I’m going to start this article the only way I can to keep it interesting – most of you have probably heard of me, not for what I’ve accomplished, but rather for what I’ve disrupted. At PTNO of 2003, team Your Move Games had an awesome Goblins deck that comboed off with a little-known enchantment from Mercadian Masques called Food Chain. It could kill on turn 2 and absolutely blindside whoever was expecting a more normal Goblins deck… if it wasn’t for the fact that everyone at the tournament already knew about it. That was because of me.
Hi, I’m Ben. Nice to meet you.
I scrubbed out of that tournament playing Scepter Oath, and in reality I shouldn’t have even been there. I won a PTQ in Mass that didn’t have the fiercest of competition – people were playing Zombie Bidding and expecting to beat a Red/White deck and that just didn’t happen. Regardless, I found myself with a spot on the Pro Tour with a deck that I’d audibled into at the last minute because everyone else on the team thought it was the answer. After finding myself in the 1-4 bracket facing some hard truths and a dissatisfied team, things changed a bit for me. Let me give you the quick rundown.
1) I went to college and mellowed out a ton.
2) I got a MODO account and became thoroughly addicted.
Both are of equal importance, and I’d say that chilling out and getting a better mental game was just as much of an improvement as actually being able to play with decent people every day. This isn’t to slight my current clanmates in Cymbrogi, who are all absolutely insane at this game, but rather to emphasize the necessity of relaxing and being self-assured in your play. There’s a lot to be said for proper tournament logistics as well, such as a good night’s sleep and energy bars to keep you awake and focused throughout the day. Oh, and playtesting. That helps too.
Anyway, actual Magic discussion probably belongs somewhere in this article. For reference, here’s the original decklist.
4 Werebear
4 Meddling Mage
2 Mystic Enforcer
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
4 Predict
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Counterspell
2 Stifle
2 Disenchant
3 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
3 Island
1 Forest
Sideboard
2 Tivadar’s Crusade
2 Honorable Passage
3 Nimble Mongoose
3 Armageddon
3 Pithing Needle
2 Phyrexian Furnace
I picked this up off the forums at the source after a gentleman named CavernNinja won a 70-person tournament with the deck. A friend of mine proxied it up and kept trashing me with it, so I played it for a few games. It turned out to be the most fun deck to play in the history of Magic and I couldn’t see myself playing with anything else for the GP. I sold my Mirrodin Type Two cards, bought the deck, and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked for two months. The AKs turned out to be garbage and I wasn’t really that happy with the Stifles or Disenchants – they just weren’t enough when I needed them to be. Eventually I ended up adding in Sleight of Hands and Pithing Needles and the deck became so much better. I didn’t have to worry as much about Wasteland or Vial and it became much better against the expected field. After fixing up the sideboard, the deck looked like this:
Creatures (11)
Lands (17)
Spells (32)
- 4 Brainstorm
- 1 Disrupting Shoal
- 2 Counterspell
- 4 Force of Will
- 4 Swords to Plowshares
- 3 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Serum Visions
- 3 Daze
- 4 Predict
- 3 Pithing Needle
Sideboard
The Disrupting Shoal always gets questioned, but it’s pretty important game 1 against a lot of decks – everything in the format costs one or two and having a fifth free counter against Lackey or Vial on the draw is fairly important. It gets boarded out in most matchups, but I wouldn’t cut it. Test it and I’m pretty sure you’ll agree.
The most important thing to be aware of is that the deck is not a long game control deck. You just want to protect your face and then protect your guys while they ride to victory. You do not have the counters to keep everything off the table nor the tools to fight an attrition war in the late game. You need to finish your opponent off after you’ve dealt with the initial onslaught, as all of your remaining guys should be bigger than all of his. If you try to hold back threats and keep counter mana open, generally you will lose. It really helps out a lot to know your plan and it won me a lot of games where otherwise I would’ve been holding onto threats with untapped lands. This is why Stifle is bad in the deck where Pithing Needle is good – you want to be tapped out from card drawing and proactive answers. There are only two counterspells in the deck because you only want to have lands untapped when you’re beating down mid to late game. If you’re keeping mana open for Stifle, you’re not being as proactive as you want to be.
Predict is also a really dangerous card when you first play with it. The initial impulse is to never play it unless you can set it up, and this is only partially true. When you don’t have threshold, it’s not uncommon to cast it blind. Sure, you would rather brainstorm or serum visions and then untap and predict yourself, but you don’t always have that option. When you need to get two cards in your graveyard quickly there is nothing wrong with predicting blind and naming a 4-of you haven’t seen yet. Don’t make the mistake of waiting for a cool play when a simple one will do.
I don’t really wish to include an even more lengthy and boring tournament intro about the night or week before etc, but I will mention that I took down a Friday night Two-Headed Giant tournament the night before. A small child cast Char on my Coalhauler Swine in the final round and ended up taking 10. Whoops.
I actually had zero byes coming into the event thanks to some unfortunate mishaps at recent PTQs involving misregistered decks, so I sat down for round one.
#1 – Eric Robinson with White Weenie
It was this gentleman’s first tournament so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
G1 – Plains, Mother of Runes. Uh oh. I’m not sure if this is a good matchup or not, but game 1 he gets two Swords of Light and Shadow countered and then a Sword of Fire and Ice sticks. When it’s on a Silver Knight and I can’t find an Enforcer, the game ends rather quickly. How disheartening.
G2 – This game I end up drawing both of my sideboard cards, being Mongeese and Explosives. Mongeese apply the beats while two Explosives take down an angel and a couple two-drops, but then he reveals… Mnemonic Nexus. (You may want to click that link and read it. I had to as well.) He then plays two Silver Knights and two Meddling Mages, which are pretty good against my 1/1s. Luckily thanks to him shuffling my Explosives back in, I find one again and get a four-for-one followed by an attack for six. GG.
G3 – I actually draw a decent hand and resolve an Enforcer with two Swords to get rid of his annoying men and a Pithing Needle for mom. The game does not last long after I Force his Mnemonic Nexus, with an Explosives to clean up the ground followed by your regularly scheduled flying beats.
2-1, 1-0
#2 – Chris Lepinski with Unknown
The chair’s empty. How lucky.
2-0, 2-0
#3 – David Irvine with Goblins
He was very quiet and seemed like he knew what he was doing.
G1 – I Swords his Lackey and get down an early Meddling Mage on Lightning Bolt, which is way more effective than people think it is in this matchup. Sure, it can get Incinerated, but you can Pith that and you’d rather they target your Mage than your Werebear or Enforcer. Anyway, he misplays and drops a Prospector without laying a Foothills first and I Daze it, which really curtails his development. I get down two Enforcers without threshold and then I Predict myself and swing for 12. He cannot kill me before my next turn.
G2 – I get Wastelanded early on and don’t find a Pithing Needle for his two Vials. He starts Ringleading into Ringleaders about turn 5-6 and I haven’t found enough lands or answer cards to deal with the stream of goblins.
G3 – I start off pretty strong with a Mongoose and after I thresh I follow it up with an Wnforcer. He gets down a pretty large amount of goblins and it seems like I’m on the ropes… until I drop the bomb. I tap 3 lands and show him Tivadar’s Crusade. The expression on his face is absolutely priceless – he reads the card, raises his eyebrows, leans back, and says “seeeeems good.” I attack for nine and he can’t really recover.
2-1. 3-0
#4 – Andrew Cuneo with Enchantress
Andrew Cuneo! You know, that guy who invented Islands or something or other. And who won the first MODO Worlds Q with Islands. Yeah, that guy. Needless to say I was a little intimidated. Also of note is deck check #1. Anyway, on to the actual match.
G1 – He wishes for a Verduran Enchantress and it gets Plowed. I drop a Meddling Mage on Argothian and he drops some stuff like a Fertile Ground and an Exploration and other fun stuff. He gets a Words of Wind down and I let it resolve and then Pithing Needle it. At this point I have many points of beats down that are repeatedly being administered and it doesn’t take long for him to scoop.
G2 – He stalls a bit on lands and I manage to Daze a Sylvan Library and an Enchantress’ Presence. Eventually I just get some beats down and the game is really uneventful. Afterwards he says that my deck is “a really bad matchup” and I can’t help but agree with him.
2-0, 4-0
#5 – Chad Kastel with Landstill
He also seemed like he knew what he was doing. He was playing 3-color Landstill/Scepter.
G1 – I don’t really remember this much at all, but I vaguely recall getting two Werebears to stick and Dazing a Crucible. I don’t believe it lasted very long at all.
G2 – By turn 3 or so I have two Werebears and a Mongoose in hand with a Geddon at the ready. Unfortunately none of those creatures manage to both hit play and survive for an untap. He gets down a Scepter on Counterspell and I have to defensively Geddon – he draws more lands than I do and by the time I find what I need I can’t do anything.
G3 – I get an early Needle on Wasteland and then one on Factory. A few turns later I manage to get a Mongoose down and this time the Armageddon is actually good for me. Goose serves for 18 points of damage.
2-1, 5-0
#6 – Jeff Rabovsky with Goblins
I thought his name sounded familiar from somewhere – he won the JSS proper this year with White Weenie. He is also about a billion feet tall. Before we begin it’s time for deck check #2, so we look around – Gerard is sitting next to me and it looks like he’s playing a Type Two deck, but his Mongrel grabs a SoFI and goes all the way.
G1 – My deck just really misfires and he plays very well, getting through a couple Piledrivers while I struggle to find the cards I need. I can’t even get threshold before I die.
G2 – Again, it just feels like my deck falls apart on me. He gets through about every card ever and bashes me for a ton and I die with two Crusades in my hand and one white source. I feel almost bewildered at how I just seemed to die without the ability to fight. I guess that happens sometimes.
0-2, 5-1
#7 – Christian Royer with Goblins
Christian plays quite professionally, but he also seems a bit… overconfident, I suppose. He keeps some hands that I think he should’ve mulliganed and he complains at the end of the match about poor draws. Obviously sometimes your deck just doesn’t work, but some of his hands were really suspect.
G1 – He stalls on land early and I pith his Vial to keep him from doing anything. I end up getting down some reasonably good beats with Enforcer and he packs them in after my Dazes wreck what he’s able to do in the midgame.
G2 – He gets down a turn 1 Vial and I absolutely cannot find a Needle. I have Hydroblasts but nothing that’s really enough to stop the army of Ringleaders that keeps falling out of the Aether. I draw Needle too late and don’t see a Crusade.
G3 – I counter Ringleaders as per the plan for the matchup and draw into two Crusades. After I clear his board a couple times, I have two Werebears and he is at 4 life. He untaps and draws… Siege-Gang. Luckily he only has one mana open, so I attack in with the team and knock off two tokens. He draws Fanatic and plays it and passes. He blocks with everything and trades his board for mine (making a mistake with the way he went through it) and then I windmill slam the Enforcer that I drew into. He scoops ’em up.
2-1, 6-1
#8 – Adam Bowles with Goblins
I let him know that if I lose, I’m out, and if he loses, he’s probably in. I offer the draw. He thinks about it for a little while and then signs the slip. However, just for fun, as we hand in the slip the judge comes up and says “sorry guys, but I have to deck check you.” He takes the slip too, and we sit there and make idle conversation and wait for our nicely sorted decks.
0-0, 6-1-1
I’m in Day 2 at 28th place. Sick as hell. I don’t really have any interesting anecdotes about the night before – I didn’t play poker, I didn’t get wasted, and I didn’t stay up until a billion o’clock. I just went to sleep because I was tired, which turned out to be a very good decision. We show up at the site the next day, and while my friends are sleeving up their PTQ decks I sit down for the next round.
#9 – Lam Phan with Gro
From what someone told me after the tournament, this is the guy who made Bird Sh** for Type One and he’s apparently very good with the deck. Personally, I don’t really like the AKs in his deck, and he said afterwards that the way his deck is built it always loses the mirror, which were the only decks he lost to in the swiss.
G1 – He goes through 3 Serum Visions and cannot find a Green source. I play out a Meddling Mage on Swords and then drop two Werebears and he just curls up and dies.
G2 – When the mirror goes as it is supposed to, it goes approximately forever. I do make a decent play early on to try and bait him into misplaying – I have an unthreshed Werebear in play and drop a Meddling Mage pre-combat with no lands up. He Dazes it and I pay. Woo! Midway through the game there are six Meddling Mages in play but I have a life advantage thanks to earlier Werebear beats and so they all end up trading. He ends up casting late-game AKs and they don’t really do a lot for him, and finally I find an Enforcer and it sticks for long enough to close up shop.
2-0, 7-1-1
#10 – Chris Connely with Accelerated Gobs
His deck eschews Wasteland and Port for Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors. It was really interesting and I wouldn’t be surprised if some build of it turns out to be great.
G1 – He is a little slow out of the gates with no Vials and I Swords his Lackey. Eventually I just get threshold and drop an Enforcer and then another. Never underestimate flying 6/6s, as they tend to take the game home quickly.
G2 – He gets down two early Vials and I can’t find a Needle or a Crusade. When Ringleaders start hitting more Ringleaders and various other goblins en masse, I don’t really have much of a choice other than losing.
G3 – This was perhaps the most exciting game I’ve played out so far. I get down an early Mongoose and Needle his Vial. I have two Tivadar’s Crusades in my hand and start digging and digging for a second White source but can’t find it. I do have a couple Hydroblasts and Swords, though, so I can keep the important goblins off the table and get in some beats with Goose and a threshed up Werebear. Eventually he drops to 7 with SGC and a bunch of other non-Warchief non-Piledriver goblins in play while I have a Mongoose and Werebear back on defense and a Plains on top of my library. He untaps, draws, and thinks. He plays out Warchief and Matron and searches up Incinerator… and passes the turn. I go untap, draw, Plague Wind you, swing. “Wasn’t expecting that. Yep, you win.” Whew.
2-1, 8-1-1
#11 – Rich Shay with Flame Vault Stasis
Rich is a very good man and I know him from back home. He was considering either GAT or his deck, but he ascertained (correctly) that Psychatog is not a very good creature right now, at least not in the format. As such, he’s playing with the new Trix. Luckily it’s one of the better possible matchups for me. However, before we can begin, it’s time for DECK CHECK #4. Now, you’d think that after being checked three times I’d be okay, but I guess they wanted to be sure.
G1 – We both mulligan down to 6 and he keeps a zero-land hand with two brainstorms in it. His deck has 26 lands, so I don’t doubt that it’s the right decision, but I happen to have two Meddling Mages and a Daze in my hand. He doesn’t draw a land in three turns, so both my Mages resolve and the only answer left in his deck is 2 Chain of Vapor. I don’t have trouble winning from there.
G2 – His deck craps out on him completely this game. I get down a Mage on Fusillade and a Werebear while he has two Time Vaults out. He drops a Stasis and then gives me two extra turns. Meanwhile, I have 3 lands open and an Armageddon in my hand. I draw the fourth on the third extra turn he gives me and cast it… and it resolves. His Stasis dies and then he takes his two extra turns and cannot find another land. Again, it does not take long for me to win from the position of attacking for six against an empty board.
2-0, 9-1-1
#12 – Paul Serignese with Salvagers Game/Golden Grahams
He is also a New England player, and I thought my deck had a good matchup against his… but it turns out it apparently didn’t.
G1 – He gets through two Therapies and takes my Force and a Counterspell. He wishes for Gamekeeper and has 3 lands out. I draw a Daze and tap out for Enforcer because I don’t think I really have much else of a plan this game… and he casts Dark Ritual and plays Gamekeeper with one land open and combos out.
G2 – He Therapies and hits two Werebears and some cantrip early enough. I hide two Meddling Mages on top of my library, cast them both (on LED and Living Wish) and then drop a Werebear and start beating. Then he casts… Innocent Blood. Innocent Blood. Innocent Blood. Oops. So now I’m out of gas and he topdecks a Duress followed by a Tsunami and then a Living Wish. I drop my fourth Werebear and he proceeds to go Innocent Blood, Living Wish (popping LED in response) for Salvagers, play it… and only has one land open because he wanted to kill my sick Werebear, giving me an out to draw Needle or Swords. I unfortunately don’t get it.
0-2, 9-2-1
#13 – Andrew Watts with MWC/Rabid Wombat
I believe he was the only MWC player to do well, and I really don’t respect the deck that much. In playtesting it did not consistently beat Goblins and it just felt absolutely awful to play with.
G1 – He cycles through his deck with Bandage and Renewed Faith and all these other random cyclers. He hits a Force with a Humility but then gets something like Wrath->Wing Shards->Vengeance, and I can’t stop it all. My matchup game 1 is really bad.
G2 – This game I get down a couple Mongeese and a Mage on Wing Shards. I beat in with threshold guys and counter some Wraths and he just doesn’t have any way to gain card advantage. It helps that he drew two Sacred Grounds and I didn’t see a Geddon.
G3 – He drops an early Sacred Ground again and still doesn’t have Geddon. I slowly trickle out guys and make him deal with them, countering important stuff like Humility. Eventually I get him down to four life with two Werebears and a Mongoose in play with a Force and a Blue card in my hand. He has 0 cards in hand, he untaps, and draws… Decree of Justice. He considers what to do and decides that his best course of action is to play it. While I’d normally agree with the play, it does in fact give me some outs, one of which is Force and a Blue card. GG.
2-1, 10-2-1
#14 – Steven Utter with U/W/R Fish
So this is in fact for all the marbles. A Top 8 berth, fame, fortune, ladies, and an atrocious picture on the Sideboard. Well, maybe not the ladies. Needless to say, we’re both really nervous.
G1 – I think his matchup against me is pretty good pre-board. He gets double Wasteland and plays infinte two-drops and Lavamances me out pretty quickly while I struggle to get my deck working.
G2 – The situation is reversed this time, as I get a fast double-Mongoose draw and I get a Swords and a Hydroblast or two. He can’t keep much on the board and my untargetable 3/3s go all the way after an Engineered Explosives takes out two of his guys.
G3 – The final, ultimate, pressure-filled game. Forgive me in advance, as the description here will be somewhat verbose. I remember the conclusion of this match pretty well, for some reason.
We go back and forth for a little while, with him resolving a Standstill and then I break it with a Mongoose. Luckily he doesn’t draw into that much, and Mongoose gets in for about 12 points before he gets down a couple guys. We then fight a counterwar over an Enforcer – he Forces, I counter, he Pyroblasts, I Hydroblast, and then he Force of Wills – and I respond with another Hydroblast. He says quickly “No, my Force was targeting your Force”, and I smack myself for not asking beforehand. I lose an extra Hydroblast. Luckily he then untaps and swings a 2/2 into my Goose with a Mogg Fanatic on the table, showing that there was pressure on both sides of the table. Finally, he stabilizes with a bunch of blockers and I can’t really attack… and then I draw Mystic Enforcer. He’s at 5.
“He doesn’t have Blue in his casting cost, does he?”
“No sir.”
“Then I guess he’s in play.”
One untap step later, I’m in the Top 8.
2-1, 11-2-1
Quarterfinals – Pasquale Ruggerio with R/W Rift
Oddly enough, a block deck is about the worst matchup I can possibly get. His deck is actually insane and I almost expected it to win the tournament, but I can still get a few lucky draws… post-board.
G1 – I don’t believe I can actually win this matchup. I don’t see an Enforcer and he Disenchants my Pithing Needle during the endstep of turn 3. He baits me with a Humility and then just starts playing Wrath effect after Wrath effect after Wrath effect. I run out of gas and he kills me with a massive Decree endstep. I end the game having seen 12 of the lands in my deck.
G2 – My turn for a nutdraw. Turn 1 Mongoose. Turn 2 Mongoose. On the upkeep of turn 4 he Abeyances me and I draw a counterspell and ship the turn after attacking. I untap, tap 4 lands…
“Arrrrmageddon?”
We go to game 3.
G3 – My opening hand has some creatures and some dig spells but no Geddon, so I figure I’ll be okay, if not great. I start off by digging for a bit and drop a Goose early on and then on turn 5 I get down a Werebear with three lands open… and he casts Boil. I Counterspell, and then he Pyroblasts it. How Lucky. Afterwards he starts resolving whatever he wants and gets a dragon down, and after I’m at 4 life, I shake his hand.
It was a good run, I’d say, and I was quite happy with the deck. For those of you that astutely noted that Mongoose came in in probably every matchup, well, you’re right – but I wouldn’t change the maindeck. Mongoose is a good card, for sure, but different things get boarded out in every match and right now the maindeck is at an optimal configuration to take on all threats. Lam’s build is not a bad configuration and he does have Mongeese in the maindeck, but I really think Meddling Mage is an underrated card right now. As you can probably see, it’s good against pretty much every deck – even against Goblins.
I guess this ends my rambles for now – and no, I’m not going to do props and slops. The tournament was awesome and there isn’t really anybody who deserves slops. There are also about infinite people who deserve props, and they all know who they are. I’ll see you all in Honolulu.
–Ben Goodman
Ridiculous Hat just about everywhere