keep in Broken Ambitions as a second-turn counterspell. It’s true that you’d love to live the dream and snag a Wizened Cenn on the second turn, but for that to happen, you’d need to be on the play and playing against someone that had no idea what was going on. I believe that a smart Kithkin player would simply play around the Ambitions and throw out some more one-drops, which are just as terrifying if you’re sitting there doing nothing. Keeping in Cryptic Command, though, makes sense as it’s a Dismiss, a Fog, a Repulse, or whatever. Yes, it does cost a lot, but I think that you’re going to want it so that you can actually win a late-game race when your Shepherd is going up against their swarm. The only card I’m not sure is correct to bring in is the Primal Command, but it seemed to me that seven life and a Shriekmaw was something that I would want.
My hand in the second game was full of power. I had Shriekmaw, Firespout, Austere Command, and Twilight Shepherd, so I just needed to make sure that I didn’t die. I used Shriekmaw on a Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender and then used Firespout as a simple two-for-one on his remaining creatures. I cleared out some Procession tokens and other assorted Kithkin, and dropped Twilight Shepherd on a one-Kithkin board when I was at nine life. I hit him in the air while I built up my defenses with two Finks, and he didn’t find an answer to the Shepherd before it could swing four times.
The third game was relatively anti-climactic. He kept a hand that was very strong against multiple Wraths, as it included two or three Cloudgoat Rangers, but the effect of this was that my life-total only ever increased, as he never put any pressure on me. I had enough Firespouts and Commands to outlast his Rangers, and he just couldn’t stop me from swinging for the win with Shriekmaws while his few remaining men were held off by Finks.
3-0
Round 4 — Kithkin
I mulliganed my first hand as it included only Blue and Green mana, but I kept a similar hand on six cards because it had a Reflecting Pool in addition to the basic Forest and Island. I got dropped to 18 by a Stalwart, but went back up to 20 from Kitchen Finks. However, I was still sitting there with only Blue and Green mana while I accumulated Shriekmaws and Firespouts and he accumulated 2/2s. His team dropped me to 12 life, and I had to draw one of my eleven Red-producing lands to Firespout him down to one card in hand, but I drew Wooded Bastion instead, and I died.
-4 Broken Ambitions
-3 Cloudthresher
-2 Mind Spring
+3 Plumeveil
+1 Shriekmaw
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+2 Primal Command
+1 Firespout
He started the second game off with a Harrier and two Knight of Meadowgrains, and I had a Firespout to clear them aside. He played another set of Knights, and I played out a Finks and a Plumeveil. When I blocked one of his Knights with Plumeveil, he put first-strike damage on the stack and used Mirrorweave to turn everything into a Knight of Meadowgrain, which killed my Plumeveil and saved his guy. However, I had a second Finks, and then a Primal Command for Shriekmaw, and he still had just his two Knights. When two Shriekmaws cleared his side on the next turn, I started hitting him for ten damage at a time, and he died quickly after that.
As game 3 played out, I began to think I was going to again find myself dead before drawing into full mana access, but this time I did have the ability to play out two Plumeveils. However, I was sitting at two life with just UUU available, while he had four creatures. On my last turn, I again ripped Wooded Bastion off the top, but this let me play out Kitchen Finks, giving me three blockers and a crucial two life. He didn’t have anything on his turn, and I drew a Vivid land and played a second Finks. When the Vivid land came online on my next turn, I cast Primal Command for Shriekmaw and seven life, and the game completely slipped from his grasp.
4-0
At this point, I entertained thoughts about dropping. I needed, I believe, twenty-two Constructed ratings points to qualify for Nationals, and I think that I had that in the bag at this point. However, it’s still up in the air as to whether or not I’ll be able to manage a trip out to Chicago in the middle of the summer, and I decided that possibly a shot at the PT was worth possibly un-qualifying myself.
Round 5 — Faeries
She mulliganed in the first game, and didn’t do much until she dropped a Bitterblossom on the fifth turn with enough mana to pay for a potential Broken Ambitions or defend against a Cryptic Command. I used Ambitions anyway, just to tap her out, and the resolved a Mulldrifter on my turn. The Mulldrifter managed to get her down to 12, but her token army was accumulating, and I had no way to stop it other than a Firespout which simply bought me a few extra turns before the Blossom overwhelmed me when she was at seven.
-4 Kitchen Finks
-1 Firespout
+2 Plumeveil
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+1 Cloudthresher
I’ve heard from many sources that the usual plan against Faeries is to board out all of your Firespouts. I can see why this is, since usually all Firespout does is buy you time; it doesn’t actually solve many problems. However, it seems to me that you have a lot more late-game power than they do, so buying yourself two or three turns might be something you can translate into a win. On the other hand, Finks might be able to “apply pressure”, but they don’t really seem that amazing to me. I’d rather have the fatty threats, which are definitely harder to resolve, but are actually relevant against a Mistbind Clique. Plumeveil is also a great blocker, but you don’t, I think, want all four, as you do want to draw cards that threaten your opponent.
I didn’t have a Broken Ambitions in hand, and my lands made it such that I didn’t think it was worth trying to bluff it by skipping a Vivid land drop, so when her second turn brought no Bitterblossom, I thought I was set. However, her third turn was Thoughtseize and Blossom, and I assume she was making sure that she didn’t run straight into Wispmare. I started to get something going with Mulldrifters and Shriekmaws, but a Puppeteer Clique drew her two cards and sent a hasted Mulldrifter at me, and things started to get out of hand. I managed to resolve a Cloudthresher, but even that wasn’t enough to save me, as I was already down to just four life at that point, and she still had nine life, Bitterblossom, and Puppeteer Clique to hide behind.
4-1
Round 6 — Doran
We both started off by building up Kitchen Finks armies, and while they bounced off of each other, he dropped a Chameleon Colossus into play. Prior to sideboarding, it’s pretty hard to deal with Colossus outside of Austere Command, but I had multiple Cloudthreshers (sort of) and decided that I could race. The Thresher hit him for nine, and then Mannequin did the same after the actual Cloudthresher fell to an Evoked Shriekmaw. At this point he was at four life and I was at ten, but I didn’t have anything in play and he had Colossus and Doran. However, I knew he had a Nameless Inversion in hand from a Murmuring Bosk reveal, and so I figured I was in great shape: he swung at me and I used Mannequin number two to bring Thresher back. He pointed the Inversion at it, and I used Mannequin number three to kill him.
-4 Kitchen Finks
-3 Firespout
+2 Primal Command
+2 Mind Shatter
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+1 Cloudthresher
His deck seemed pretty slow to get off the ground, so I wanted to just overpower him with my big cards. Knowing that he had a lot of removal, I wanted to bring in as many threats as possible.
I kept a slow but powerful hand, and then immediately regretted my decision when he led with two Gilt-Leaf Palaces and a Treefolk Harbinger for a Murmuring Bosk. My suspicions were confirmed when his third turn brought a Doran and an attack for three. I dug to try to get out of it with an Evoked Mulldrifter, but I didn’t find an answer and fell to nine. Another turn without a blocker or a Cryptic Command, and I was dead.
He again had Treefolk Harbinger, but this time it went for Chameleon Colossus. When he put the Colossus into play, he had six cards, and I hit him with a Mind Shatter for three. He swung for a huge chunk of my life total, but I had a second Shatter to completely empty his hand. I followed this up with an Austere Command, a Mind Spring to refuel, and a Twilight Shepherd. He started to rebuild with a Doran and a Shriekmaw, but I had my own Shriekmaw to make sure he couldn’t get through, and defended my Shepherd with Cryptic Command long enough for it to finish him off.
5-1
Round 7 — Five-Color Elementals
When he led off with Smokebraider, I thought that it was too dangerous to leave lying around, so I killed it with an Evoked Shriekmaw. However, I regretted this decision on the next turn when he dropped an Incandescent Soulstoke that I had no answer for. I did have Makeshift Mannequin on the fourth turn, and used it at the end of his main phase. He activated the Soulstoke to put Reveillark into play, and then used the trigger to regrow the Soulstoke and Smokebraider. I hit him for three and cast my newly-draw Firespout to wipe the board. He rebuilt with a Mulldrifter that hit me a few times, while I dug for gas with a Mind Spring. Eventually I set up a race that looked bad for me, but two surprise Cloudthreshers dealt him eighteen points over two turns and took the game away from him before Reveillark could finish me off.
-1 Plumeveil
-4 Kitchen Finks
+2 Mind Shatter
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+1 Cloudthresher
I took out my defensive creatures because I didn’t think that they actually stopped his real win conditions (Reveillark, Horde, and Soulstoke). In exchange, I buffed up my own threat count and gave myself Shatters to potentially wreck him before he could really get going. I left in Firespout, even though it wasn’t that impressive, because it gave me a way to handle Smokebraider and Soulstoke.
We both drew some extra cards in the early parts of the game, but he had no fifth land for a turn, which meant that he didn’t get to hardcast his Mulldrifter. I did, but it got cleared out by Cloudthresher. He eventually hardcast his own Mulldrifter, and I then cleared his out with my own Thresher, though it was stolen by Sower of Temptation. I had a Shriekmaw to get my Thresher back, but he had a Shriekmaw of his own to kill it off. We again just traded utility creatures until he forced a Reveillark into play and started swinging when I was at eleven. However, just like the last game, when he started to actually attempt to kill me, my endstep Cloudthresher turned the race all the way around and ended him.
6-1
I have heard from a teammate that this is a bad matchup, but it seems to me to be the opposite. The elemental deck doesn’t have counterspells, which means you can stop their scariest cards while they can’t do anything about yours. Soulstoke, Horde, and Reveillark are problems, yes, but you have the power to simply say no. On the other hand, there’s not much they can do about a race that you’re backing up with Cryptic Commands. I think that if you get a mediocre draw, they might be able to just run you down, but as long as you’re sure to watch out for the big threats, it seems to me as though you should be able to translate your permission into the win.
Round 8 — Five-Color Control
When the standings went up before the pairings, we saw what some people thought was a clean cut to the Top 8: just 8 players on 18 or more points. However, there were three on 16 points, so if everyone drew, someone was going to miss on breakers. However, my breakers were about six percent higher than the 16-pointers that threatened to leapfrog, and my eventual opponent’s were even higher. We drew, and we both made it with room to spare.
6-1-1
Quarterfinals — Green/Black Midrange
I didn’t know what he was playing, since there was no decklist swap, but he certainly knew what I was playing, and he and his friends weren’t keeping it secret that he was unhappy with the pairings. When I kept my seven-card hand, he told me that he’d already lost. A first-turn Leechridden Swamp didn’t shed any light on the situation, and then he didn’t do anything else until a Murderous Redcap on the fourth turn. I asked him “just rawdogging it?” and he told me that he had to find some way to kill me. The next turn I stopped Colossus (I think) with Broken Ambitions, and milled away Garruk and various other spells. I then played a Mulldrifter and traded it for the Redcap, while he built up some Kitchen Finks. I had my own to stymie him a little bit, and when his Finks got aggressive, my Cloudthreshers started showing up on his endstep. He took two hits from the first Thresher before it died to Shriekmaw, but the second one finished him.
-4 Kitchen Finks
-3 Firespout
-1 Plumeveil
+2 Mind Shatter
+2 Primal Command
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Cloudthresher
He started just as slow in game 2, but this time his fourth-turn play was Chameleon Colossus. I had Evoked Mulldrifter on the previous turn, discarding Twilight Shepherd, but I passed with four mana up, so he didn’t pump his Colossus, fearing Cryptic Command. Instead of the Command, I Mannequin’d back the Shepherd, and hit him for five. He Evoked a Shriekmaw to kill it, and then Evoked a second to try to finish it off, but I had the Command to save my Shepherd and bounce his Colossus. From there, my hand was simply too good for him to do anything but put up an irrelevant fight with some Kitchen Finks against my 4/4 Shepherd. I Mind Shattered his hand away while his board was just two Finks, and then used Primal Command to put a land on top of his library and find a Cloudthresher to Hurricane him out on my next turn.
Semifinals — Faeries
I wasn’t too happy to be playing the only person who beat me in the swiss, and I was even less happy when she dropped Bitterblossoms on both turn 2 and 3. I took a hit for one, then a hit for only two when I Mannequin’d back a Mulldrifter. Still, two Blossoms gave her enough tokens to hit me down to thirteen on the next turn, though I had a Cloudthresher in her next upkeep to stem the bleeding and put her to twelve. She started to get more tokens, and championed away one Blossom with a Mistbind Clique when she was on eight life. She went to seven and started to accumulate enough to kill me when I played a Mulldrifter and then tried to clear the board with a topdecked Firespout, but she had a Cryptic Command to stop the Wrath and tap my side. Luckily, though, I had a Plumeveil that let me live through the turn, while she dropped to five from the Blossoms. I passed again, and cast my own Command to tap her side after she went to three. That resolved, and a Mulldrifter attack put her to one. The Blossoms finished my job for me.
-4 Kitchen Finks
-1 Firespout
+2 Plumeveil
+2 Twilight Shepherd
+1 Cloudthresher
Bitterblossom made another second-turn appearance, and Thoughtseize stripped away my Mannequin. I tried to make a comeback with a Mind Spring for two cards, but I didn’t come up with any way at all to stem the bleeding. I did find Oona, Austere Command, and Twilight Shepherd, but those cards all cost six mana and I had only five. I bought myself a turn to topdeck with a Cryptic Command that tapped all of her creatures and put her to only three available mana, but I didn’t topdeck the land and then died to Mistbind Clique.
I had no Broken Ambitions in hand, and my lands were going to come out in such a way that I didn’t think it was worth bluffing the Ambitions when it meant I would have to hold my Vivid land back on the second turn. Unfortunately for me, this brought a Bitterblossom for her, and the tokens started to accumulate. I had two Plumeveils, though, so I didn’t take a whole lot of damage until she attacked with a Mistbind Clique (championing the Blossom) and four tokens, and I picked off two tokens. On her next turn, she swung with just the Clique, and I tried to Mannequin back a Cloudthresher that had previously been countered. She had Cryptic Command in response. I cast Broken Ambitions for three, just to tap her out, but she had her own Ambitions for one, which left her with one available mana after the stack resolved. I blocked her Clique with a Plumeveil, leaving her with two tokens and the Blossom, and me with a Plumeveil. However, her last mana took the second Cloudthresher I had waiting in my hand, and things didn’t seem quite as great. I untapped, Firespouted away the two tokens, and put Mulldrifter into play. This left her at thirteen life and just a Bitterblossom and about four cards against my Plumeveil and Mulldrifter, and full grip. However, she asked to see my graveyard and then said “this is going to be a big turn”. This could only mean one thing: Puppeteer Clique. She cast the Clique, which brought back one of my Cloudthreshers. The Thresher killed my Mulldrifter and her Clique, which Persisted and brought back my other Cloudthresher. This one finished off my Plumeveil, and the two of them rumbled across for fourteen damage. My tournament was over.
Conclusions
Quite obviously, the decks to beat are Kithkin and Faeries, along with many flavors of five-color decks. With my PTQ experience behind me, I’d like to share my general thoughts on these matchups.
Kithkin — One-drops are your worst enemies. Outside of Firespout, most of your defense comes in one-creature quantities, whether we’re talking about Shriekmaw, Finks, or Plumeveil. This means that you’d much rather be facing down Stalwart plus Cenn than Stalwart plus two other one-drops. Because of the presence of so many clunky cards in your deck, you are more likely to lose the first game than you are to win it, though a timely Firespout might well hand you the game if they aren’t running Forge-Tenders in the main. Your card quality is extremely high, so the longer the game goes, the more likely you are to win… just make sure to watch out for Mirrorweave.
After boarding, you are not exactly streamlined, but you are much better off than you were before. You’ve got another mass removal spell, another targeted removal spell, three great defenders, Primal Command, and Twilight Shepherd in their place. You’re looking to stem the bleeding early so that you can set up Primal, Shepherd, or Oona, and then slam them until they die. You might have to trade your Shepherd for a Cloudgoat Ranger, but that’s usually perfectly acceptable since you’ll be getting your guy back anyways. Note that Mirrorweave can be pretty scary if you have a Shepherd out, but that card tends to be pretty scary no matter what.
Overall, I think that you’re favored to win the match if you play well. I heard of many people losing games because they got too greedy with their Firespouts, and then got hit by the next Crusade effect or a Forge-Tender; if you have the chance to spout away two Wizened Cenns, you should take it. You are going to lose the first game a decent amount of the time, but it’s not impossible, and you should win the majority of all sideboarded games.
Faeries — I think that you are in great shape as long as there isn’t a Bitterblossom on the table. The Five-Color deck thrives on time, and the longer the game goes the more chances you have to convert your powerful spells into wins. With a Bitterblossom on the other side of the table, though, you will rarely have that luxury of time. You’re going to have to find a way to remove the constant stream of tokens, or you’ll get run over before you can really dig your heels in. In addition to needing to buy time with Thresher or Firespout, you’re going to need to be a little more aggressive than you might otherwise like, because the Blossom will keep ticking away.
Without Bitterblossom, Block Faeries is pretty tame. You’ve still got to worry about Cryptic Command, Mistbind Clique, Sower of Temptation, and so on, but they don’t have the same card-drawing power that they did in Standard, and so you will often be able to simply out-last their threats and answers, and eventually kill them with an assortment of utility creatures or one big Cloudthresher. Remember, your deck is extremely powerful too, so as long as you don’t make bone-headed plays, your card quality should carry the day.
I do believe that it’s right to leave in some Firespouts after boarding, simply because they can buy you time to win the Bitterblossom games. If, though, your specific decklist has actual answers to Bitterblossom (and not just Austere Command), then I can certainly see taking all of the Firespouts out. I don’t know what the best answer actually is, though it might simply be Wispmare. I also don’t know if you should expect to see Puppeteer Clique, or simply respect the possibility of its existence. The card is very powerful against you, but I’m not sure that the cat is out of the bag yet. Even if you do expect it, I’m not exactly sure what you would do about it other than try to keep mana for a counterspell up at all points.
Five-Color Control — My plan for the mirror has always come in two pieces. First, you need to maximize every single card that you play. This means that I tend not to Evoke Mulldrifter on the third turn on the draw, since I’ll have to discard, as long as I don’t need to draw those cards to hit my land drops. It also means that I tend not to Evoke my guys at all, since even the 2/2 body on Mulldrifter is a solid threat over time. The other piece of the plan is relatively obvious: pick a fight on their turn, whether you win or lose, and then untap and land something huge. It used to be that you were looking to resolve Nath or Profane Command; now it’s Oona or Mind Shatter. Eventually one of you will find a way to get ahead of the other, and then it will almost always be over.
I say “almost” always because there is the simple fact that sometimes you can resolve a threat that just can’t be dealt with. If you’re behind on lands and cards, but happen to get an Oona into play, you don’t have to do much more to simply ride that one card all the way to victory. Because of this, if you think that you have the edge, you should do as much as you can to keep mana up. For instance, if they decide to Cryptic Command something like a Mulldrifter, you should think long and hard about whether it’s worth fighting back and then losing to their Oona. If you think that the bomb might be waiting in the wings, it’s often correct to let their counter resolve and keep your defenses up.
My sideboard for the PTQ had Jace for this matchup. Jace is fine as a Concentrate, and sometimes is much more than fine when you find yourself in a position where you can keep him around for more than three turns. However, I do not think that Jace is actually that great overall; he’s really only applicable to this matchup, and he’s certainly not unbeatable if he happens to make it into play. There are things like Cloudthresher and various evasion creatures that make it hard to defend him. If you want a permanent, I think that something like Puppeteer Clique, Nath, or Liliana makes more sense. They may be harder to sneak in there, but once they’re there, they will have a much bigger impact on the game. If you’d rather replace him with a spell, then Negate is very strong as a two-mana counterspell that you can use to defend your bombs or defend yourself without spending much mana.
As for the other decks in the format, I think that you can use the general ideas from these three matchups to figure them out on the fly. The various midrange decks that don’t sport counterspells should be pretty easy as long as you don’t find yourself dying to Chameleon Colossus or Doran before you can set yourself up. If you had reason to believe that these decks were going to be very big at your tournament, you could combat them with either more Austere Commands or some number of Crib Swaps to get rid of their big threats.
Other aggressive decks, like the Rage Forger deck, tend to be slower out of the gates than Kithkin, which is very good for you, but with a little bit more reach. Usually, though, this reach doesn’t actually translate into very much, because they’ve got further to go without first-turn 2/2s. That doesn’t mean that you’ll always win, of course, it just means that you don’t need to sweat it quite as much.
Lastly the Five-Color Elementals deck is something I’m not sure about. As I mentioned before, my teammate says that this is a bad matchup, and I can understand where he’s coming from. They have really good mana acceleration in the form of Smokebraider, and they have mana denial in Fulminator Mage. In addition, Horde of Notions is extremely difficult to deal with, and they can do terrifying things like spend two mana to put a pumped, hasted Reveillark into play, and then draw four cards when it dies. However, it was my experience that my deck didn’t seem to have as many absurd plays, but it tended to have more absurd plays that resolved. They don’t have any way to stop you from actually turning cards in your hand into resolved spells, so you can be relatively sure that your plans will go uncontested, while they always have to worry about Cryptic Command. I do not think it is that strange that both of my games played out the same way; there’s just not much they can do about an end-step Cloudthresher unless they have an active Incandescent Soulstoke.
I’ve got another PTQ in about a month, and there’s very little chance I’ll change my mind about what deck to play. I feel like I’m comfortable tweaking the numbers now, and there’s a good chance that I won’t be packing Jaces when the time comes, but I think that this is the right deck to be playing. By the same token, I think that this is a great choice for any tournament that you might find yourself heading to. It has game against every deck, and playskill will definitely shine through as you wade through the field.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me in the forums, via email, or on AIM.
Benjamin Peebles-Mundy
ben at mundy dot net
SlickPeebles on AIM