They say your life flashes before your eyes the moment before you die.
I surveyed the board and sent in my pair of Meddling Mages. He blocked the one on Broken Ambitions with a 2/2 Bitterblossom token, letting the one sitting on Puppeteer Clique through, dropping him down to five. I passed the turn and let his Bitterblossom token come into play, and once again looked over my options. This was my only choice. It had to resolve. I cast Cryptic Command, and announced the modes: “tap all of your creatures and draw a card.” I took a breath in, and looked upward, waiting for his response. While I moved my head up, his went down, and I felt my heart sink. He reached for his combination of Islands and Drowned Catacombs and began to tap them…
…And I found myself back at the Morningtide pre-release. “Reveillark dies… return my Burrenton Bombardier and Order of the Golden Cricket to play?” I offered, as my opponent reached across the table to see that the 4/3 flier he had so triumphantly managed to kill actually did something else.
Fast forward.
What I saw came in bursts, blurred together and not completely clear. Sitting on the floor in my room goldfishing the Japanese Reveillark deck, returning Mulldrifters and Riftwing Cloudskates to play, before eventually comboing off with Mirror Entity. City champs, grinding out games to get the last few points I needed to qualify for the championship. Porphyry Nodes, Crovax, and Teferi clearing out Faeries player after Faeries player. Handing the deck to Mike Gurney the night before Pro Tour Hollywood to give him a last minute audible that landed him in 29th place. Then came block, setting aside my Reveillarks to defect to Reveillarks mortal enemy.
Fast forward again. Images of college classes and cube drafts, articles and ex-girlfriends, fly past my mind.
Grand Prix: Seattle, where Tommy Kolowith and Brian Kibler both showed that Reveillark was very much alive and kicking. Pro Tour: Honolulu. Being handed a Reveillark deck with Ponder and playing it in the PTQ. Ben Weinburg placing second with the same list at the PTQ. Coming home and buying the deck on Magic Online, grinding out games nonstop and winning most of them.
Then, M10. No more Wrath. No more Mind Stone. Reveillark’s future was unclear. Then a finals appearance by Pedro Rodriguez, showing Reveillark was very much still alive. Writing an article on Reveillark. Then another. Then another. Watching Great Britain Nationals pass by. Getting sick and grinding out games on Magic Online. 1-2ing the PTQ and ignoring the results-oriented thinking of everyone else to run it back to a Cruise Qualifier top eight. Working on the deck with Chris Jobin, then him making the finals of his PTQ. A week off, spending time taking finals and seeing friends. Friday, Saturday, Sunday pass by…
The fast forward screeches to a halt. The chirping of birds accompanies the sunbeams streaming through my window as I open my eyes from slumber. It’s the Monday before the PTQ. The day where the current chapter of our story begins.
The PTQ in Vancouver this weekend was my last chance. It was go big, or go home. I wanted that victory, that qualification for Austin, more than anything. I decided that I was going to do whatever it took to win that slot. I not only decided to do something, I “docided” to do it: I put action in to match my words. I logged onto Magic Online, and knew I was going to have to play as many games as possible to find the best possible deck for the tournament. With classes wrapping up the week prior, I had the entire week to prepare however I wanted.
I left my house once in five days.
I knew I was going to be burnt out after the weekend. I knew it was unhealthy. I’m not proud. I would normally never do anything like what I did. But to me, my future as a Magic player for the rest of the year hinged on that one tournament. It was do, or die. Nothing else mattered. Win, and go to Austin. Then, earn enough pro points to go to Rome. Lose, and stay home for the rest of the year. If I was burnt out after the PTQ, I was burnt out. There were no events for a while anyway. It all came down to this event.
DE after DE. 8 man queue after 8 man queue. Setting my schedule to revolve around PE’s. Playing Magic Workstation against myself to playtest the Merfolk matchup in between rounds. This was me for five days. Pathetic? Yes. It was the person I had never wanted to become. But, for five days, I set aside my preconceptions and engulfed myself in Magic. It had to be done. Even once the cascade bug came out and each PE was destined to crash (playing a cascade spell with nothing left in your library to cascade into crashed the tournament,) I continued to play just for the practice. Changes were made. Matchup percentages changed. Merfolk slowly became winnable. Cards that had been in Reveillark forever were tweaked. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, each passed by in turn. Friday came, and the final decklist needed to be set in stone. I called up Chris Jobin, who was also making the last run at a qualification, and, since he hadn’t had an opportunity to test, told him I would send him everything he needed in a Facebook message. I began to write, and before I knew it, I had something much longer than a short message. The words I wrote to Chris appeared vivid, as crisp as ever.
…
Hey Chris,
I know you don’t have a lot of time to look over everything tonight, so I figured I’d send all of this information in a form you can print and take with you. This is everything I’ve found in my testing this week, written out and condensed. It’s practically a free article!
Here’s the list I’m going to be playing with tomorrow:
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Mystic Gate
9 Island
5 Plains
4 Gargoyle Castle
4 Reveillark
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Meddling Mage
4 Mulldrifter
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Cryptic Command
3 Broken Ambitions
4 Path to Exile
Sideboard:
4 Harm’s Way
3 Negate
3 Essence Scatter
3 Celestial Purge
1 Jace Beleren
1 Hallowed Burial
Fortunately I don’t have to explain why the good cards in the deck are good. Clique is great as you said, and when adding a 26th land I’m fairly sure Castle is right, although I still wish I could squeeze another plains in there.
So. Ponder. I was a huge advocate of Ponder as I’m sure you know, but they are absent from this list. There are two main reasons for this, and why I think Ponder has become unnecessary in this deck:
1. My old theory was that with four Ponders, you would find your best cards more often. While this is true to an extent, how many times have you Pondered into something like Cryptic Command, island, island? Sure, you usually shuffle it away, but I think most of the time you would be fine keeping that stack and having a spell which affects the game instead. Furthermore, Broken Ambitions digs in a similar manner. If you’re digging for spells and you have three lands on top or you’re digging for lands and you have three spells on top then Ponder is better, but in most other situations Ambitions is comparable. No, you can’t keep those two land hands with Ponder as easily, but the tradeoff is that Ambitions makes several matchups much better. Having what are essentially an extra set of early game Negates maindeck is fantastic against five color, it gives you another out to Bitterblossom on the play, lets you keep up with beatdown on the draw when you don’t have a Path, etc.
As an aside, I think 26 lands is right with zero Ponders. There are some games where I wish I had more lands, but there are also games where I keep drawing lands when I need gas. Conceivably you could play 61 and 27 lands, but I think you really want to maximize every percentage point to find your best cards (especially without Ponders.) As a side note on my aside, I tried 1 Ponder over the Gargoyle Castle as a pseudo 25th land in theory, but I think the actual land is just better.
2. Your old game plan used to be so reliant on hitting turn 3 Mulldrifter, but that’s not as true with the newer build. You have both Ambitions to match their spells and the major addition of Vendilion Clique to cast on turn 3, giving you a bevy of things you can do on if you don’t have a Mulldrifter. Yes, your win percentage goes way up if you find a Mulldrifter. I don’t think cutting Ponder for Broken Ambitions ruins your chances at that.
As far as Merfolk goes, I tested that matchup over and over, looking for anything that would work. I found that any kind of expensive reactive strategy (Plumeveil included) plays too far into their plan, so instead you have to charge them head on. If you’re spending three mana to react to them and they’re spending one mana to deal with you and play a guy, you’re not going to win. However, if you can mitigate their individual Merfolk, your creatures are better than theirs head on. It’s only when they have synergy together that they’re better than your random guys. So, my strategy is to counter up the curve, leave them with only a couple guys, and then try and use Harm’s Way to win creature wars and beat their Sowers, all the while playing the role of the crappy U/W beatdown deck. Sometimes I’ll side in the one Hallowed Burial, but when I draw it they’re either sandbagging lords or it just never resolves. Sygg is still just the worst, but Pithing Needle is too narrow. You just have to save countermagic for it, Path it if you have the opportunity, or otherwise trick them into letting you kill it. Some players just won’t realize it’s unbeatable and think the two-for-one trade with a Sygg is worth it for them. Just think of it as Merfolk’s Bitterblossom.
As far as the whole 75 goes, the one sideboard Jace is the only card still in question for me. It’s a flexible card because it only takes up one slot and you can bring it in the mirror and against Five-Color. I’d kind of like the full set of Negates against Five-Color, but Jace is also great against them, albeit less so with the newer versions full of Fallouts and Lightning Bolts. Seriously, whenever I’m forced to +2 that guy against Five-Color I can’t help but feel like I made the worst play imaginable, even if it’s “right” to do so.
Here is how I’ve been sideboarding. Let me know what you do differently, I’d be interested in comparing sideboarding notes. I guess you could even pull this out in between games if you wanted thanks to the new floor rules. Interesting. Anyway:
Kithkin
-4 Meddling Mage
+3 Essence Scatter, +1 Hallowed Burial.
You can also swap in some Negates or Harm’s Ways for Kitchen Finks if you want. I actually don’t think Finks is that stellar in this matchup since it seldom kills anything and is only really good at blocking figure of Destiny, whereas Harm’s Way kills a turn 1 Figure, deals with the Meadowgrain into Cenn draw quite well, etc. On the draw, I think it’s reasonable to cut a Reveillark too.
Five Color
-4 Sower of Temptation
+3 Negate, +1 Jace Beleren
Counter their card draw and beat them down. But you already knew that.
Baneslayer
-3 Kitchen Finks, -1 Meddling Mage
+3 Essence Scatter, +1 Jace Beleren
I guess this is the “standard” sideboarding plan I use, but when I’m on the play sometimes I’ll keep in all of my Finks and just try and go beatdown early on with counters up, and you can get a fair amount of damage in this way. It’s obviously a bad plan if they’re also bringing Scatters though. I also bring in Negate over a couple copies of Vendilion Clique and another Mage sometimes, and I feel like it’s very possible I should be bringing Negate in a lot more than I am. It’s kind of situational, but when it hits something it’s always insane. This is an interesting matchup to sideboard in, because this is the only matchup where I feel like I am overboarding and taking out cards that are reasonable… but the cards I’m bringing in are so good in the matchup I feel like it’s worth it. Two of my opponents have actually commented on how dumb I am for leaving Mage in after boarding, which is a rarity on MTGO since any chat seldom happens, but I feel like it’s perfectly reasonable… You just name the cards you don’t play (Archmage and Baneslayer) as well as Sower and other cards you both play that are situation based, and lock them out of their best spells against you. I guess you could cut all of them and fit the Negates in that way, but I’ve been happy with Mages.
Merfolk
-4 Reveillark, -2 Mulldrifter, -1 Gargoyle Castle
+4 Harm’s Way, +3 Essence Scatter
If you want to bring in the misers Hallowed Burial, cut another Mulldrifter. Five is a lot of mana though when you’re cutting a land and two Mulldrifters. I cut the Gargoyle Castle not because its bad in the matchup, but because I feel like you have to get a little lucky and draw just enough lands (and therefore not flood) to win against Merfolk. Plus, you’re cutting all of your five drops, so it’s reasonable to board out a land. I’ve been mana screwed a few times and it sucks, but you can actually recover alright, and when you just hit four or five lands and have mostly spells in your grip it gives you the advantage you need.
Jund
-1 Sower of Temptation, -2 Kitchen Finks (reversed to -2 Sower then -1 Finks on the draw)
+3 Celestial Purge
Poor Jund players. Finks and Sower are fine cards versus them, but Purge is absurd and has to make its way in somehow.
Faeries
Play:
-4 Sower of Temptation, -2 Vendilion Clique, -2 Reveillark
+3 Celestial Purge, +3 Negate, +2 Essence Scatter
Draw:
-4 Sower of Temptation, -2 Vendilion Clique -2 Reveillark
+3 Celestial Purge +3 Essence Scatter, +2 Negate
On the play, you want Negates to counter Blossom. On the draw, often it’s a little too slow to do anything since you’re a turn behind and you’re the one who just has to try and force through countermagic. You also need Scatter on the draw to hit their Cliques. Vendilion Clique can be really good or really bad, but more often its bad because of cards like Spellstutter Sprite, and it doesn’t exactly help versus a Blossom.
Red
-4 Meddling Mage, -4 Sower of Temptation, -1 Vendilion Clique
+4 Harm’s Way, +3 Celestial Purge, +3 Negate
Harm’s Way is no Forge-Tender, but the matchup is still highly in your favor.
I think that covers most everything. Take this PTQ down. It’s yours to win, Chris.
Gavin
…
Afterwards, we talked once more and agreed on two more changes: we cut the Jace in the sideboard for the fourth Negate since you already could just bring Negate in against the mirror anyway, and if you ever drew two or more negates against Five Color early on it was hard to lose. The other change was to swap an Island for a Plains because I was worried about having 1WW on turn 3 for Kitchen Finks, and I had that problem more than I would have liked to in playtesting. The easy answer is to just cut a Gargoyle Castle and play an extra plains and keep the island, but Chris and I agreed that Gargoyle Castle was absolutely absurd and that four copies was the number we wanted. When it’s in your opening hand you always groan, but then one turn 6 you always think, “man, I’m sure glad I had this Gargoyle Castle!” that left us each playing this deck:
Creatures (23)
Lands (26)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
Friday night passed, and for once in my life I had my deck sleeved, decklist ready to go, and almost every card in my deck the night before. I picked up a usually solid amount of sleep, and then woke up Saturday morning and began the three hour drive up to Canada.
The drive was mostly uneventful, and I made it to the tournament site with plenty of time to spare. I acquired the last few cards I needed, socialized with some local players, and then went around to scout how many Faeries and Merfolk players there were. There weren’t many Merfolk, but I counted at least eleven Faeries players. I considered adding a fourth Celestial Purge to my sideboard, but didn’t because you can’t ever afford to draw two dead Purges against Faeries. To help get my mind moving before the tournament, I sat down with Drew Christensen to play some games. Only, instead of playing Reveillark, I was playing the 4CB deck Dan Hanson had provided me with after the last PTQ. Drew was playing Faeries. After 6-0ing both Drew and Iain Cassels playing Faeries, I offered Drew the Jund deck. First, I thought it was a better choice for the tournament based on the number of five color and Faeries decks I had seen. Drew is a good guy, and I wanted him to do well. Second, and much more selfishly, having one of the best Faeries players in the room switch into Jund, a good matchup for me, was something that could be relevant later on the tournament. Me and a few others talked him into it, and he made the three-minutes-before-PTQ-start audible into 4CB, having never played it. (He ended up 5-2.) I took a minute to myself to meditate before pairings went up, chanted the mantra of “you are going to win this tournament” to give myself a little “Tomfidence,” and then it was time for the tournament to begin.
I sat down, and felt like I was going to win the tournament. I was in a state of preparedness I had seldom reached before, and, after winning tournament after tournament, game after game, online, felt in complete control. I was ready for this PTQ.
Round 1 — U/W Baneslayer
In this matchup, you are generally favored in the first game because of Sowers and the ability to rebuy them with Reveillarks. Sower makes casting Glen Elendra Archmage a losing proposition for them. In the first game, that’s exactly how it went down: he went for Archmage into Baneslayer, I Sowered his Archmage, Pathed his Baneslayer , and it was fairly difficult for him to come back from there.
After sideboarding, the matchup becomes a little more even as we have most of the same tools. Most Baneslayer decks pick up Essence Scatters and Sowers, making my Reveillarks less potent, and they pick up Jace whereas I have Negates. Game 2 is an interesting affair as his turn 2 Knight of the White Orchid and my turn 2 Meddling Mage knock each other down to six life. I played a few other x/2 guys in the interim, which he chose to Essence Scatter or Path away, which I was perfectly fine with. In the meanwhile, I held my Paths and Scatters showing much more patience, and not caring about being knocked down to six life. Then he went for an end step Vendilion Clique into Baneslayer Angel and we fought over both. I countered the Clique and let him win the counter war on Angel, then untapped and Sowered it. He was not out of tricks though, as he untapped and Sowered the angel back for himself. I blocked his Knight with my Sower, then untapped and evoked a Reveillark, stealing his Baneslayer again. When I untapped with a Cryptic Command in my hand, the game was over.
1-0
Round 2 — Giantbaiting
When he cast a turn 1 Nettle Sentinel my turn 2 Meddling Mage was stuck on Heritage Druid, despite thinking it was more likely he was playing Giantbaiting. Giantbaiting is such a good matchup for Reveillark anyway that I don’t mind having a dead mage, whereas if he is playing elves I can’t afford to waste a Mage. A turn 2 Twinblade Slasher made his choice clear, and I began to go into anti-aggro mode. Fortunately, that’s what I do best. A pair of Kitchen Finks, Sower of Temptation, and Reveillark later, and I was firmly in control of the game.
Game 2 was not much different. He mulliganned to six, I brought in Essence Scatter and hit his Ram-Gang, and managed to stay in control for most of the game. There was one turn where I (faultily) attacked with my Kitchen Finks into his board of Nettle Sentinel and Bramblewood Paragon and then played another Finks, and he played Bloodbraid Elf. If he had hit Giantbaiting it could have been absolutely devastating, but fortunately he didn’t and, despite ending the game within Flame Javelin range, the countermagic left in my hand would have rendered his burn ineffective.
2-0
Round 3 — Kithkin with Blue
My opponent was the kind of person who forces his opponents to sit around after the match while he shows them all the cards in his deck and how his tech gives him such an advantage. Fortunately for me, I had walked past his table in the previous round while he was providing such a deck-umentary to his opponent and learned he had Negate in his sideboard. Good to know!
Game 1 he won the roll and had a fast start with Knight of Meadowgrain into Wizened Cenn, but a Vendilion Clique from me blocked his Cenn and allowed me to take a peek at his hand: Figure, Figure, Cloudgoat Ranger, Ajani. With him being stuck on two lands, I let him keep all four. However, that didn’t stop him from ripping three lands in a row to make the game close. Fortunately, I had another Clique to get rid of his Ajani, a Meddling Mage to set on Cloudgoat Ranger, and, when he ripped his sixth land went for his ultimate on Figure, a Sower to steal it and make his board position look silly. He cast a Sleep off of his Mystic Gate to buy a few turns, but to no avail.
Game 2, I keep a hand with four lands, Reveillark, Mulldrifter, and Hallowed Burial. He has a strong Kithkin draw, and when he thinks for a while on his turn 5 and decides to not cast a spell with three cards in his hand, I decide to go for Reveillark rather than run Hallowed Burial into his Negate and see if I can entice him to cast the Cloudgoat Ranger I’m fairly sure he’s holding. Instead, he Paths my Reveillark then Moonglove Extracts my Mulldrifter and kills me.
Game 3 we get swooped in for a midround deckcheck. Unusual for a Vancouver PTQ, but okay. My opponent gets called over by the judges, and I figure he’s getting talked about regarding how most of his lands are foil while most of his spells are nonfoil. Instead, it turns out he wrote Windswept Heath instead of Windbrisk Heights on his decklist, and is awarded a game loss. I hate these kind of penalties, but I recognize it is DCI procedure and I’ll take my wins when I can get them despite the fact that I feel I will probably win the third game anyway.
3-0
Round 4 — U/W Baneslayer
There really isn’t a lot to say here, because in both games I flood out without a Gargoyle Castle in sight. Not so much that it’s noticeable on his end that all I have is lands, but so much that I don’t have much action to work with. Game 1 he lands an Archmage and casts Vendilion Clique in my draw step to send my freshly drawn Sower to the bottom, providing me with a blank. I have Meddling Mage set on Baneslayer, but it doesn’t matter as he beats me down with an army of 2/2’s. Game 2 I have the Negate for his turn 3 Jace, but when I go for an Cryptic Command on his Mulldrifter a few turns later he Broken Ambitions it and flips Jace. Without a way to deal Jace and without finding any source of card advantage myself (Mulldrifter seen in the match: zero), I succumb rather quickly to his spells.
3-1
I’m down a match and a little shaken after my last defeat, but I take some time to myself to meditate and relieve myself of any tilting I might have had. By the time the next round comes around, I’m just as good to go as I was for the last one.
Round 5 — Five-Color Control
I’m playing against Martin Goldman-Kirst, Five-Color devotee. He has been playing Five-Color Control forever, and it’s no secret to either of us what the other is playing. I win the roll and keep an aggressive hand. A Finks resolves on turn 3 and on turn 4 I attack and decide to leave Broken Ambitions mana up instead of casting Meddling Mage. He plays nothing at the end of my turn, plays a land on his turn, and passes. I attack again, and cast Meddling Mage on my turn 5. As someone who clearly reads my column and knows about my propensity to name Esper Charm, Martin Charms himself in response, and I name Volcanic Fallout with Meddling Mage because I plan on being aggressive. I cast Vendilion Clique in his upkeep, and he shows me a hand of:
Island
Sunken Ruins
Sunken Ruins
Cascade Bluffs
Exotic Orchard
Vivid Crag
Path to Exile
I let him keep the Path since he is clearly hoping I’m going to let him cash it in for another card, and, despite three consecutively drawn Cryptic Commands to deal with my three Gargoyle tokens and a Volcanic Fallout, he falls to Kitchen Finks in the end.
Game 2 might have had the illusion of being close at some points, but it never really way. My opening hand was three lands, three Negates, and a Broken Ambitions, and I kept all of his opening pressure and card draw down, countered his Broodmate Dragon with a Cryptic Command, and then won the long game with some Gargoyles.
4-1
They post standings after the round, and to my surprise, there’s an extremely strange anomaly: three Gavins are in the Top 8 after round 5. How peculiar. How even more fitting, then, that my next match is a battle where two Gavins enter, but only one Gavin gets to leave.
Round 6 — G/B Elves
I’m paired against Gavin Kwok, a name I only have memorized because of his good choice for a first name. While G/B Elves isn’t as popular anymore, it’s a very good matchup, and one I regularly crushed all the time pre-M10. Neither game was remotely close. Game 1 I blocked his Vanquishers with Finks, Sowered his Wilt-Leaf liege, and then had a Reveillark to back it all up. Game 2 I had cleverly brought in Harm’s Way since I figured he would keep any aggressive hand with Wren’s Run Vanquisher. Sure enough, I was right, and I killed his turn 2 Vanquisher with a Harm’s Way, Pathed his next creature, blocked another Vanquisher with a Finks, and cast a Reveillark. Even though I had nothing to return and he cast a Haunting Echoes to strip all of the Paths, Harm’s Ways, and kitchen Finks out of my deck, Reveillark and a Gargoyle beat him down quite handily.
5-1
They put up standings, and I look them over along with Mike Gurney. I’m the highest 15 pointer with tiebreakers of 68%, and the next lowest player has breakers at 65%. Mike and I do the math, and he advises me to not draw in because everyone else is going to play it out, and so if I draw either my opponent or I will end up in ninth place (with the other in eighth) totally depending on how my opponent’s do.
Round 7 — Merfolk
I’m paired against a player I know is playing Merfolk, and I have to make a decision. I can either play against my worst matchup, with a sideboard plan I think can get me up to 55% at best, or draw, and put my fate in the hands of my opponents. I had come this far, I had tried so hard… Was I really about to stake the tournament on my previous opponents, rather than put my fate into my own hands? I only had a second to decide.
I thought about it, and shook my head to myself. I had to take a chance. I was advantaged on tiebreakers after the last round, I just needed two of my three remaining opponents playing in the tournament to win, roughly, to be in for sure. I quickly offer him the draw, and he accepted.
A round of nailbiting and watching my previous opponents went by. Both the Giantbaiting and Kithkin player won to advance to 5-2, while the elf-playing Gavin lost. I crossed my fingers and hoped my tiebreakers were good enough,
They put up the standings, and I was eighth by a wide margin. I felt bad for my last round opponent and wanted to apologize to him, but he was nowhere to be found. If you’re out there: I apologize that you drew into ninth. I put that out of my head and looked to the next task at hand.
I was three matches away from victory. Three matches away from my goal. The Top 8 was three U/W decks, three Faeries decks, a Kithkin deck, and Kyle Sanchez Colfenor’s Plans deck. I sat down for my first match, and it was time for the mirror.
Quarterfinals — U/W Baneslayer
Alright, time to battle against Dylan McDonald, a Canadian PTQer who has consistently been grinding out the PTQ circuit for years. Game 1 plays out similarly to game 1 of round 1: he goes for an Archmage, I Sower it with a mana up, deal with his Baneslayer Angel, and he can’t really come back from the deficit. Game 2 he wants to play the control game, with neither of us doing much besides leaving mana untapped and beating each other down with Knight of the White orchids on his end and Meddling Mages on mine. Eventually, he goes for a Mulldrifter, a counter war occurs, and I come out on top. I land a Reveillark, but he has a Sower, and then a path for it when I try and Path his Sower. He draws two off his Mulldrifter, but I pick up some cards of my own with a Mulldrifter and use a Sower to take his guy. Despite being at a low life total, I manage to slowly dig myself out with Gargoyle Castles, ensuring his White Orchid can’t ever damage me. He deals with my Meddling Mage on Baneslayer via Harm’s Way, but them when I Vendilion Clique him in his draw step and he shows me a hand of Baneslayer Angel and Sower, I run the “I still had all these” and show him my hand of Essence Scatter, Negate, Sower of Temptation. We both laugh, and he graciously extends his hand.
This was my tournament. I was really going to win this thing.
Semifinals — U/W Baneslayer
Alright, this matchup again. I can do this. My opponent clearly feels the same though, and is no slouch either: he’s the player I lost to in round 4.
Game 1 plays out like almost all of my Baneslayer game 1s: Sower takes the day away. I Vendilion Clique him, he taps for a Broken Ambitions, I untap and draw two off of a Mulldrifter. He does the same. I land a Reveillark, and he goes for an Archmage. I Sower the Archmage with a mana up, and get in with my Reveillark. A Gargoyle Castle later, and the game is firmly in my favor.
Game 2, all of my mana flood earlier in the tournament come back to attack him, far worse than it hit me. He was visibly frustrated at the end of the game, and I can’t blame him for being so: I know I would be too. I countered his turn 3 Mulldrifter, and he only cast a couple spells after that, both of which I had the Path for. He ended the game with somewhere between twelve and fifteen lands/Borderposts in play, while I was drawing cards, Vendilion Cliquing him, and making Gargoyles.
Onto the finals. He was playing Faeries. This was my PTQ, and I wasn’t about to let a single Faeries player stand in my way. I had beat Faeries al the time online, boasting about a 60% to 65% win ratio. Furthermore, from pregame banter he informed me this tournament was his first time playing Faeries, so I was hoping he wouldn’t know his fundamental cards in this matchup.
Finals — Faeries
He won the roll — not what I needed to happen. He mulliganed though, and game 1 started without Bitterblossom, as a turn 2 Mutavault attack was all he had. He passed with three mana up, and cast an end step Scion. I played Vendilion Clique in response, sending Cryptic Command to the bottom and leaving him with Agony Warp, Gargoyle Castle and some other lands. He Warped the Clique away and bashed in for four as I had hoped and scripted in my mind, and I couldn’t untap, play my land, and cast Sower of Temptation on his Scion fast enough. He untapped, missed his Bitterblossom trigger, and hijinks ensued as the judge team checked it out to see if he was going to receive a warning or a game loss. He had missed that trigger before, as well as accidentally putting a token into play when Bitterblossom wasn’t in play, and missing a Puppeteer Clique trigger. The verdict came back and, although it was his third warning for a similar activity, it was only his second for missing a Bitterblossom trigger.
The game continued, and he played a land, and passed. I played a Gargoyle Castle and attacked for four, and then passed the turn. He played a Scion of Oona, and, with another Sower in my hand, I saw my window to steal the game. He passed, and I cracked Gargoyle Castle. If he had Cryptic Command, he would make me pick up the token and Spellstutter Sprite wouldn’t counter my Sower, so if the gargoyle was fine then I only had Broken Ambitions to be concerned about — and even then my board would be Sower, Scion, gargoyle to his Scion and Mutavault. I had Cliqued him just a couple turns ago, so I was pretty sure I was fine just so long as he hadn’t drawn the —
“Scion of Oona in response,” he said. Suddenly things went from highly in my favor to looking very poor. I snuck in for three with my Gargoyle, but things only became worse as he landed a Bitterblossom the next turn. Without a Cryptic Command anywhere in sight to tap his team, he Commands my Gargoyle token away two turns later and wins not long after.
I’m down a game, but not shaken. I’ve been down a game to Faeries a thousand times. I sideboard in Purges, Negates, and Essence Scatters. I draw my hand, and have to make the decision that will decide my fate. My opening hand is: Island, Mystic Gate, Kitchen Finks, Kitchen Finks, Mulldrifter, Broken Ambitions, Essence Scatter. As long as I find my third land, I think I’m good, and he’s already said that he’s keeping his hand so I’m pretty sure it has a Bitterblossom. I keep.
I said the words, and my fate was sealed.
I drew Celestial Purge on my second turn, Broken Ambitionsed his turn 2 Bitterblossom, and put a card on the bottom. I drew. Another Celestial Purge. Pass. He played a land and said go. I found my land and played it, then went for Mulldrifter. He Broken Ambitionsed it, winning the clash with Bitterblossom meaning I couldn’t keep the land on top, then untapped and landed Bitterblossom. I untapped, drew my third Celestial Purge, and sent his Bitterblossom out of there with one of my Purges. I drew Meddling Mage, and played it, setting it on the Puppeteer Clique I knew he had (revealed to me from when the missed trigger discussion had been happening) since I had both Mulldrifter and a Reveillark in my graveyard. He played an end step Sprite, played a land, and said go.
I attacked the next turn, he took two, and played the fourth land I had just drew, and he countered my postcombat Finks with a Cryptic Command. He played a land and said go after attacking. I attacked, played my fifth land, landed a Finks, and he went for a Scion of Oona. I choose not to Essence Scatter it because I was fairly sure he was holding Mistbind Cliques. While he did have a grip of Cliques, Scion of Oona was going to be my downfall as he untapped and resolved a Bitterblossom, then had the Cryptic Command for my next Kitchen Finks. He attacked and cliqued me in my upkeep, which I Essence Scattered. I bashed in with my creatures, and dropped a Meddling mage on Broken Ambitions since I knew I was going to have to resolve this Cryptic Command in my hand to win. A few turns later, I found myself absolutely needing to…
… I snapped out of it and watched as he finished tapping his lands to cast his third Cryptic Command, countering my only hope. I extended my hand and wished him good luck at the Pro Tour. I put my boosters in my bag, and said goodbye to a few people I’d see back in Seattle. And that was that. My chance to qualify for Austin was over. My sights turned to the next year, and the Zendikar Sealed season ahead. I had given it my all. Maybe 2010, not 2009, would be my year.
Gavin Verhey
Team Unknown Stars
Rabon on Magic Online, Lesurgo everywhere else
Gavintriesagain at gmail dot com