Always Order Your Ticket In Advance – Pro Tour Amsterdam Report *3rd*

Hello, fellow Magic: the Gathering grinders — this is Michael Jacob. You may have seen my name in a few Grand Prix top 8s, perhaps even US Nationals in 2007-2008, Even more of you may have seen me on Magic Online with the screen name DarkestMage…

But most likely, you saw me in the top 8 of Pro Tour Amsterdam, where I top 8’d with Cruel Control. The guy with a green(ish) hat and a distinctly unshaven and grizzled look? That’s me!

My goal in writing this tournament report is to show the process that was used to arrive at my decklist, and what can be gleaned from this process to further your own decks and ideas.

We begin two weeks before the event, where the only Extended testing I had done was some Magic Online with Brad Nelson; I piloted both Living End and stock Magic-League Scapeshift against whatever he was brewing up. I was somewhat impressed at how they were performing, but I tried Living End at Grand Prix Oakland (you know, the one where Travis Woo top 8ed with Living End) — and after I 0-3 dropped, I swore to never do it again.

This left me with Scapeshift as a possible deck choice. It had Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire, a combo we all know and love, and it also combos well with a ton of mana ramping. In the worst-case scenario, you just have a lot of three-mana Shocks if you don’t have a Scapeshift — which is good enough much of the time. Plus, it runs a lot of good cards, and good decks generally are made of good cards. Tarmogoyf, Bloodbraid Elf, Kitchen Finks? These are certainly powerful creatures! But it concerned me that they had very little to do with the deck’s game plan.

After playing some more with the deck, I figured some things out: no one was going to actually lose to random 2/3 ‘Goyfs or a 3/2 for three. There was also a huge problem with mulligans, as the deck was literally an eight-card combo (at least seven lands and a Scapeshift) — but with a lot of cards that were
not
part of this combo (Kitchen Finks, Lightning Bolts, Punishing Fires, ‘Goyfs), it could very easily draw the wrong spell/land ratio and not be able to combo off in time. This meant if I wanted to play this deck, I’d need to add a better Plan B and perhaps even a Plan C.

(aside)

Let me explain what I mean by Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. Plan A is what your goal is: the method that your deck has been designed around to try to win the game. Now, every deck is trying to win, of course, but there are multiple ways to go about doing this. For instance, a Living End deck has two plans:

Plan A: Resolve a Living End with multiple creatures in the graveyard
Plan B: Hard-cast Deadshot Minotaur and company and bring the beats

These are the only ways the deck can win… And it’s why an experienced player will generally not play a deck like that. Why?

Because Plan A is extremely powerful, but Plan B is not — and this deck doesn’t even have a Plan C. Magic is a two-player game, and a lot of decks have interactive cards. Playing decks with so few avenues of victory (and little disruption to clear the way for those avenues) is just asking for variance to clobber you out of a tournament.

(end aside)

The days ticked down to when I would need to get some cards from the store I work and play at, RIW Hobbies. Before I left, I had to decide on what cards to bring. I knew I was not going to play some non-interactive combo deck (Ad Nauseam, Living End, Hive Mind) and I wasn’t going to play Faeries (because it was weak to Punishing Fire). This left me with Patrick Chapin Grixis deck in my inbox, and some ideas I had for Scapeshift that involved Prismatic Omen and Primeval Titan. I gathered up the cards, and away I went.

As I waited until the last second (just two weeks before the event) to purchase my tickets, I was incredibly disheartened at the prospect of spending $1200 to get there. I let my concerns be known to Chapin, and he conjured some sort of deal involving me going from Chicago to Amsterdam (with a two-hour layover in Detroit) for $875. On the way back, I will just conveniently miss my flight to Chicago — but fortunately, I live in Detroit!

To get to Chicago, I’d have to give public transit a try. Now I have never, in my twenty-six years, relied on public transport to get me anywhere in the US (other than, perhaps, hotel airport shuttles). I was mortified at the prospect of going into undiscovered territory without weeks of testing under my belt, if you know what I mean. I was directed to a poorly constructed MegaBus site that said the 6:30 a.m. bus to Chicago is the one I was looking for. I went to buy a ticket online — but at check out, it had a fifty-cent convenience fee!

I was annoyed at being
forced
to pay so much for using the internet! The ticket was already $33 already, so I thought that I’d just beat the system by buying the ticket on site. I’d show them!

So with Google maps as my guide, telling me to take the 4AM bus to downtown Detroit. $1.50 later, I arrive without event at Rosa Parks station. No one working there at the computers can help tell me where I could buy a ticket — or even if I
could
buy a ticket. As I wander around, I look in at their computer monitors from the glass outside, and see them all playing Solitaire. Le sigh.

I eventually find a helpful security guard. He informs me that buying tickets online is the only way you can do it, and that I was screwed.

I didn’t panic. Instead, I tried to imagine a world where that was true. There is just no way a bus could only take money from people who had Internet access and could navigate their horrible site, which had no warnings that you
had
to purchase the ticket online anywhere, and even charged an outrageous half-a-buck convenience fee. I thank the security guard and go back to my DS, playing Dragon Quest IX until the bus arrived.

The bus arrives, and it becomes clear to me that the world I imagined was, in fact, reality. Everyone I talked to said they got their tickets online, and the two other travelers in my situation were similarly stricken with disbelief that they couldn’t just get the tickets there. Dejected, the two travelers hunched over in defeat, shambled away with tears in their eyes.

It was now my turn, and I go up to the bus driver. I explain my situation, that I had a flight to catch in Chicago, and this was my only way to get there in time.

The driver thinks for a bit, and replies “Well, this is
highly
unusual… However, if you
discreetly
get me $30…” Being a n00b in this area, I do the stereotypical look left, look right, reach into my pocket, and give him the $30 requested — and I was off.

Despite a $3.50 discount, I learned my lesson: always get the ticket in advance.

I arrive in Chicago five hours later, and hitch a ride on Amtrak to Milwaukee to spend a day testing with Chapin before we leave for Amsterdam. Overall, my experience with public transit was a positive one, and I will definitely be doing more of it in the future.

Patrick and I arrive in Amsterdam in the very early morning on Monday. We are both very sleep-deprived from our long journey, but we soon realize our hotel reservation is for Tuesday. Too addled to think of a plan, we decide to find a place to sleep and go from there. We ask around, and some kind workers suggested a place near the meditation chamber in a secluded place in the back of the airport.

To our great surprise, there was a huge room with reclined chairs, perfect for snoozing, with no bright lights, and far away from the hustle and bustle of the main hallway — which meant there was no background noise. Even more impressive, people spoke in whispers and hushed tones to avoid waking others up,
without
there being any signs or security guards,. It was just so awesome to see people just being considerate without being told or forced to; I was touched.

We napped here for many hours before going to the McDonalds and grabbing a table for some Extended testing. Sadly, as it is Europe, there are no free refills, and without a dollar menu, I was forced to wait for a better deal to sate my hunger.

Patrick already had a bunch of decks proxied up, so he gave me his Grixis deck to try out against the field. After four or five games in a row where I mulliganed to five, he asks me what hands I was mulliganing, and I showed him this seven-carder:

Cascade Bluffs, Scalding Tarn, Sunken Ruins, Grove of the Burnwillows, Mulldrifter, Cryptic Command, Mystical Teachings.

I explained that this was an easy mull, since the hand does literally nothing before turn 4. How could I possibly justify letting my opponent do whatever he wants uncontested? Pat said that that was just how five-color decks worked. A control deck’s hand also involved the top three cards of your library, and you can’t mulligan most hands with lands and spells.

While he was very likely correct in this regard, I just couldn’t play a deck that relied on drawing into what it needs to compete — there’s just too much variance there. I very nearly gave up on the deck, but then we discussed what it would take to get me to play it. I thought, and Gerard’s deck from US Nationals sprung to mind. There had to be a reason why it was the only U/W deck that did well — and the major difference it had with all the U/W builds I had tried were the four Preordains. I also considered Think Twice instead of Gerard’s Spreading Seas for the two-mana cantrip slot.

I then went even further back, and pondered the reasons why Nassif did so well in Pro Tour Kyoto with 5-Color. Broodmate Dragon was an effect that Nassif had that this build of Grixis did not — a powerful kill condition that could bail you out if things didn’t go according to plan. The Grixis deck I had in front of me had no Broodmate Dragon-like effect; just a Teferi and some Cruel Ultimatums. A quick listing of the creatures available brought me to Grave Titan, which provided exactly the type of effect I was looking for.

I also noticed that Nassif had eleven taplands for early drops, while our current Grixis deck had a mere seven. This led me to believe that we needed some more early drops to maximize our mana efficiency (tapping out every turn) in the early game.

Drawing on the success of similar decks in other formats is a great way to incorporate new ideas into decks you are currently unhappy with. It only took a few games to realize the addition of Preordain and Grave Titan were terrific. The deck felt far less clunky, and I was consistently executing my game plan of casting a devastating Cruel Ultimatum that left the opponent’s board empty. I even had the Hee Haw draw of “turn 3 Coalition Relic, turn 4 Grave Titan” a few times, and it felt awesome. I was sold.

(aside)

There are three things I value when choosing a deck to play in a Constructed tournament:

1) Hee-Haw Draws (Nut draws)

Every deck has a nut draw — one where if all goes according to plan, you win. No deck is too good to not have a hee haw draw, as they are just free wins… And in huge tournaments, two or three game wins makes the difference between a top 64 and a top 8 performance.

Example A: Jund in Standard. Putrid Leech into Sprouting Thrinax into Bloodbraid Elf (Blightning you, btw) into Bituminous Blast shouting HEEEEEEE HAWWWWWWW in your worst cowboy voice.

Example B: Mythic in Standard. Noble Hierarch into Lotus Cobra into Sovereigns attack you for fifteen HEEE HAWWWW

2) The ability to mulligan well.



You have to mulligan sometimes, but mulliganing shouldn’t be a death knell. Cards like Mulldrifter and Preordain help you do this by quantity and quality, respectively — as opposed to decks like Scapeshift and Mono-Red Burn, which mulligan very poorly.

3) Winning through resistance, having multiple plans.

This is a pitfall a lot of deck builders fall into when trying to make homebrews. They make a deck with an idea in mind, and it functions great when all those pieces are put together. But things don’t always go according to plan: Fauna Shaman dies, you don’t draw your Scapeshift, someone Tectonic Edges your Eye of Ugin. You need to be able to win despite this.

(end aside)

There were still some open slots left in the deck. We tried a lot of one-ofs — Vendilion Clique, Mulldrifter, even a Plumeveil — but they were all nixed for not being what we wanted. We decided that some more testing with the rest of the group would solidify these last open slots, so we left the airport on a train to where our lodging would hopefully be..

We end up arriving at the MoveNPick hotel, and were surprised again with computers providing free internet and a rather comfortable lobby area to game in. Some inquires were made online, and Luis Scott-Vargas said that we could crash with him for the night in an apartment they had rented.

The apartment held a veritable Who’s Who of Magic pros, Luis-Scott Vargas, Paulo, Brad Nelson, and Brian Kibler in attendance, as well as many others. Few wanted to play the Grixis deck; mostly, everyone wanted to create a good aggro deck.

The next several days were spent brewing up a deck that could beat Punishing Fire and all the combo decks — which wasn’t actually that hard to do. The only early creatures that could survive Punishing Fire were Treefolk Harbinger, Sygg, River Cutthroat, Loam Lion, Putrid Leech, and Tarmogoyf, so it was easy to put together a deck that was resilient to it. The Sygg didn’t end up making the cut (despite its obvious interaction with Doran and Murmuring Bosk) because it didn’t do much without Doran, while the other creatures were just fine working solo.

I spent most of the time working on decks that were not Doran or Grixis. I felt we already had enough people working on those decks, and we needed better gauntlet decks than ones copied from Magic League and Magic Online Dailies. It also allowed me to figure out which sideboard cards were most effective against each deck.

Some tidbits of tech that came from that work:

Faeries

Sideboarding Tectonic Edge seemed to be what people were doing. I hated getting mana-flooded when I went up to twenty-eight lands, and Spreading Seas seemed like a better answer to Grove. I also found the best way to beat Faeries was still Volcanic Fallout, and we needed at least two in our Grixis sideboard.

Scapeshift

Cultivate seemed terrific, as they helped the deck mulligan far better. Four Explores was definitely too many, but one or two seemed plausible. A single Primeval Titan provided an extra angle of attack, and two Prismatic Omens and three to four Harmonizes seemed like the right number.

The best way to fight Scapeshift was to counter either their Harmonize or their Scapeshift — although Thought Hemorrhage, Extirpate, or Thoughtseize worked as well.

Pyromancer Ascension

I learned the best way to neutralize them was Relic of Progenitus, since it stopped Punishing Fire, Tarmogoyf, and Pyromancer Ascension. The fact that Relic was so commonly played thanks to Living End was a big reason why the Japanese Ascension deck did so poorly.

Mono-Red Aggro

This was a fine deck, and Hell’s Thunder was very likely the three-drop of choice over Boggart Ram Gang and Flame Javelin. The deck was very weak to its initial creatures getting killed or countered, and a Jace ticking up from five loyalty was nearly impossible to overcome.

Ad Nauseam

It existed, it was a real deck, and it was easily destroyed by any amount of sideboard hate, followed by either some sort of clock or Extirpate. Cards like Rule of Law, Leyline of Sanctity, and Leyline of the Void — normally used to hose other decks — also hosed this one, and Ad Nauseam didn’t have good answers.

Mono Green Elves

Also a real deck. But while powerful, it lacked good sideboard options for all the Ethersworn Canonist, Rule of Laws, and Punishing Fires people were playing.

Testing all these decks allowed us to construct a sideboard that would be effective against what we thought were the major decks in the format. I started the tournament in good spirits and confident in my deck choice. The list, for reference:

Actual Tournament Report:

Round 1: Christopher Mascioli, playing B/W Disruption



Plan A: Resolve Cruel Ultimatum or Grave Titan

Plan B: Clear his board, play a Jace, the Mind Sculptor and protect it.

My opponent has a pretty good draw against me on the play, with

Thoughtseize, Ethersworn Canonist (which I Punishing Fired), Fulminator Mage (which killed my Grove immediately), Lodestone Golem (which got Bolted), Fulminator Mage, and then Fulminator Mage.

Luckily for me, I was pretty mana-flooded, and after my Tar Pits blocked his 2/2s, he casts Baneslayer Angel. A Teachings for Terminate and a Grave Titan later, and we were off to game 2.

I boarded out the Extirpate for a Damnation.

This game my opponent opened with Thoughtseize, Bitterblossom (!), Rain of Tears (which got Mana Leaked), Fulminator Mage (which also got Mana Leaked), Lodestone Golem (which got Bolted), Elspeth (which got Cryptic Commanded), Elspeth (also Cryptic Commanded). A Mystical Teachings for Consume the Meek to clear the tokens and a Cruel Ultimatum later, and that was match.

1-0

Round 2

:

Fergus Looney, playing Restore Balance



Plan A: Resolve Teferi
Plan B: Extirpate Restore Balance
Plan C: Resolve Coalition Relic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor

My opener was Island, Sunken Ruins, River of Tears, Grove, Cryptic Command, Punishing Fire, Lightning Bolt… And my opponent led with a Mountain and a Wildfire Borderpost.

I’m screwed.

My matchup is horrible against this deck in game 1, and I don’t even have a Mana Leak for a turn 3 Balance. I quickly decide my only out is for him to think I am Faeries, so I leave up mana to fake Spellstutter Sprite. Predictably, he just plays more Borderposts and a Coalition Relic.

I knew the jig was up when I played a turn 4 Grove. He had two cards in hand and two untapped mana at the end of his turn 5. It was very, very suspicious, as he cast a Borderpost for three mana instead of just paying one and returning a land, and then suspended a Greater Gargadon.

My hand had not improved at all. I had neither Teferi, Mystical Teachings, nor Extirpate — and even worse, I’d run out of lands. I decided I was going to lose if he had it when I end of turn bounced his Coalition Relic and drew a card with Cryptic Command. He responded by removing Spirit Guide and casting Violent Outburst.

With no cards and no land, facing down a 9/7, I conceded after looking at his cascade pile — which revealed Ajani Vengeant and Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

I boarded in the anti-combo sideboard of three Negates, two Thoughtseizes, a Duress, and a Thought Hemorrhage.

In game 2, I had a turn 1 Thoughtseize — but I decided that since he didn’t have one- or two-drops, it was better to wait a turn and get a better picture.

After his turn 1 Post, I Thoughtseize him and reveal Violent Outburst, Violent Outburst, Violent Outburst, Ardent Plea, Ajani Vengeant, Plains, Wildfire Borderpost.

I’m pretty dead, but I give myself the out of Extirpate and take an Outburst. My opponent makes a questionable play and decides to Outburst at the end of turn 4 — which I Cryptic Command and bounce a Borderpost, leaving him with just two mana. He would have to draw a land to be able to cast another on his turn. This would also allow me to keep two lands; since I had another land and Relic in hand, along with a Jace, I thought the game was mine.

He very visibly draws a card for the turn, puts the land directly into play, and casts Ardent Plea, revealing…. Boom/Bust.

Oh, the carefully laid plans….

The game lasted another ten turns, and he ended up having to cast three Restore Balances, but I was never in it. Apparently, he had just one Boom / Bust and three Restore Balances. Sigh…

1-1

Round 3: Donnie Peck, playing U/W Merfolk



Plan A: Punishing Fire out all his threats
Plan B: Resolve Cruel Ultimatum or Grave Titan
Plan C: Clear his board and play a Jace, and protect it the rest of the game.

My opponent rolled out of the gate with Cursecatcher, Silvergill Adept, Lord of Atlantis (which got Bolted), Meddling Mage (naming Volcanic Fallout), Cursecatcher, Cursecatcher.

I tried to bait a counter with a Jace and burn down some other guys, but he had a Mana Leak for the Consume the Meek that would have won it for me.

I boarded in the two Volcanic Fallouts, a Damnation, and a Consume the Meek.

Games 2 and 3 were fairly simple affairs of Wrath of God effects and counters, and ended with him being tapped out when I Cruel Ultimatumed.

2-1

Round 4: Petr Nahodil playing Ad Nauseam



Plan A: Hope he gets mana screwed
Plan B: Opponent mulligans to oblivion
Plan C: Two Mana Leaks and an Extirpate and five mana. Hopefully, he will Ad Nauseam, I will Mana Leak, he will Pact of Negation, I will then Extirpate the Pact of Negation and Mana Leak again, and he will be speechless at my awesome play.

My opponent led off with some vivid lands, a Coalition Relic, and some Ponders. I know my chances of winning are slim, as Plan A and Plan B didn’t pan out.

I Cryptic Command a turn 4 Teachings, bouncing his Relic, which he responds to with Pact of Negation and kills me… But not before I see the interesting tidbit of Grove of the Burnwillows and a single Punishing Fire in his deck.

I boarded in two Thoughtseizes, one Duress, a Thought Hemorrhage, and the three Negates, along with Relic of Progenitus to hopefully nab some Teachings.

Post-board:

Plan A: Extirpate or Thought Hemorrhage either Ad Nauseam or Angel’s Grace.
Plan B: Resolve Teferi and untap with a counterspell in hand.
Plan C: Throw as many counters on draw spells as you can and play a Jace, and hope that the cards you draw off him will allow you to execute Plan A.

Game 2, I turn 1 Thoughtseized Ad Nauseam, turn 2 Extirpated it. I was so excited that I neglected to wait until his draw step to cast it, and was punished when I saw he Pondered one to the top of his deck.

It took a very long time, but he eventually conceded when I Thought Hemorrhaged his Punishing Fire and killed his Simian Spirit Guides and Teferi.

Game 3, I kept a hand of Preordain, Island, Cascade Bluffs, Grove of the Burnwillows, Mystical Teachings, Thoughtseize, Extirpate.

Turn 1, Opponent: Underground River.

Turn 1: I played my Preordain, and missing on black mana, but drew Mana Leak.

Turn 2, Opponent: Reflecting Pool, remove Simian Spirit Guide, Coalition Relic, then Thoughtseizes the Mana Leak.

Turn 2: I whiff again on my turn after playing a land.

Turn 3, Opponent: Plays another Coalition Relic

Turn 3: I drew a blank and passed (again) after playing a land.

Turn 4, Opponent: After charging his Relic, he went to his turn, counted his mana, realizes he has just 5, and passes.

Turn 4: I again draw a blank, play my fourth land, and pass.

Turn 5: My opponent counted out six mana, then decided to Angel’s Grace into Ad Nauseam. I am saddened. My opponent started revealing his deck, and gets his Conflagrate with four cards left in his library. I had noticed that he had revealed only two Spirit Guides so far, and asked him if he was done. He too saw he only had two mana, and kept going.

After revealing the last four cards in his library to
not
be the Pyretic Ritual or Simian Spirit Guide that he boarded out, he concedes. This is why you run a Gemstone Mine in your decks, folks!

3-1

Round 5: Yuuta Sasaki, playing 5-Color Control



Plan A: Resolve Cruel Ultimatum
Plan B: Resolve Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Plan C: Fight a counter war over a Teferi end of turn, to do Plan A or B on yours.

Game 1: He played a few Vivid lands and a Wall of Omens, but stalled on four lands. He tried to Path to Exile his Wall, but a Mana Leak and a Terminate for his second Path left him stuck on four lands. He Runed Haloed Cruel Ultimatum, but he eventually tapped out to draw cards and hit his land drops; I bounced the Runed Halo and Crueled him for the win.

Game 2: We both started out with four lands. I end of turned Mystical Teachings, which he responded to with a Mystical Teachings of his own (which I found questionable). He found an Extirpate, as did I.

I untapped and played Jace, then Thoughtseized him to reveal Extirpate, Runed Halo, Teachings, Ajani Vengeant (which I take) and two Gaea’s Revenges. I see my opponent’s plan: Runed Halo on Cruel Ultimatum, then Gaea’s Revenges for the beatdown.

I beat his with a Cryptic Command that tapped his creatures and bounced Runed Halo, leaving him with three cards in hand and a single creature. A Cruel led to a concession.

4-1

The Draft portion was a little awkward, as at the 4-1 table we ended up having a no-show (Mat Marr).

I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say that I ended up with a train wreck of a deck after I first- and second-pick Wild Griffin over much better cards (Cloud Elemental and Lightning Bolt), and I was properly punished by not seeing another white card.

I ended up nearly Mono-Black with two Corrupts, splashing green for Runeclaw Bear, Sacred Wolf, Giant Spider, Cultivate, and an Acidic Slime. It was 100% a 1-2 or 0-3 deck, and was fairly depressed.

Round 6, I go up to the pairings board and see… that I have a bye. Thank you, Mat Marr!

I spent the hour of free time wandering around the convention area, and found a supermarket where I purchased animal crackers and peach tea. I directed every Magic player for the rest of the weekend to it when they asked me where I got the treats from.

5-1

Round 7: Jan Van Nieuwenhove (U/B control)



Plan A: With Elixir of Immortality and two Corrupts, attempt to deal twenty to the dome.
Plan B: Kill Royal Assassin and hope he doesn’t have one of his three Gravedigger effects.

Rather uninteresting games; he played Royal Assassin that I couldn’t kill outside of Corrupt, and then used Sleep to KO my whole team. My Corrupt plan almost worked in game 1, but he had a Corrupt of his own to finish me off the turn before I would have gotten to ten Swamps.

5-2

Round 8: Clement Lesaege (U/W control)



Plan A: Don’t play islands so he couldn’t attack me with Harbor Serpent, which appeared to be his only win condition.

He played a bunch of Siege Mastodons and Harbor Serpents, which did not deal well with my Liliana’s Specter.

6-2

I was feeling very good at the end of day one. I felt that my Constructed deck was awesome, and if I just was able to 3-0 the Draft then I would easily make the top 8. The night ended with some more Dragon Quest IX and sleep.

The next morning’s Draft went far better than I expected. I had learned my lesson and decided to not force in this draft; instead, I went with the flow. The result was a R/B deck with four Lightning Bolts, four Fiery Hellhounds, and a lot of mediocre creatures.

Round 9 Tzu Ching Kuo (R/W Aggro)



Plan A: Lightning Bolt every creature Fiery Hellhound wouldn’t trade with
Plan B: Set him up for the blowout with a Bolt in response to a Shiv’s Embrace or Volcanic Strength
Plan C: Ask the Magic gods to be kind and not let my opponent draw his Chandra Nalaar

I won the die roll and chose to draw. With four Lightning Bolt I felt like I could easily make up for the tempo of going second.

He curved out on turns 2-6 and finished me with a Fireball for exact damage on game 1…. But in games 2 and 3, I Bolted his first three creatures and he got charred by some angry Hellhounds.

I was fortunate the one time he drew Chandra; I topdecked Arc Runner to finish her off, then beat him to death with a pair of Bloodthrone Vampires.

7-2

Round 10: Yuutarou Hirashima (R/G Aggro)



Pretty much the exact same game and plan as the previous round; I lost game 1 to an exact Fireball to my dome. Game 2 and 3, he tried to play creatures and Volcanic Strength, and got blown out by multiple Bolts.

8-2

Round 11: Shaheen Soorani (u/w Rares)

I defeated Shaheen and his U/W control deck in
a Feature Match covered here

.

9-2

Round 12: Thomas Ma (Jund)



Plan A: Resolve Cruel Ultimatum
Plan B: Punishing Fire him and everything he owns.

Game 1: I mulliganed into five lands and Teferi, keep, and lost without casting a single spell when he Tarmogoyfed and Blightninged me to death.

Games 2 and 3 involved me Punishing Firing every creature he played, using Cryptic Command to bounce his Grove the Burnwillows, and then ended the Punishing Fire threat with a Cruel Ultimatum (forcing him to discard Grove of the Burnwillows) to finish him off.

10-2

Round 13: Brad Nelson (Doran)



Not much to say here. Both games he played disruption into big creatures; both times, I played Wrath of God effects and Cruel Ultimatum.

11-2

Round 14: Brian Kibler (Doran)



Same as round 13, except he mulliganed himself into oblivion in game 3 for a very anticlimactic finish.

12-2

All that’s left now is to double intentional draw into the top 8!

Round 15: Paul Rietzl (White Weenie)



Intentional draw.

12-2-1

Round 16: Guillaume Wafo-Tapa (50Color control)



Intentional draw.

12-2-2

I was a bit hungry after spending the last several days eating animal crackers and tea, so I decided to stay another three hours after for the Mirrodin Dance Party or whatever it was called. I just birded a few drafts until the time came, got some free fruit and pizza, and I was off to bed.

I didn’t test my top 8 match up, since I was certain my plan was correct and I had already tried it twice in the rounds. I played Dragon Quest IX a bit more and went to sleep.

Round 17: Brian Kibler (Doran)



Plan A: Cast Cruel Ultimatum or Grave Titan
Plan B: Clear the board and play Jace, the Mind Sculptor with a counter for Maelstrom Pulse.

Match coverage
did an apt job on this one. Game 1 was a disaster, as I had a two-turn window to cast Jace on an open board and my four Preordains all missed on lands. Game 2, it was Kibler’s turn to get mana screwed. Game 3, Kibler mulliganed again and an early Jace was too much. Game 4, Kibler’s draw was very aggressive and with the help of Thoughtseize, I fall to Harbinger into Harbinger into Doran. I won game 5 with a good mix of defensive spells, followed by Jace and Cruel Ultimatum.

Round 18: Paul Rietzl (White Weenie)



Plan A: Punishing Fire all his threats away
Plan B: Resolve Cruel Ultimatum or Grave Titan
Plan C: Clear the board and play Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Our semi-final match is covered
here.
I felt the matchup was actually quite a bit in my favor going into the match, but I was swept.

Game 1, I had a decision to make: my hand was land number 8, Jace, and Cruel Ultimatum. I was at nine, and his board was a nearly fully-leveled Student of Warfare and a Knight of the White Orchid. He had one mana, and one card in hand.

I have two plays here: I can play Jace, bounce the Student of Warfare. Knight kills Jace, he replays Student, and levels, and also plays whatever he draws. I can then play my eighth land and play Cruel Ultimatum, and win from there.

This play plays around Mana Tithe (a two-of) as his last card — but if he has Brave the Elements, then I lose on the spot. I decided to play around the four Brave the Elements rather than the two Mana Tithe, and of course he had the Mana Tithe for the win.

A Look to the Future of the Format…



There are lots of things that can be learned from the Pro Tour format to apply to the new one everyone else will be playing in.

Doran is the premier aggro deck, mostly because of Zendikar fetchlands and Murmuring Bosk that allow you perfect mana. With Grove rotated, you could very easily run some Noble Hierarchs over Loam Lion for even more explosive draws, and maybe some Tidehollow Scullers instead of Duress.

Jund is the real deal. Thomas Ma’s list lacked Sygg, River Cutthroat, and should have probably played Boggart Ram-Gang over Great Sable Stag and company. It also lacked a finisher like Sarkhan the Mad or Cryptic Command. I think merging his list and my list from Grand Prix Seattle ’09 would be in order. Replacing Anathemancer with Blightning, and incorporating fetch lands with Bosk would go a long way, as well as Sowers to help the Doran matchup.

Any deck with at least 3 Islands should be running four Preordains. They are as big a reason to be playing blue as Brainstorm is in other formats, and it shouldn’t take long for people to figure this out.

White Weenie is a contender
until
people play more removal. With Doran and Jund as premier decks, the sideboarded Deathmarks for them could prove fatal to this deck.

Scapeshift will likely be the premier combo deck. I lean more towards Kyle Boggemes build, but I still believe there is innovation to be had with Prismatic Omen and Primeval Titan.

Faeries just isn’t good. Perhaps if it could somehow include Preordain it might be more competitive, but I think a control deck less reliant on a two-mana enchantment would be more viable. As it is, I think of it as a bad Jund deck.

For Grixis, the loss of Damnation, Mystical Teachings, and Punishing Fire/Grove are huge blows. To proceed, it might be better to begin with something similar to Wafo-Tapa’s list with four Preordains.

Signing off,
Michael Jacob
DarkestMage on MODO