When I heard that Pro Tour Los Angeles was going to be the same as Magic Online Extended, I assumed that I would just run some sort of Affinity deck like many other people. Affinity is so easy to play and it’s the only deck I could possibly have all the cards for. That all changed though when it was announced that they were banning Aether Vial and Disciple of the Vault. At first I thought people would be leaning more towards playing control decks, but through some testing and watching replays on Magic Online I figured aggro decks would be more popular. I think I should also mention that before this Pro Tour, I had completely stopped playing Magic because Champions draft is the actually nut-low and I was very busy with school.
I also didn’t have internet for about three weeks due to moving in a new apartment with “The Tbulge” himself who can be seen here if you don’t know what he looks like, so when I got internet back most of my testing group, Taking Back Sunday, was either on the TOGIT list or not qualified. I kind of felt deserted, although I would probably do the same in their situation. I mean, who wants someone that hasn’t won a match in anything ever on the team? So I needed to find a group fast. My roommate Tbulge and I put some decks together and started playing a little, but we needed something better. I was talking to Big Ced Phillips online one day and he was helping some of his friends test for the PT, so I asked if I could get in on it and that’s basically how I got on that testing team. I mean, what could be better than not knowing anyone in the testing group and having the captain of your team banned from the game for six months? Our list was actually pretty solid I think and no one was an *sshole at all like in some other groups.
We came up with a very good list of base decks and someone even came up with the idea that Life From the Loam was the most breakable card in the format, which ended up being true. We, well not really me, also came up with a rough list for Loam a Tog, but didn’t really have enough time to break the deck. At first I had people playing my “Cak Black” deck, which is basically a Suicide Black deck that is made to beat all of the control decks, but we were too afraid of there being too many RDW at the PT, which is an almost un-winnable matchup. At this point I had no idea what I was going to play, but then my friend Rasmus Sibast (a.k.a. Big Oooots) gave me an idea for Dragonstorm. I proxied it up and fell in love with it immediately. It was so consistent and any agro matchup was practically a bye. For a good laugh here’s the master, Big Oooots himself.
Here’s the list I brought to the Pro Tour:
4 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Rorix Bladewing
1 Bladewing the Risen
4 Burning Wish
4 Duress
3 Dragonstorm
4 Pentad Prism
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Seeting Song
4 Desperate Ritual
3 Tainted Pact
4 Chrome Mox
4 Sulfurous Springs
2 City of Brass
4 Tinder Farm
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Geothermal Crevice
2 Ancient Spring
Sideboard:
4 Pyroclasm
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Inner Fire
1 Innocent Blood
3 Yosei the Morning Star
1 Echoing Ruin
1 Dragonstorm
I chose this deck because I thought that the field was going to consist of Goblins, Affinity, Red Deck Wins, Madness, and a splash of Tog, Chant, and U/G Brain Freeze. I was pretty close, but there was more Rock than I had expected and control decks always seemed to be covering the top tables when I walked around. The night before the tournament, there was a buzz going around the room that everyone needed Goblin Legionnaires for Goblins and Boros Deck Wins, which we were very happy to hear. I also heard that some guy was looking for Gaea’s Mights and Tribal Flames. I later heard he couldn’t find them and ended up having to play Giant Growth instead, which is hilarious. I also saw people putting together Affinity decks everywhere. I was starting to get the feeling that tomorrow was going to be a good day.
I manage to get enough time to lose a quick draft to Xeracy, who is also known as I Won My Match on MODO, with the worst deck ever, so I was feeling pretty good. We head back to Eugene’s house through the train system, which was kind of a pain because it was so far away, but hey – nothing beats a free place to stay. I have never been asked for so much change in my life. At every corner of downtown Los Angeles there was either; a) 3 bums asking you for money, b) a hooker that Artem Douchekavich tried to obtain through cunning linguism, or c) a guy out of his mind waving an orange cone around his head like he was about to kill someone. I also become very sick at this point in the trip, which always happens to me for some reason. As you can tell, I’m pretty lucky.
Round 1: Alex Wapplehorst
He starts off game one with an Isamaru, Hound of Konda and I keep a hand of 2 Rituals, Dragonstorm, Duress, and lands. Turn 2 he plays a Vinelasher Kudzu and the following turn he makes it a 3/3 with Windswept Heath before casting a Lavamancer. I untap and Storm for 4 getting all 4 Kokushos. I board in 3 Pyroclasms for 3 Duress. Game 2 I miss my second and third land drops, but I win on turn 4 by sacking my Ancient Spring, tapping my newly drawn Sulfurous Springs for Red, playing a Chrome Mox and casting 2 Seething Songs and a Desperate Ritual into the Dragonstorm. After the match he looks baffled and so do the guys next to us. I also ran the what I thought was clever line of, “Hey, didn’t test against Dragonstorm I see” God, I’m an idiot. Sorry Mr. Wapplehorst for that out of line comment. I was clearly going too far with that one.
1-0
I’m feeling pretty confident after that round. I knew any deck without disruption was going to be a bye and I was right. I head over to the Players’ Lounge afterward for a nice awful doughnut, converse with some friends, and get ready for the second round. I also managed to get a couple games of Pinball in. Man, what an exciting round that was.
Round 2: Ruud Warmenhoven
This is probably the last person I want to see myself playing against at this Pro Tour because I kind of had a feeling he was playing Scepter-Chant, which is actually an un-winnable matchup for me. I wouldn’t mind losing to him though because we are pretty good friends I would think, and we are even from the same country (I’m like 90% Dutch). We also seem to be stuck in the same place in the Pro Tour standings – barely making the level 3 cut off and never being able to get up to the same “level of play” as the Big Tymers. Although Ruud managed to make more money than I have my entire career at this tournament. Congrats on your finish by the way, and thanks for making me look bad.
After he plays a first turn Sacred Foundry I know that I’m in trouble, but my hand is fairly solid. On turn 4 I have the opportunity to “go off” but I want to wait a turn because if I draw another Ritual, Mox, or Duress I can protect my Dragonstorm. Instead I draw Bladewing the Risen, which is the worst possible draw. I decide to go for it. I sac my land and cast Cabal Ritual. He laughs and then gets a really confused look on his face. After 25 minutes of deliberation, he lets it resolve. I cast another and it resolves. And another, which also resolves. That’s 5 Black in my pool. I sac another land and Seething Song and that also resolves. I then cast the Dragon Storm, which gets me “baha’d.” With the first 2 copies I get Kokushos and the third I get Rorix. Oh yea, did I mention I had the other 3 Dragons in my hand? He decides to Counterspell the last storm copy. I attack for 6 and pass. He then Cunning Wishes for Echoing Truth and I pack. Nice Game. In between the game we talk about how the Players Club is the only thing keeping us both at these Pro Tours where only pros are supposed to play, which is 100% true. Game 2 he plays a Counterspell, meaning I lost.
1-1
I still feel pretty confident, because I couldn’t possibly hit anymore Scepter Chant decks right?
Round 3: Roy Oever
He played an Island and a Sacred Foundry so I lost the match. Notes from match: He was wearing a funny hat.
1-2
Round 4: Timothy Gruneich
I know Tim from local PTQs and stuff. He’s also playing Chant. I don’t believe what just happened to me. I didn’t even have a chance. I might as well have gotten 3 match losses in a row. This also further proves that I am the unluckiest player in the history of the game.
1-3
Yet somehow, I’m not all that upset about it. Normally I would have rejected the handshake or something idiotic like I have done before. I just take the giant beating that has been given to me and I move on. I’m not even going to talk about what happened in round 5. All I’m going to say is that I sacrificed a land on turn 2 to find Innocent Blood to kill his turn 1 Shadowmage and the Innocent Blood ended up in my deck after sideboarding somehow.
So after having my worst Pro Tour performance ever, I watch some friends finish their rounds and other things like that that I usually do at Pro Tours. That night I make some money in drafts while cheating against Sam Stein. It’s the only way to beat him. Same goes with Paul Cheon. What a master he is.
As for the Dragonstorm deck, I don’t think that it is capable of being good at a Pro Tour with such an unpredictable metagame. If the people that go to your local PTQs tend to run aggro decks (like they do at mine), I would consider playing this deck again. However, I would add 4 Defense Grids to the sideboard. If that resolves against Scepter Chant I don’t think you can possibly lose. Psychatog is not that hard of a matchup because their only way around you going off is Stifle and you can wait a long time before going off because they don’t have the Scepter Chant lock like that deck does. If you get enough mana you should be fine. Against Madness it all depends on whether or not they get a fast draw. Circular Logic does almost nothing because you have so much mana to work with and you don’t need to go off before turn 5 or 6. Goblins, Affinity, and Red Deck Wins all should be about 70-30 or 80-20 in your favor. None of them really have disruption, so it makes life easy for you.
The rest of my trip in Los Angeles consisted of some UI drafts (drunk drafting, for you old folks), which are very fun. I almost met some pretty awesome guys from Poland, but don’t happen to remember their names for some odd reason. Later some of the Dutch, Gadiel, Eugene and myself went to find somewhere to eat and on the way some bum started walking with us and said “we were all his brothaz, especially that kid. Look at him, he even has the ‘fro going”. The kid with the ‘fro that he was talking about was Julien. [Obviously. – Knut] We eventually ended up at some new age bar that you needed to be on X or something to enjoy. It also had techno music straight out of the movie Blade when all the vampires are partying or whatever. Our choices for dinner were pretty slim in that it was either spaghetti or no. All in all, I had a very good time in LA and I still get my $500 appearance fee for going. I’m going to scam Wizards for so much money out of these appearance fees. They have no idea that I have never actually won a match in my life and that I haven’t even Day 2’d a pro tour yet. Oh well, now it’s back to school at the U of M and testing for upcoming Worlds. Yeah, that’s right. I’ll be there and I plan on doing well.
I would also like to take this time to congratulate a couple of people. Props to my favorite Magic player currently, Alexander Ratchke, who is also known as mini ooots for getting 3rd at GP: Copenhagen and the Star Wars Kid, Chris McDaniel for Top 4’ing the Pro Tour. I knew you were going to do well with that deck. Although you did get cheated out of Top 4, it is still an amazing accomplishment. I just wish I could have been there dressed up in a Darth Vader costume watching you play Sunday. I guess I have to barn you now then, right?
Thanks for reading,
Cak