“I don’t know why we even try.”
“So we can pick ourselves up afterwards.”
Last weekend was Grand Prix Orlando. I knew I was going to be on some sort of U/W Delver deck (formerly known as Illusions) but didn’t know which version. Thankfully, Charles Gindy did all the work for me by winning the StarCityGames.com Open in Atlanta with what was probably the best version of the deck.
For reference, here is Gindy’s deck:
Creatures (16)
Lands (21)
Spells (23)
He bypassed the attrition-based mirrors by suiting up hexproof creatures with equipment, and I wanted to do the same. The problem was that everyone else was likely on that plan, so I needed to figure out the stone mirror.
I started with Marrow Shards. It was like Gut Shot but had added benefits of cutting down swarms of Spirit tokens and Invisible Stalkers. The problem was that it probably only worked once and only did anything against Runechanter’s Pike but not Swords.
My senses returned quickly. The only thing that actually mattered was the equipment. Obviously you needed answers to Delver of Secrets and Geist of Saint Traft, but ultimately, the equipment was what dominated the mid-game. On top of that, staring at a Marrow Shards while they flipped their Delver would drive me insane.
Having maindeck answers to equipment would be nice, but there was no Into the Roil. Oblivion Ring was fine, but one of the keys of making U/W Delver work was making sure the manabase was fine. In order to accomplish that, you had to be very careful with how many white spells you played. Also, Delver of Secrets was in your deck, so you didn’t want too many blanks.
I advocated a 1 Disperse/3 Vapor Snag split a while back, and that would be fine right now. However, with Geist of Saint Traft in my deck, I knew that I would want to maximize my mana usage at all times. If I wanted to get something out of the way on a critical turn, I knew I wanted it to cost one mana so that I could play another spell that turn, solidifying my lead. Disperse wouldn’t necessarily allow me to do that.
In the end, I decided to just say screw it and hope that either: they don’t draw the equipment; they aren’t playing it in the first place; I out equipment them; I beat them down before they could use it; or I have a timely Mana Leak. For the most part, this plan worked well.
Here is the list I played:
Creatures (14)
Lands (21)
Spells (25)
This is one of the worst decks I’ve played at a premier level event. The core ideas were all solid, but I mis-built more than I normally do. Some of that had to do with listening to other players spout off about how amazing their Inkmoth Nexuses were.
Let me tell you something—Inkmoth Nexus is terrible. Every single time I had it, it was a colorless blank. There was a game where I almost poisoned someone out when they were at thirty life thanks to Batterskull, but Inkmoth will never get you there.
The theory is that your creatures are mostly hexproof or not worth killing, so they won’t die. At that point, Moorland Haunt isn’t very good. I don’t necessarily disagree with that assessment, but in those games, Inkmoth isn’t going to do anything either. It’s the games where your stuff actually does start dying that Moorland Haunt is awesome, and in those situations, Inkmoth still sucks.
The Mutagenic Growths were a strong overreaction to where I expected players to go. Whipflare seemed like the obvious card to fight Gindy’s deck. Also, Growth isn’t that bad against a Gut Shot or blocker, so I didn’t mind playing it maindeck. It was awesome against the lone Mortarpod I played against, but other than that, it was mostly blank.
Sideboarding Mutagenic Growth would be fine if you expect a lot of red removal, but that shouldn’t be the case anytime soon. Conley’s deck will probably be the Ramp flavor of the week, and Growth is pretty bad against his deck.
The last mistake I made was going softer on equipment when I probably should have been going harder. I just figured that most of my opponents would have several artifact removal spells against me instead of few, and I didn’t want to shove on an expensive Sword only for it to die.
I chose Pike for the cheaper cost upfront, but I got what I paid for. Pike was dead several times and struggled when a Sword would have translated into an automatic win.
This Grand Prix was mine to win, and I let it slip through my fingers, like so many before me.
Of course, my day one went about as well as it could. Round nine, game three, in the mirror match, my opponent mulliganed to five, cast Gitaxian Probe, and passed without playing a land. Talk about running good!
Going into day two, I knew that I would have to face off against Josh Utter-Leyton with Tempered Steel, Ben Stark with U/B Control, or PVDDR in the mirror. I figured that I’d rather play Ben, PV, then Josh, in that order. My track record against each player isn’t very good, as they are true masters of the game. I figured Wrapter would win our “pod.”
I was playing Wrapter to start the day but couldn’t really be unhappy about the pairing. Rather than look at it as an unfortunate pairing, I saw it as an opportunity to slay Goliath. Geist took game one; his mediocre beats took game two; and a pair of flipped Delvers won me game three.
Next up was Paulo, who again, I’ve had trouble defeating. He just always seems to have what he needs, whenever he needs it, and perhaps that came back to bite me.
First game, I had a decent setup with Probe (seeing his sketchy keep on the draw) into Ponder. I shuffled away some lands and drew into more. By the time he Probed me back on turn four, I still had nothing. He won easily.
Second game I won, although it looks like he conceded a turn earlier than he should have. I had Stalker with a Pike, while he had basically done nothing all game. Rather than make a Moorland Haunt token to block my potential flipped Delver, he cast a useless Snapcaster instead. I flipped it, and he conceded.
Game three was where things got interesting. He went Ponder, shuffle, Pike, Snapcaster-Ponder. Meanwhile, I had a Geist and an end-of-turn Midnight Haunting that I expected to get Leaked. When it didn’t, I knew he didn’t have it. I went for Runechanter’s Pike, and he quickly said okay.
At this point, I had three lands left untapped, two Spirits, an unflipped Delver, a Geist, and a Pike to his Snapcaster, tapped Invisible Stalker, Pike, and three open mana. If I equipped Pike and crashed in with Geist, I could get blown out by Divine Offering, which I knew was in his sideboard.
However, I saw a different line that played around basically everything. If he had a Sword, he probably would have run it out last turn on his Stalker. If he had a Leak, he would have countered my Haunting. It was likely he had another Snapcaster but nothing to use it on. Other than that, what could he be holding?
His second Pike, Snapcaster, and Divine Offering were about the only things. I decided that if he had Offering, I wouldn’t want him to trade Snapcaster with Geist. I could Oblivion Ring his Snapcaster and then offer the trade for a second Snapcaster with my Geist, which I would be fine with. I would still have a backup Snapcaster and a Pike, so I’d be in fine shape.
If he didn’t have Diving Offering, I’d probably win on the spot. I got to keep Snapcaster in reserves for either Ponder or Midnight Haunting and Oblivion Ring for any potential Sword topdecks. But I felt like I was in control and could afford to play around basically everything.
Instead, basically the worst stuff happened. I Ringed his Snapcaster and attacked with everybody. He played out a second Snapcaster and traded with Geist but fell to eleven. All he did on his turn was make a token and equip it with Pike.
On my turn, I had the option of Snapcastering a Ponder or Midnight Haunting, which may or may not have been able to beat through his Piked army. I also had a Pike and figured I’d rather cast Ponder. If I found a Disenchant or Gut Shot, he was pretty screwed. Instead, he used Mental Misstep to counter it, which I didn’t expect to be in his deck at all.
The next two turns consisted of him Oblivion Ring-ing my Pike and casting a Sword of War and Peace while I drew bricks. On my last turn, I could either shuffle with Ponder in the hope of drawing my three-outer and die on the counter swing if I couldn’t empty my hand (because of Sword), or tap out, play all my spells, and hope he doesn’t see that he can move Sword onto his Spirit and kill me. Then, I could Ponder next turn and draw a few different cards to kill him.
He did see the play but got confused because he thought I gained life off my Timely Reinforcements. After he attacked me, he asked if I was at seven, but I told him I was at one. At that point, he called a judge, hoping he would get to back up and correct his mistake.
I felt like it was a pretty scummy thing to do, since he had made the mistake. If an opponent tried to run the takesies-backsies against him, I don’t think he’d be too thrilled, but here he was, trying it against me. After fifteen minutes or so of Paulo arguing with a judge about various hypotheticals, the judge upheld the floor judge’s ruling, and I stayed at one life.
I Pondered, shuffled, and bricked.
Round twelve I had some awesome draws against a Wolf Run player that eventually won out and made top eight, but then I didn’t win another match.
Two mirrors and a Dungrove Wolf Run deck beat me up, and I was left with a paltry top thirty-two finish after my 10-0 start. If someone asked me if I’d be happy with a t32 finish before the weekend, I would have said no, but it would have been close. Finishing t32 after being so close to top eight is rough. I’d much rather 0-3 drop day one.
I’m still recovering from the weekend. One would think that being home and getting thrust back into work would take my mind off it, but writing this article has me re-thinking the whole situation. I was salty about the deckbuilding decisions I made, the way the whole Paulo match went down, and how day two ended with me getting crushed repeatedly.
The swings in Magic can certainly be huge, and ultimately, that’s probably why I’m here. While it might look like I’m baby-whining like a little schoolgirl, I can promise you that by the time this weekend rolls around, I’ll be in top form. I’m not going to let the same mistakes happen again. The brisk drive to the StarCityGames.com Open in DC will be filled with brewing, and I’m not settling for anything less than a trophy.
Delver of Secrets will be my weapon, and I welcome all challengers.
Try to beat me.
GerryT
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