Q: Why are pirates called pirates?
A: Because they arrrrrrrr.
My name is Craig Stevenson, and that’s one of the best jokes I’ve ever heard. I
understand that the very act of writing it down renders it rather flat, but I
gotta be me.
With Online Standard pushing up the proverbial daisies until the release of
Electric Tenth, it’s plain to see that all the cool kids are hanging out in
Blocktown. It’s a Block War at the moment, and folk have chosen their sides. The
G/W guys are the Crips, while the Teachings players are the Bloods.
Man, even when I type I sound English. And to be honest, I’m not sure what Crips
and Bloods actually are.
Cup of tea, anyone?
Last time out, I took an unhoned version of Billy Moreno Korlash Charge deck to a Pro Tour Qualifier in Manchester, to
face another 27 players. I expected a sea of Mono-Red, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I didn’t drop a game in the Swiss, but came unstuck against the one U/B/w
Teachings player at the quarterfinal stage.
Damn control.
As you may be aware, my Magical tastes reside in the Aggro camp. If it doesn’t
cost less than its power, or it doesn’t go to the dome, then I fear it’s largely
irrelevant. Sadly, the package of four Tendrils of Corruption, four Damnation
proved rather annoying. Four mana, bin your guys… or worse yet: four mana, kill a
guy, gain fourteen life. Sickening.
So, for the weekend just passed, I thought “if you can’t beat them, join them.”
After some background reading, and some IM consultation, I ran with the
following:
Creatures (8)
Lands (27)
Spells (25)
As you can probably make out, I expected a lot of Aggro at the PTQ. Hence the
double Isolation, and the sideboarding of many Control-fighting staples.
When I got there, I found the surprisingly small field (29 players total… more on
that later) was made up of the following:
4% Big Mana G/R
4% G/W(/r) Tarmogoyf
12% Rogue
80% U/B/x Control
I was in for a long day.
Clearly, my deck wasn’t configured optimally for the metagame. I hastily
re-jigged my sideboard, resulting in that cacophonous scribble above. My
sideboard was awful, my maindeck unwise… and I’d had a total of three hours sleep
beforehand.
Things did not look good.
Round 1 — Russ Davies, playing U/B/g Baron Control
Russ is a local PTQ player with a decent game, but I fancied my chances here.
Russ also brought us the R/B Gibbering Descent deck that won the previous week’s
PTQ in Manchester (albeit in the hands of another). For reference, here is that
deck:
Gibbering Madness
5 Swamp
9 Mountain
4 Graven Cairns
2 Urborg, Tomb Of Yawgmoth
4 Keldon Megaliths
4 Epochrasite
4 Gathan Raiders
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Lightning Axe
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Fiery Temper
3 Reckless Wurm
3 Magus Of The Scroll
2 Tombstalker
2 Mindless Automaton
2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Sideboard
2 Gibbering Descent
3 Big Game Hunter
3 Word Of Seizing
4 Slaughter Pact
3 Sudden Death
Today he piloted an Adrian Sullivan creation, with which he made Top 8.
Game 1
I kept a slightly suspect seven, not knowing what Russ was playing, and I stalled
on four lands while Russ ramped and ramped. I attempted to draw some cards, only
to see the spell hijacked by a miser’s Imp’s Mischief. My Urborgs were
Wastelanded, and eventually I had a land stolen with Take Possession. It took a
while, but I fell soon after.
Game 2
Game 2 was much more palatable. It was another long one, and to be frank the
details are rather blurred, but I believe I Took Possession of my own Urza’s
Factory once it had defected to the other side. Little men took it, as my huge
Korlash soaked up his eight-mana 2/2 blockers.
We had five minutes left for game 3. Yes, it was a draw.
0-0-1 (1-1)
One the results were in, it seems that only four matches actually went to a 2-x
result. There were draws everywhere.
Round 2 — Ross Silcock, playing R/G/W Land Destruction
Game 1
I started strong, ramping to a turn 3 draw spell. Ross kept me at three land for
a while as he Mwonvuli Acid-Mossed a few choice targets, ramping up to insano
levels. Thankfully, he ran out of steam and drew nothing but lands. An attempted
Boom/Bust was foiled with a Logic Knot (Thank you, Mr. Feldman), and I Extirpated
them immediately. Soon, I was beating down with a massive Korlash and a Terry
Teferi. I love Terry. He’s the stones. And yes, as an Aggro player first and
foremost, I am just catching on to that, thankyouverymuch.
Game 2
This game went longer, but eventually had the same result. Ross was hideously
flooded again, drawing masses of lands of his Harmonizes, and again I managed to
Logic Knot a Boom/Bust. However, my opponent soon had two Urza’s Factories and
enough mana to make two guys a turn… I was sapping one with Korlash, and
eventually found my own Factory in order to slow the beats. A Damnation, followed
by another Korlash, levelled things. The Factories faced off, but when I managed
to Draining Whelk a second Boom/Bust, the game was over.
Ross is a fun player to face, but I’ve played him a few times… he’s very easy to
read. When things are going badly, he makes it very clear that he’s in a fix.
1-0-1 (3-1)
1-0-2
Round 3 — Matthew Hardy, playing U/B/g Baron Control
Matt is relatively new to the PTQ scene, but in this tournament he proved himself
as a strong player… if a little excitable. And as he told me the excellent pirate
joke above, he’s okay in my book.
Game 1
This was one of the longest and most hard-fought games of the tournament. We both
made guys early; Matt had Morphs, while I made Terry Teferi. When Matt tapped low
to deal with Terry, I managed a Damnation to clear the board. Sadly, I drew very
little for a while, and Matt managed to empty my hand with a Haunting Hymn not
long after. My next draw phase yielded a Careful Consideration, which chained
into a Foresee, but all the while as I regrouped I was being slapped by some
Morphs. I eventually managed to lay a Korlash, while Matt went wild with Gaea’s
Blessings. After Extirpating Matt’s Terrys, things looked good… but I tapped low
on a critical turn and let Matt resolve and unmorph a Brine Elemental.
I feared the worst here, as Matt had a Careful Consideration to search for the
lock… but he whiffed.
With time running low, a Tendrils took down the spiny Briney, and I beat Matt to
four before the inevitable Damnation cleared the board. Matt was now down to two
cards. I made a dangerous Factory token, which met the business end of a Slaughter
Pact at end of turn.
Matt flashed back Teachings for a draw spell, and charged his two storage lands. He
then untapped, and drew a card.
Good game.
I definitely had the upper hand that game, as I had gas in hand and Factory
advantage to his depleted resources and life total. Still, Pacting for the loss…
what a way to go.
We had five minutes for game 2, and despite a valiant effort and a speedy
Quagnoth beatdown start from Matt, a topdecked Damnation made it all irrelevant.
2-0-1 (4-1)
Round 4 — Stephano Gattolin, playing G/W/r Tarmogoyf
Now this was more like it! A simple matchup, albeit against one of the
better players in attendance. Stephano was one of my roommates at my very first
Pro Tour (Houston 2002). I finished 30th, while he posted a 1-6 record. Good
work, fella!
Game 1
Stephano won the dice roll, and mulled to four. Of course, he managed a decent
start regardless: Kavu Predator into Fiery Justice off two Grove of the
Burnwillows. The single 9/9 trampler met with Damnation soon after, but I failed
to draw anything of importance. From four cards, Stephano was fighting back.
Happily, I saw a Temporal Isolation for his Enforcer, and managed a Damnation
when he dropped a second. A Teferi came down, a random dude met with Tendrils,
and an end-of-turn Triskelavus took the game when Stephano sat on seven life.
Game 2
Stephano kept seven for this game, and laid a turn 2 and turn 3 Kavu Predator.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t make a third land… and one of his lands was a
Gemstone Mine. The Damnation broke his spirit, especially as he dropped to one
land the following turn to make a Saffi Eriksdotter. I made a Korlash, and all
poor Steph managed was one more Forest before he scooped.
3-0-1 (6-1)
I ID’ed Round 5 with a team-mate Danny Nuttall (playing an interesting U/W deck),
and made my way to the quarterfinals by finishing second in the Swiss.
The Top 8 consisted of the following
2 U/B/w Kowalash decks
2 U/B/g Baron Control decks (Russ and Matthew)
2 U/W Aggro bounce decks (radically different builds — Danny was the more
controlling)
1 G/W/r Tarmogoyf deck (Stephano)
1 Angelfire control deck
Quarterfinal — Nice but slow opponent whose name escapes me, playing U/W
Aggro bounce
I’ve played this guy before, in an Extended PTQ when we both sat at 3-0. I packed
Boros Deck Wins that day, and he bested me 2-0 with his rogue White Weenie deck
that packed a tricksy Martyr engine. And Fortify. In Extended.
He’s a rogue player who likes White-based weenie beats… and today was no
different.
Game 1
This game went incredibly long… luckily, the Top 8 was untimed. My opponent’s
first play was a Calciderm. I let it hit me a few times before Damnating, and
then played Teferi. It met with Temporal Isolation, and soon my opponent had
Factory advantage, I made a Factory of my own, while his held off my Shadowmage.
Korlash came down, I managed to reclaim a lot of life with a few Tendrils. I hit
hard and fast, and Damnated in the face of double Knight of the Holy Nimbus. We
made and traded Factory guys for a while, and I finally found my Triskelavus. I
killed my opponent with eight cards left in my library, but to be honest I didn’t
feel threatened at all past turn 5 or so.
Game 2
While Game 1 took an hour to finish (as I said, my opponent was very ponderous),
Game 2 was over in a flash. My lands were bounced early, and I never hit four
mana for the Damnation in my hand before I died. On the final turn before I was
to succumb to aerial beats, my opponent chose to Momentary Blink his Cloudskate
to keep me off Damnation mana the following turn. Without that, I’m sure I
could’ve stabilized as I had 2 Damnations and two Tendrils in hand… but fair
play, that’s what the deck does, and my opponent was flawless.
Game 3
The final game took nearly as long as the first… this time, however, I managed to
kill with Triskelavus a little earlier. My Terry and Korlash were Isolated, but I
had a Factory and an Academy Ruins with Trisk working overtime. Strangely, my
opponent had boarded into Porphyry Nodes… yet, bizarre as it may seem, it
threatened to kill my Teferi unless I spent my mana making 1/1 Triskelavites to
sacrifice. Eventually, my opponent managed to kill Teferi, but a huge swinging
Isolated Korlash took the game, thanks to a timely Tendrils of Corruption.
4-0-2 (8-2)
Semi-final — Matthew Hardy, playing U/B/g Baron Control
Matt had taken down Danny in the previous round. He was definitely gaining in
confidence. Sadly, rumors of him playing Two-Headed Giant with his brother Jeff
remain unfounded.
Game 1
Again, another long tussle. However, this time I felt pretty much in control the
whole time. We each spent our early turns drawing cards, and I made a Korlash on
turn 8 after Damnating away some mystery face-down creatures. Thankfully, the
Korlash dropped Matt low before he stabilized with removal of his own, and I
managed a Teferi, a Factory token, and multiple removal spells for the eight-mana
speedbumps.
Game 2
This game was a little quicker, and unhappily it ended in my defeat. I struggled
on mana, and saw vital lands meet with Take Possession, before packing it in to
double Brine Elemental beats.
Game 3
One game for the final, and a decent hand on the play. I made lands, and drew
some cards. Unfortunately, Matt did the same. We made a few guys, and Wrathed a
few guys, and I sat on six lands (including Factory) as Matt charged his two
storage-lands to ludicrous levels. My hand was full of goodies — two Take
Possessions, Disenchant — but I didn’t have the mana. I managed to Extirpate
Matt’s Teachings, but the seventh land wouldn’t come. Thankfully, I was well
ahead on the damage race, sitting on 25 life to Matt’s 6.
I drew a Logic Knot, but Matt’s huge storage lands gave him a mana reservoir, and
it was essentially blank. Eventually a Haunting Hymn stripped my hand, making me
ditch a superfluous Urborg (I had one in play), two Take Possession (he had
Krosan Grip in hand, which I saw via the Extirpate), and the Disenchant. I drew a
land, and made Triskelavus. Matt Took Possession of it, and then Took my Academy
Ruins. He began to beat down, but I luckily drew my remaining Disenchant to bin
the 4/4 flyer (after it became 3/3, then 2/2, then 1/1, or course). Matt had
Factory token overlap, and Teferi, and whittled me down to single figures. Tried
a Damnation, but it met with countermagic. I dropped to four life, facing a
definite five damage via a Factory token and Teferi. I had a two lands, a
Foresee, and a Shadowmage in hand, knowing I couldn’t cast either and leave myself the mana to make a Factory token. I made Shadowmage in
desperation, alongside my single token, knowing that if either died I was dead in the water (his end of turn
Factory token would make seven power to my single blocker, should Johnny Magic or the token
hit the grumper). Of course, Matt had the end of turn Slaughter Pact, and that
was it. He killed my token, and I was toast.
End of turn, he made a guy, and powered up his storage lands. He untapped, and
drew for the turn.
…
…
Good Game.
5-0-2 (10-3)
Matt’s a fine player, and worked wonders without his Teachings in Game 3. But he
needs to buy a big counter to put on his library for the times he plays
Pacts. Pacting for the loss, twice, in the same tournament, against the same
player.
Must be nice.
Is.
Final — Guy Southcott, playing U/B/w Kowalash
This was a virtual mirror match, against one of the strongest players in the
room, and the man who I predicted (to a friend, while having a crafty cigarette
after Round 2) that I’d be facing in the final. He was part of a Scottish raiding
party that has successfully taken Bradford PTQ slots before, once beating me in
the finals of a PTQ for Yokohama (I qualified the following week, beating another
Scotsman).
Sadly, after such a tumultuous semi-final, the Final seemed rather anticlimactic.
Which, frankly, was a blessing. At the onset of the final, the five-round PTQ had
been running for over ten hours. I must stress that the TO and judging staff were
impeccable… it was all the bloody Control-on-Control matches that caused the
delays.
Game 1
I decided to go aggro for the mirror. Guy and I had both been given each other’s
decklists, and Guy’s build had no maindeck countermagic (and very little after
boarding). I made a Korlash on turn 4, and beat down with double Logic Knot
backup (one raw-dogged, the other a Teachings target), and a Teferi. The
Damnation finally hit, but I had another land-bound Nightmare. With zero cards, Guy topdecked a
Korlash of his own, but my third sealed the deal.
Game 2
As the aggro plan worked well in Game 1, I tried it again for Game 2. And again,
it bore fruit. Eventually, I was swinging with Teferi and Korlash into a Factory
token, but my Korlash met with an Isolation. With Tendrils in hand, and my
opponent on 11, I swung for the fences with my 8/8 Isolated Korlash and my 3/4
Teferi. Guy had to respect the Tendrils there, so he blocked, with a Factory
token, and I held the Tendrils for another day. Then came the Damnation. Luckily,
I had a second Korlash that went unopposed. Guy missed the “make Urborg to turn
your Korlash into a 3/3″ play, but I had a Tolaria West two cards down in my
library (we checked after the match), and the plucky Scot had naught but lands
atop his deck for a few turns.
6-0-2 (12-3)
I’m going to Valencia!
Yes, I’m excited, thanks for asking.
The Kowalash deck is definitely one of the strongest decks in the format. My
build above needs tweaking for the current meta, and indeed for the meta in your
particular area, but the pieces are there. For further reading and ideas, check
out these
by Zac Hill, and look out for Richard Feldman article later in the week.
So would I play this article at a PTQ if I had to qualify tomorrow?
Probably not.
I truly believe that the best version of Control available in the format is
Adrian Sullivan U/B/g Baron Control build. You can read about it here. It was
the only deck that really troubled me in the Swiss and in the Top 8, and if truth
be told I should be nothing more than a vanquished Top 4 booze-hound.
To round out, a quick word about attendance at PTQs. Apparently, numberd are up across America, which is a great thing. The format, up until now, has been great fun. Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated to the English PTQ scene as of yet. In truth, we were expecting about 60 player for this one, which would’ve been a goodly number. However, it seems Block ain’t that popular in Blighty, and the fact that you probably need four Korlash or four Tarmogoyf to successfully compete means that some folk are priced out of the market. Who knows, if other, more pocket-friendly strategies gain the ascendence, then maybe we’ll go on to have a barnstorming attendance record. Until then, be prepared for long tournaments and low turnouts… in the UK, at least.
Next week, I return to the Magic Online Block Constructed metagame. Apparently, a
rather funky Sliver deck has decimated the Top 8s of 2x Premier Events, scarring
up the standings like a bad rash. One might even say its exponential growth is
rather… virulent.
Until next week, remember – you can’t stop the signal.
Craig Stevenson
Scouseboy on MTGO
Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2
…
M-Fest
If you’re not at U/S Nationals this year, and you’re in England (or Europe… or
hell, anywhere in the world), you could do worse than attend the exciting M-Fest, a
four-day festival of Magic running from the 26th to the 29th July. Ideally
located for both national and international travel, it’s running a stupendous
amount of tournaments, including UK Nationals, Grand Prix Trials, and three —
count ’em, three – Pro Tour: Valencia Qualifiers.
The link is above. If you’re going, I’ll see you there!
…
Ungrateful Dead
Today’s instalment of the Ghostly Musician webcomic sees Tim Tyler, aided by the
Ghosts of Sid Vicious and John Lennon, finally settle on a bassist for his
upcoming superband.
Of course, things don’t go as smoothly
as planned…