Last week, I shared my first day of play from Pro Tour: Kyoto. Today, I conclude my PT experience.
Saturday started with a draft, which I completely punted. I basically timed out trying to decide between Vithian Stinger and Tower Gargoyle. This pick is clearly Tower Gargoyle with Conflux in the format, but I think I hadn’t done enough drafts with Conflux, and under pressure wanted to revert to what I knew and take the Stinger. I’d like to think I knew I shouldn’t have, maybe, but anyway, I did. Early on I passed a few Obelisks and none of them came back, so it seemed like the table in general was taking mana fixing pretty high. This led to my decision to take Agony Warp over Sharuum the Hegemon when I opened pack two, as it was going to be hard for me to incorporate 4 colors. Now in fairness, I had seen very few Red cards in pack 1, a sign that I wasn’t going to be seeing many in pack 3, and even if I would probably get some Red cards in pack two, switching at this point was a very realistic possibility. On the other hand, I had passed Tower Gargoyle (with Sanctum Gargoyle in the pack) so I didn’t think this pack would be very good for me if I switched. Anyway, I probably should have taken Sharuum, but I don’t think this pick was as bad as taking the Vithian Stinger. In pack 3 I got passed Martial Coup, which I took because the best card in my colors was Wretched Banquet, but I didn’t end up playing it.
My Esper deck would have been very good. Instead, I played:
Dreadwing
Constricting Tendrils
Wretched Banquet
Blister Beetle
2 Puppet Conjurer
Call to Heel
Agony Warp
Grixis Battlemage
Shambling Remains
Vithian Stinger
2 Brackwater Elemental
2 Fleshbag Marauder
Kederekt Creeper
Cancel
Viscera Dragger
Skeletonize
Traumatic Visions
Undead Leotau
Absorb Vis
Kederekt Leviathan
Grixis Panorama
7 Swamp
6 Island
3 Mountain
I liked this deck more than my first deck, but I had to pass much better cards to get it, so I didn’t feel very good about this draft.
Round 8 I played against Nico Bohny’s aggressive Esper deck. Game 1 he had a great draw with Akrasan Squire followed by another creature, and then Kathari Screecher. He Unsummoned his Screecher in response to my Agony Warp and replayed it, then he played another creature or two and then killed me with Gleam of Resistance. I was slowly assembling mana and too far behind to take advantage of Fleshbag Marauder. In game 2 he never drew an Island, and the first and only spell he played was a turn 5 Court Homunculus. In game 3 he played a Tidehollow Sculler and took my Shambling Remains, seeing two Fleshbag Marauders. When I played a Marauder he Unsummoned it and played it again on my Shambling Remains, so I had to Fleshbag Marauder it again, and then play Shambling Remains. At this point the game looked pretty good for me, but on his 6th turn he drew and played the Sharuum that I had passed, getting back his Tidehollow Sculler, and then I couldn’t really do anything. I probably deserved that.
5-3
I was pretty frustrated about what had happened, so I sat at my table for a while before getting up and forgetting my life pad. I didn’t notice that I’d left my life pad until the next round started, and I was pretty disappointed about it because I’d been taking a lot of notes after every round, so I’d also lost all the notes I was planning to use for this article (which is why in the above match I don’t know exactly what creature he played on turn 2, for example). I asked a judge if there was a chance it would have been taken up to the front or anything, but they said at the very least the used pages would have just been thrown away.
In round 9 Niels Noorlander destroyed me in the first game with a Drumhunter for which I couldn’t find removal. Game 2 I got stuck on 3 lands with a Grixis Battlemage and had to use it on my turn to dig for more lands. Eventually I got to the point where I was able to Skeletonize his second to last creature, and it looked like I might have been about to recover, but he had a Bloodpyre Elemental to get through my skeleton for lethal.
5-4
I took some time after this round to relax, and find a new life pad and write down anything I could remember on the first page of that so I could stop worrying about my notes. I also realized that from now on, rather than keeping pages with notes on the pad, I should take them off and put them safely in my pocket.
The second draft ended with another Grixis mirror in round 10 against Lasse Norgaard. He seemed pretty unhappy with his deck. Our games were both uneven. In game 1 he managed to hold on at 1 life while I had a Kederekt Leviathan in my graveyard for a long time because he had Executioner’s Capsule in play, but that meant he couldn’t use his only Swamp to play spells. Eventually I found enough creatures to push through the last point. In game 2 he missed some land drops and I had a great aggressive draw with Shambling Remains.
6-4
So I heavily messed up a draft and finished 1-2, which seems about fair, and I knocked myself out of Top 8 contention in doing so. Still, I was really excited about playing more Standard, as I was loving my deck after the previous day’s performance.
Round 11 was against Alessio Angeli with R/W Boat. Game 1 I had Bitterblossom on turn 2, which, judging by the fact that that’s all my notes say about the game seems to have been plenty. In game 3 I got stuck on 3 lands for a few turns, but after dealing with the threats in his opening hand, he seemed to draw nothing but lands for almost the entire (very long) game. I’m pretty sure more happened in this match than that, but I don’t know what it was at this point.
7-4
Round 12: Andrew Vargas with Five-Color Control. In game 1 my Bitterblossom fought with a pair of Kitchen Finks and eventually came out ahead. I’m not exactly sure how I put this one away, but I know that was the early game. It’s funny how I remember less in the games where I do have my notes.
After sideboarding I had all my Infests, Sowers, Scions, Peppersmokes, and Agony Warps in my sideboard and everything else in my maindeck. This is one of the things I really like about my list. After board against Five-Color Control I have exactly enough cards that I want in my deck to not have to play any mediocre cards, which makes games 2 and 3 feel really good.
Game 2 was a very satisfying lopsided game. He led with a Vivid Creek and I Thoughtseized him seeing Flooded Grove, Twilight Mire, 2 Kitchen Finks, 2 Esper Charms, and a Volcanic Fallout. I had another Thoughtseize in hand, so I took both Kitchen Finks, leaving him unable to cast any spells. He quickly drew both of his remaining Esper Charms and lost. I say that this was satisfying because I felt like the response to my article on 3 color control was basically, “why cut two colors when the mana in 5 color is good enough?” I think that while the mana in 5 color is good enough for the deck to be functional, it’s bad enough that it leads to a noticeable number of game losses.
8-4
I played against Five-Color Control again in round 13, this time piloted by David Jensen. In game 1 he mulliganed and kept a slow anti-creature hand with 2 Wrath of Gods and an Ajani Vengeant. I played Vendilion Clique and protected it. I sided as above and in game 2 he played a main phase Esper Charm (I don’t remember for sure if it was killing a Bitterblossom or drawing cards) and I played Jace. I spent the next two turns making both of us draw, and he discarded on each of his turns. After that I ticked Jace down and the card advantage eventually overwhelmed him.
As I mentioned in the deck tech for Wizards, the reason Jace is so good hinges largely on the +2 ability. Faeries makes better use of a Howling Mine than almost every other deck in the format, and this doesn’t give them the card first, and after the first few turns it only hits you. Five-Color often relies on something like Volcanic Fallout to deal with Jace, and if you try to keep it at around 5 counters, it should almost always win the game if they don’t have something like Pithing Needle or their own Jace to stop it.
9-4
My last round was against Joffrey Patriarca, playing Kithkin with Red. In game 1 I started pretty far behind, but managed to take control eventually except that he had a Figure of Destiny that was threatening to go big. Eventually we hit a point where the figure was only a 2/2 but he had 6 lands in play, and I had something like a Spellstutter Sprite and Scion of Oona and a Mistbind Clique in my hand. I decided not to Clique him during his upkeep because I wanted him to attack, then I would play the Clique as a 5/5 and block his Figure which he could only make a 4/4. I was at 5. He played Banefire and killed him. The top card of my library was Vendilion Clique, so if I had played Mistbind Clique during his upkeep and Vendilion Clique during his next draw step to get rid of the Banefire, there’s a reasonable chance that I could have just chump blocked his Figure and raced him. On the other hand, he could sit back on it and hope to draw another Banefire as his worst alternative, so there’s a reasonable chance that this mistake didn’t cost me the game. Not sure.
I sided in 2 Sower of Temptation, 3 Infest, and cut 2 Thoughtseize and 3 Broken Ambitions. I left the last Peppersmoke out because almost all of his creatures had two toughness, and the next card I’d have to cut would probably be Jace, but I wanted it to support my role as a control deck. I was comfortable cutting the Broken Ambitions as the only card I feel like I really need to counter is Spectral Procession and I have Infest and Peppersmoke to deal with it.
I don’t remember a lot of details from games 2 and 3. I know that they were close and interesting and I had Bitterblossom both games. I also remember that in one game played turn 1 Goldmeadow Stalwart and turn 2 Wizened Cenn, and that on turn 3 I Agony Warped to kill the Cenn and Fog the Stalwart, blocked it with my token, and Peppersmoked it at the end of his turn.
10-4
Going into the last round I hoped that if I won I could top 24, but I knew it wasn’t likely, since my tiebreakers were pretty bad. I finished 27th, which was my first money finish at a Pro Tour (excluding Worlds of course, but I only made money for the team portion so it doesn’t count). I decided that I’m basically happy with any finish that I can be proud of when I tell people about it, and 27th qualifies.
Saturday evening I went out to dinner and then karaoke with a group of Japanese and American players and coverage members. Highlights included Kenji and Shuhei singing “I want it that way,” Jake Van Lunen and Nate Price singing “Beat It” complete with fabulous Michael Jackson style dance moves from Jake, and the sickest Japanese death metal voice ever, which came as a complete surprise, from coverage writer Daisuke Kawasaki.
My final impression of my deck was clearly very positive, although I recognize that I was running very well. I mulliganed only a few times in the event, and I had Bitterblossom pretty often. Still, I felt like it was a very good choice for the event, and I’m very surprised that Faeries in general did so poorly. I wish I had more information to know if the problem was a matter of people not building Faeries properly. I feel like Jace is necessary at this point, and Scion of Oona, which I understand a lot of people have cut, is still very good. I would assume that at this point most people know how to play Faeries, but people might not play or sideboard around Volcanic Fallout properly. I don’t know what the cause was in this event, but I do know that I would certainly play the deck over again, and if there was a Standard GP in the coming weeks I wouldn’t change anything.
Until next week…
Sam