Have you ever just sat and thought, “What am I doing?”
Like, you’ve just finished something that should have been one of if not the most important things to you, and it was done half-assedly and with zero
conviction.
Saturday night I sat in the car, and as I turned the key to start the engine and go home, this is all that I could think about.
The Players’ Championship has come to pass and congratulations to Brad Nelson for winning the whole thing.
I can’t say that tenth place was my goal from the start, but I also can’t be too upset with it. I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked on top of
actually having a cold and playing against the best players on the Open Series Circuit. A thousand dollars and not having to leave my backyard to battle
are decent consolation prizes.
I can say, however, that this was the most intense tournament I have ever played in. Every single match mattered, and I was even in elimination matches
twice, although I was only victorious in one of them. In fact, in the double elimination rounds, I won game 1 against both Tom and Joe and then lost both
post-board games to poor mulligan decisions and even poorer play on my part.
Going into the event on Saturday, I was just trying to remain calm and focused. I was “hopped up” on DayQuil and Vitamin C cough drops, and just hoped that
I would feel better. Needless to say I wasn’t all that thrilled to see that I was in a pod with Brad Nelson, Tom Ross, and Stephen Mann. Quite the group I
would say, although let’s be honest. With players like Reid Duke, Gerard Fabiano, Brian Braun-Duin, Ross Merriam, etc not in my pod, I can’t be
all that upset. This tournament was full of very good players, and nothing was going to come easy.
I was quite sure that Tom was on W/U Heroic, which was as close to a 50/50 matchup as you can get in Standard, with the edge going to whoever wins the
roll. I had pegged SMann on some kind of Siege Rhino or Whip of Erebos deck, and I honestly had no idea what Brad was on. We were in talks of working
together, along with BBD and possibly Tom Ross before the event, but ended up going our separate ways. He is one of if not the best metagamers in Magic,
and I was quite sure that he had me on either W/U Heroic or Jeskai Tokens.
I ended up just playing the same maindeck that I ran at the Standard Open in Seattle with a little different sideboard. You can check out my deck tech here.
In the end I opted to just go with the deck that I was the most comfortable with. I really felt like BBD’s Abzan Aggro deck was very good and
well-positioned, but without sufficient time to learn the different iterations, lines, and sideboarding, I opted to just stay with something that I knew
how to play the angles with. I felt like at most there was going to be three or four people on Siege Rhino, which was really the only matchup that I would
be unhappy to play against.
I was very happy with the three Lightning Strike, two Magma Jet split and would likely run it back. I think that the Mantis Riders that Kevin Jones and
Dylan Donegan played are pretty interesting, but I’m not sure how they are in the main without playing some games. While we were in Tacoma and trying to
fix the Siege Rhino matchups, Brad was trying all sorts of configurations with Mantis Rider in the sideboard, but maybe it’s just an upgrade to Chandra,
Pyromaster like they determined.
The changes that I did make were to the sideboard, primarily the addition of Brimaz, King of Oreskos. If Brimaz didn’t match up so poorly against Courser
of Kruphix, I would probably just try to play him in the main. My main idea was that against the Siege Rhino decks, I would bring in my Brimazs,
counterspells, Elspeths, and Glares and just try to beat them down. Popular cards that are good against my deck, like Drown in Sorrow and Bile Blight,
aren’t very good against Brimaz, King of Oreskos, and that’s what I was banking on. Ultimately, there was only one Siege Rhino opponent, and I never drew
him so I’m not sure how it will go in the future. Additionally, with Sultai being as popular as it is, I’m sure it will be after the results of the
Players’ Championship, I definitely don’t want to be on Brimaz. Anger of the Gods though, seems like a good one.
I also cut the End Hostilities, which I’m not sure is even right. In Portland and Seattle, having them felt really good in a lot of matchups, but whether
or not they are necessary I still don’t know. I liked the three/two Disdainful Stroke/Negate split in theory, but without actually playing against a
control deck that is another unanswered question.
As for Sultai, as much as I really wanted BBD to win his match against Gerard (roommate bias, sorry GFabs), I was really impressed with the sideboard plan
that he used. Just turning into the midrangiest of midrange decks. He essentially out BBD’d BBD, and that’s no easy feat. In fact, it makes me wonder if a
straight up Sultai Midrange deck might even be viable.
Back to my pod though. In the first round I was paired against Stephen Mann. I was pretty sure he was going to be on some Siege Rhino deck, but when he led
on Plains, Favored Hoplite, my eyes lit up. Game 1 was a classic “if I was on the play I would have won” game, and sadly I had lost the roll. I won game 2
in quick fashion, and game 3 was a bit of a grind fest. It all came down to his last card needing to not be Stubborn Denial or Gods Willing, and as most of
you know, it’s always Stubborn Denial or Gods Willing.
In the second round I got to play against one Bradley Nelson. With Brad on Sultai Reanimator, I knew that I would have a bit of an uphill battle ahead of
me. Brad is good, and he knew what I would be on, as he’s watched me play the deck before. In game 1, I was able to get an early Jeskai Ascendancy in play
and make a bunch of tokens, but could never really alpha because of his whipped back Hornet Queen. After looting about a billion times, I ended up losing
my team to the combo of Doomwake Giant and Pharika, God of Affliction and it was all over. In the second game, he played around the End Hostilities that I
didn’t have, but I still get beat down by a couple Courser of Kruphix and Satyr Wayfinder and ended the game with nine lands in play and three more in my
hand.
In the last round I was paired against Tom Ross. We were both 0-2, which meant that we were basically playing for the privilege of being on the play in our
single-elimination match. Knowing that I wasn’t actually out of the tournament if I lost this was a pretty decent weight off my shoulders, but I still felt
like there was a lot riding on the match. You can read the write-up about the match here.
In game 1, I felt like I played very well. I was dead in a couple turns since I had no way to interact with his Heliod’s Pilgrim suited up with the Stratus
Walk and Eidolon of Countless Battles, so I just had to put on as much pressure as possible to give myself a chance to draw burn, or to make him slow down.
I jammed my Goblin Rabblemaster, and the next turn I just turned everything sideways knowing that if he took it all he would go to two and be dead to every
burn spell in my deck. He ended up using a Feat of Resistance to knock the Eidolon of Countless Battles off his Heliod’s Pilgrim to trade with the Goblin
Rabblemaster, which made it so he would need to have multiple pump spells to kill me next turn, and it also allowed me to Treasure Cruise that turn.
The key point here came in that he also lost his Ordeal of Heliod that was on his Pilgrim. He used an Ordeal of Thassa on the next turn, but couldn’t find
another Defiant Strike to kill me. Had he cast the Ordeal of Thassa the previous turn and saved the Ordeal of Heliod, he could have gained ten life. He
talked about it afterwards with me and was visibly upset with his play, but he bounced back to make day two later. Tom Ross is a very powerful magician so
don’t ever count him out.
In game 2, I just had some good draws and he got choked on mana. The win allowed me to be on the play against Derrick Sheets, who also got quite
unfortunate against me and mulliganed both games and had his Satyr Wayfinder find everything but the right way, hitting multiple sideboard cards and not a
land.
Winning that elimination match and going onto the second portion of the day with Legacy had me feeling very good. I liked my Reanimator deck and was
looking forward to having an extra lease on my tournament life now that we were into double-elimination bracket play.
Did I mention just how sweet this tournament structure is?!
You can watch my Reanimator deck tech here.
My first round of Legacy was against Dylan Donegan with U/R Delver. I had hoped to hit this matchup multiple times throughout the event, since I feel like
the Reanimator player is favored. With Griselbrand and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite being very tough for them to beat, along with Sphinx of the Steel Wind in
the sideboard being neigh impossible for them to beat, I felt comfortable. Your soft permission plays well against theirs, and you’re so fast that they
have to keep in mind that we can get a giant monster into play at any point, and they probably won’t be able to deal with it.
Against Dylan, I was able to get a Tidespout Tyrant into play very early and keep him on zero permanents and zero land in play for a few turns while I
attacked. It did get a little dicey when he tried to Pyroblast the blue flyer, but a Force of Will saved it.
In the second game I was able to get a Sphinx of the Steel Wind into play, and after reading it a few times and playing a few turns he scooped it up.
My first day two “win and in” was against Tom Ross, which can be read about here.
Against Tom I had an amazing game 1, where I was able to get Elesh Norn into play on turn 2, and then put Iona, Shield of Emeria into play on turn 3 naming
green to save my Elesh Norn from any Berserk shenanigans.
The next two games didn’t go so well. I feel like I sideboarded incorrectly in both games, and got punished by it in conjunction with some very poor draws.
Game 3 in particular was frustrating, since we were both struggling, but I felt like I had the upper hand while he was struggling with no lands, but after
a series of poor draws he pulled it out.
My second “win and in” was against Joe Lossett on a unique build of Reanimator. I really liked his build and thought that it was pretty sweet. I once again
had a great draw in game 1 and won easily, but failed to get there in the next two. Joe was even able to get me with his Coffin Purge in game 2, a card
that I usually consider for Reanimator, but I honestly didn’t put anyone on a graveyard deck in the entire tournament.
That was it and I was out of the event.
I just sat in my car for a few moments before I headed home. Disappointment, anger, failure, sadness; these were all thoughts and emotions that I had, but
then I just kind of snapped myself out of it. I worked really hard to get there, and even though I feel like I let myself down the second half of the year,
that doesn’t mean that I have to continue on the path that I am currently on.
I’ll save the “New Years goals” for my post Xmas article, but as I head up north to Jersey to spend the holidays with a special someone, I just want
everyone to know that I appreciate them very much. Every vote of confidence. Every “good luck” or “good job” really helps get me through everything.
Have a very Happy Holidays everyone.