“When has it ever been wrong to play a GerryT deck in a qualifier?”
Zac Hill
An unsanctioned FNM led those exact words to spring off of Zac’s lips and creep into my brain.
I mean, I knew the Naya deck looked good. It was definitely well constructed. But it wasn’t until I started playing with I that we realized how ridiculously strong the deck was.
Let me back up.
It’s Friday morning. I crack open my eyes and rustle over to my couch to turn on my laptop. I’ve been playing Turbofog on Magic Online all week after realizing that Turbofog did everything Open the Vaults wanted to do, except it did it better and with better matchups. Max McCall U/W deck sits on the coffee table, another Regionals possibility. I do my routine pre-class ritual of checking of crucial websites (like, you know, Facebook) and find a message Gerry shipped out to me and several others with the no-frills title, “Naya: The Deck You Should Play At Regionals.” The list looked pretty good. I played a couple quick games against UW and Jund, and it seemed strong.
It’s Friday afternoon. Dwayne St. Arnauld is judging the first ever (unsanctioned) FNM at a new store that just opened up just outside of Seattle — Dragon’s Lair, you should check it out if you’re in the area next week — and Max McCall and I are heading up there because Dwayne asked us to come for their opening gala. Plus, they were going to have free cookies. How could I say no?
In any case, I brought Turbofog into battle. An easy 4-1, winning the matches I was supposed to win and losing against a bad matchup (Mythic). Still, though, after almost a week of playing Turbofog, something was bugging me about the deck. It was a similar problem Open the Vaults had: it’s just so draw dependant.
You can gain tiny skill edges here and there by leaving mana up, playing Font of Mythos on 5 with Silence or Spell Pierce up instead of on four, and so forth, but in the end, against any non-control matchup, you’re totally at the mercy of your draws. If you get some Howling Mine effects active and just miss on Time Warps, or just don’t draw Angelsongs, or any of the myriad of other things that can go wrong, you lose. Not to any fault of your own, but because what your deck offered you wasn’t good enough.
This problem made it a bad Regionals Nationals Qualifier deck. What I had been telling people all week is that you just have to make Top 8. If you’re a reasonable player, take something with no horrendous matchups against the most popular decks, play well, and you’ll be fine.
I thought back to the every first article I ever wrote for StarCityGames.com, long before I was a columnist. I needed to heed my own four-year-old advice. There was no reason to just lose matches because I got paired up against Mythic too often, or I couldn’t draw Time Warps, or because all of my Kor Firewalkers were in the bottom 20 cards of my deck when my only post-board win condition.
It was time to switch.
It’s Friday night. Zac Hill comment had just started my head to stir. It was what I had been thinking earlier in the day, I just needed to know other people were thinking the same thing. The hours crept by as I playtested games, and by a little past two in the morning, I was locked in.
I went home, found the cards I could, slept for three hours, drove up to Tacoma for the event, called Cedric and discussed sideboarding plans, borrowed a bunch of cards, finalized my sideboard, and submitted this decklist:
Creatures (32)
- 3 Ranger of Eos
- 3 Wild Nacatl
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 3 Lotus Cobra
- 1 Scute Mob
- 4 Cunning Sparkmage
- 2 Stoneforge Mystic
- 4 Vengevine
Lands (26)
Spells (2)
Sideboard
I’d love to go in depth on card numbers and discuss the reasoning behind every decision. However, that’s Gerry’s spot. I don’t want to steal his thunder, and frankly I don’t know about the matchups and numbers nearly as well as he does. The deck is masterfully built, with having almost every cascade return Vengevine as only one of the many great interactions in the deck. Hopefully his article later this week will inform you how he reached all of these conclusions. I’ll only talk about the changes I made from his original list.
First off, there’s an obvious exclusion: Sejiri Steppe. I cut it the night before because in all my games I never once wanted to search for it, and because I kept having trouble finding Red and wanted to add a third Raging Ravine for another Red source. I never felt as though I needed the Steppe all day at the event, while all of my Raging Ravines worked out great. I was happy with this change.
Second, I cut a Birds of Paradise for a third Lotus Cobra. In retrospect, I would happily play a fourth Cobra. The card was insane for me all day; every time it was in my opening hand, I was very happy.
As far as the sideboard goes, I modeled it mostly off of Cedric’s sideboard. Where Gerry originally had Vapor Snares, Cedric had Path to Exiles. (In retrospect, Snares may have been better, but I’m not completely sure.) I wanted to play with Manabarbs because I wanted extra ammo against UW, and if you resolve an early Manabarbs either they have to spend a turn Oblivion Ringing it and you can continue to play Magic, or you put them really behind and the game is probably over.
With all that in mind, the tournament locked in at 8 rounds and pairings went up.
Round 1: Esper Control
I win the roll. Game 1 I open with Noble Hierarch into Knight of the Reliquary, followed up by Vengevine. He spends his third turn casting a small Jace and I spend turn 4 attacking him, and when he still has nothing new on turn 4, I kill him turn 5 with my squad plus a Raging Ravine.
Game 2, I am on the draw and see a hand of Misty Rainforest, Noble Hierarch, three Knight of the Reliquary, Vengevine, Pithing Needle. I tank for a long time on it. If I draw an enters-the-battlefield-tapped land in my next two turns I’m probably okay, or an upright land in three turns. I realize he has Spreading Seas in his deck, but my Hierarch can hopefully mitigate that.
I’m trying to rationalize it, but my mind is telling me it’s a bad keep. I imagine a mulligan article online with this hand in it, and know almost every pro would say to ship it. Yet I kept it anyway.
I died to Celestial Colonnade before I found a third mana source.
From now on, “would this get universally mulliganed in a mulligan article” is my new metric for mulliganing hands.
Fortunately, game 3 isn’t close at all. Turn 1 Nacatl, turn 2, Cobra, turn 3 Vengevine, turn 4 bash, he Wraths, I untap and Bloodbraid Elf hitting a creature and rebuying Vengevine. He didn’t have anything else, and I took the game.
1-0
Round 2: Geopede Jund
He won the roll. He leads on Savage Lands, I lead on Noble Hierarch. He goes for Geopede and I slam down the Sparkmage to kick it off the battlefield. My next three plays are Vengevine, Vengevine, Vengevine. Won that one.
Game 2 he has turn 2 Leech turn 3 Thrinax, and I get stuck on three lands despite keeping a three-land opener.
Game 3, I lead with Noble Hierarch. He Bolts. Lotus Cobra. He Bolts again. I play Knight. He Blightnings me and I keep Vengevine, Ranger of Eos. I don’t have a Red source and consider Knighting for one, but feel it’s better to keep pressure up and play Vengevine, swing for 8. He Bloodbraid Elves into Blightning to knock my last two cards out of my grip. I draw a land and swing for 4 more, his Bloodbraid trading with my Vengevine. He Bloodbraids into Maelstrom Pulse, killing Knight, and my next two draws are Bloodbraid Elf, Bloodbraid Elf, with no Red source in play while he casts Siege-Gang.
1-1
Round 3: G/W Tokens
This was one of two matches on the day which were non-matches. It was over in less than 10 minutes. I had an insane opener game 1 of Hierarch, Cobra, fetchland, Cunning Sparkmage, kill your Hierarch, untap, Ranger for two Nacatls, play both. The game was over at that point. Game 2, he never played a third land.
2-1
Round 4: Billy Moreno Aggro Spread ‘Em
Game one I more or less roll over him. I had a fast draw and, as he informs me, his maindeck isn’t suited to handle the speed of my deck. He plays a Nest Invader, Resounding Waves something, and casts a Jace, and I think that’s about it.
Game 2, he leads with a turn 1 Basilisk Collar which means he indeed adopted Billy’s new sideboard of Sparkmages. I have a decent draw with Stoneforge Mystic into Behemoth Sledge into Knight, but he has a turn 2 Cobra and then Sparkmages me with Collar. I fumble around for some long stretch of turns which goes longer than it probably should have, trying to draw a Sparkmage of my own or Oblivion Ring to shut down his engine, but don’t succeed. When I can tell I’m about three turns from being dead, I check the clock and concede to save time since there are just under 10 minutes left in the round.
Fortunately, I have a pretty fast draw with a Sparkmage for his Cobra and then a Bloodbraid Elf followed by Ranger of Eos. I win just as time is called.
3-1
Round 5: Bant with Time Warp
This deck is a surprisingly popular one in the Northwest because it has been a favorite choice of Charles DuPont ever since Pro Tour: San Diego. My opponent is none other than the Ogre Gatecrasher himself, Corbett Gray. It was time for me to get some revenge for him crashing through my closed screen door about a year ago.
Revenge was only one of the many ways you could describe the relentless brutality which occurred in the match.
Game 1 he never saw a Blue source and the only two spells he played were Leatherback Baloth and Garruk Wildspeaker. Game 2, he gets stuck on lands, I have an insane Lotus Cobra draw, and he has absolutely nothing.
The highlight of the match by far is when, in game 2, I have drawn the Basilisk Collar I left in my deck and play Stoneforge Mystic, immediately attacking with my Lotus Cobra afterward and “forgetting” to search for an equipment. (I had only left Collar in to search for.) This prompted Corbett to yell across the room in his booming, baritone voice, “Judge! My opponent is terrrrrrible!” Everyone in the room broke out in laughter. He picked up a warning for it, but as he said, it would have been worth a game loss to him as he wasn’t winning anyway.
4-1
Round 6: UWr Planeswalkers with Everflowing Chalice
From my own experience and Cedric Phillip’s claims, UWr was a pretty good matchup. Still, my opponent was the silent but underrated Mark Jung so I knew anything could happen.
Game 1 I open on Nacatl, then play the Hierarch I draw on turn 2 and bash. He plays Everflowing Chalice and I Vengevine him. He’s forced to Wrath, and I Bloodbraid Elf rebuying Vengevine. He plays Ajani and buys a little time, but a Ranger later and I take the game.
Game 2 was frustrating from his side. I opened on Nacatl while he cast a second turn Wall of Omens. He took one from my Nacatl swing and realized he had forgot to block by the time I started casting Lotus Cobra, which set off the first of irritations from the usually very tight player.
On my next turn, I cast Manabarbs and bashed in, dealing two to him. He didn’t have a fourth land and had to pass back. I attacked, played a Ravine, played a Bloodbraid Elf flipping up another Nacatl and attacked. He Oblivion Ringed my Manabarbs, but I send in and cast another on my turn. He Oblivion Ringed that one, but then I Ringed his Ring on my turn and sent in. He still didn’t have a fourth land, likely for a Day of Judgment he was holding, and he conceded after being punished by Manabarbs and a poorly-developed draw.
5-1
Round 7: R/B Burn
I look at the standings to figure out if I can draw this round and play the next if I face a friend. After realizing that, yes, I can, it pays dividends as I sit down across from Dwayne St. Arnauld and immediately offer the draw. It is essentially double or nothing, as it allows both of us to qualify if we win our next rounds — or neither of us if we both lose. He thinks about it for a while, then finally accepts the draw. We go play some games in the corner to test the matchup in the meantime and it seems pretty even. We didn’t play any post-board games, but I think it only gets worse for me because he has Deathmarks and Doom Blades, I told him I had Firewalkers in the sideboard, but I had forgotten I had cut them from my preliminary sideboard the morning of, so really all I had were four Paths and a Behemoth Sledge. I would say he is probably favored in three games, so I’m glad I offered the draw. Fortunately, Dwayne ended up winning his next round and making it in.
5-1-1
Round 8: UWr Planeswalkers
Game 1 he wins the roll and foils me at every turn. He has Elspeth, into Gideon, into Day of Judgment, and I draw far too many lands to keep pressure up.
Game 2, I mulligan and keep five lands, two of them Manlands, and a Bloodbraid Elf. I draw a Hierarch on the third turn, then play Bloodbraid Elf on turn 4 and hit Pithing Needle, naming Gideon. On his turn, he snap Wraths my board of Hierarch and Bloodbraid Elf. This means he almost for sure has another one in his hand, as there’s no good reason to blow one so early. Instead of running out the Ranger I drew, I just Bloodbraid Elf again, this time hitting a Knight of the Reliquary. He thinks for a while and Wraths again. Now I feel like the coast is clear. I Ranger up Nacatl and Scute Mob, and when he does nothing I serve in with my three creatures and Raging Ravine. He Paths my Mob, but has little after that and I take the game within two turns.
Game 3, he keeps. I look over my opening hand. Raging Ravine, Hierarch, Cobra, Knight, Bloodbraid, Ranger, Needle. I tank for a while. Weigh the risks. I think back to round 1 and remember what I thought about mulliganing there and how that ended up for me. In an article about mulliganing, pros would always ship this hand. Plus, this was a good matchup. If I got mana screwed, there was very little I could do to affect the game. If I wanted to toss the coin of fate in the air, I’d still be casting Angelsongs. There’s no way keeping that hand could be right. So, I mulliganed.
This game was a grind. I had a turn 2 Cobra, then cast Knight and Needled Gideon the next turn as he cursed under his breath. He Wrathed my board, and I followed up with a Bloodbraid Elf flipping Noble Hierarch. He Pathed my Elf on his next turn, then Spreading Seased my Mountain. I played another Hierarch and sent in for two. He tapped out for Elspeth, and I drew Oblivion Ring. I needed to get that Ravine through for maximum damage next turn, and I couldn’t have any Soldier tokens mucking up my way. I needed him to block my Hierarch with his Soldier. The most likely way for that to happen was to threaten killing Elspeth
I looked at my Mountain and looked an Elspeth then started tanking, trying to fake Bolt, then attacked Elspeth for two. He thought for a while and blocked: my bluff had worked. I Ringed the Elspeth and passed. Of course, it all became a moot well-executed mind trick, as he drew Tectonic Edge for my Ravine and passed back. I played a Pridemage and sent in for 3, and he destroyed my Ravine end step. I attacked for 5. He didn’t do anything. I Rangered up a Nacatl and a Mob and just played the Nacatl. Next turn I sent in for 6 with the Ranger. He took it. He passed. I sent in with everybody. He activated Colonnade and blocked. He untapped, drew… And extended the hand! My scrappy guys had got there… And so had I! I was going to Nationals!
I’m very excited to head back to Nationals. The last time I was qualified there, I was also qualified for JSS and dropped out with a 5-2 record so I could JSS the next day. It’s going to be great to play it through this time. It won’t be easy. From the results I’ve seen so far, the squads each state is sending to Nationals seem pretty insane. It’s going to be an exciting few summer months of Magic between DC next week, San Juan the week after that, Columbus at the end of July, and then Nationals with plenty of sticky summer road trips to PTQs in between. I’m ecstatic, and extremely happy to be a part of it.
I’ll look forward to talking to you in the forums, and congratulations to everyone who did well this weekend. It was great to come home and already have two messages waiting in my inbox from people who had qualified with my Open the Vaults deck from last week. And finally, thanks to Gerry for the sweet deck. It performed admirably.
Talk to you soon!
Gavin Verhey
Team Unknown Stars
Rabon on Magic Online, Lesurgo everywhere else