Bearl! I know it’s been a Bearl since I Bearled at you, but I’ve been pretty Bearl. I just got my Bearl and have been doing non-Bearl things in my spare Bearl. But since there was a Bearl in MN this previous weekend, I had to Bearl. It went pretty Bearl, and here’s the Bearl. Bearl!
Ahem. That’s what happens when you spend a week in Minnesota. My lord, do people love Ken’s name. What I mean to say was, sorry I haven’t written in a while. Finishing and receiving my degree has taken up a lot of my time this past month. Still, I couldn’t pass up a chance to GP in my former backyard, seeing all those friends and family. As it turns out, going to the GP was a fine choice, as things went pretty Bearl.
The testing for Block was somewhat organic. I talked to a bunch of people I knew and just started building decks. Right off the bat I could tell what could work and what couldn’t. For example, I found if you’re going to play a slower deck, it had better be Gifts. There’s no control deck that can handle infinity. That said, I didn’t have much desire to actually play Gifts. While recognizing its abstract greatness, I didn’t have the time or energy to test the mirror exhaustively. It’s complicated and a GP is not the time to be confused on how a game should play out. Instead, my goal was to find an aggro deck that could beat other aggro decks. I was looking for consistency, plus some kind of edge.
For a while, forgetting this wasn’t sealed deck, I was excited by the synergy of Kagemaro/Death Denied/Sakura-Tribe Elder. While effective at killing a few guys or getting a few more lands into play, it was pretty weak in the overall. You may as well either play Snakes or Gifts if those kind of interactions appeal, instead of just splitting the difference.
Mono-Black did get some attention pretty early on, but it turned out to be garbage. One thing we found out was that Manriki-Gusari was going to be a big player, and O-Naginata was going to fall by the wayside pretty fast. It’s not that the big O was that bad at the right times, it’s just that those right times were getting less and less likely. Also, despite discard and Graverobber, there were times when it simply couldn’t handle control. Too many Demons were too slow, too many Ogres/Hands got wiped off the board with Laughter or Jitte. Essentially the deck could win, but it had to draw picture perfect too many times in a row. Not a promising trait for a 14 round event.
Which left Snakes or WW. I don’t know why I dismissed snakes so quickly, but for whatever reason, it didn’t have the tools I cared for. I was liking WW alright, but it didn’t really come together until I had heard Tim Bulger won his PTQ with Celestial Kirins.
Now the Kirin, as people have been finding out more and more, is nuts. It’s crazy good. You can set up obscene situations with it, or you can just bash with the 3/3 flier. Generally, one does both.
Its existence fundamentally changes the way decks are built and played. For example, Empty-Shrine Kannushi, a rather popular sideboard card for the mirror, is terrible with Celestial Kirin in the environment. A simple Blessed Breath or Lantern Kami wipes them all away. Too many two-drops or four-drops also makes a deck extra vulnerable to the Kirin.
My first version of WW had infinite two-drops, including Otherworldly Journey and Kami of the Ancient Law. I found out through playing lots of games with that particular version is that those two-mana guys would have to be stuck in my hand. Or to be more succinct, playing some of those two-drops meant I couldn’t play the other ones. You would be in situations where you’d want to Journey away your Kirin, but doing so would Wrath and Shatterstorm your side of the field. It was a rough beta version, but it still won like crazy. Kirin and Manriki-Gusari still beat the pants off of the mirror (sans-Kirin), Black Aggro, Random Red, TOGIT, and sometimes even Gifts. These generally weren’t the highest end players or decks, but even I could see the power available to a White deck with Kirin and Manriki together. WW was definitely the deck I wanted to play at the GP.
There were two final pieces to the puzzle. As I said, my goal was to have an aggressive deck that would have an edge against other aggressive decks. The first part was that I didn’t like Shining Shoal. It was kind of trapping me for a while because it was so good with Kirin. It also was pretty effective against Ire decks, which were a popular choice online (I assume because they were cheap). So for a while I had two main and one in the side, and was generally getting good results with it. The problem, I found out later, is that it doesn’t really do anything.
Almost by definition, it’s a reactive card. The only time you can be proactive is when you randomly want to kill something with it with Kirin in play. That interaction seemed necessary when playing against Snakes, a horrid matchup for WW. The only chance seemed to be Shoal for 4 when Seshiro and Kirin was in play. Read that previous sentence and see how many things have to go right for that scenario. Furthermore, it wasn’t a guaranteed win by any means even if you could kill the snake master. You certainly didn’t need Shoal against Ire decks because a: they sucked, b: you beat them anyway, and c: they really sucked. Shoal, while sometimes effective, and occasionally brutal, just were not putting out the numbers that I wanted. I think Gerry Thompson was the first person to say how bad they were, and at his insistence I looked at them more critically. The result was the chain of thinking above. Despite the potential of anything, one just has to examine empirical data and see what actually happens instead of what could. Cool things are dangerous, etc etc.
The final piece came from Thomas Woodward, A.K.A. MasterCube on Magic Online. He told me how effective Patron of the Kitsune was for him in his sideboard. I thought it was a fantastic idea. Testing showed it was so effective it would be great maindeck.
Why is the Patron so good? Basically, it shores up all the vulnerabilities of the White decks. First off, 99% of the time, a 5/6 is the biggest guy on the table. It can’t be Laughtered away, and Kagemaro struggles as well. The opponent needs a Kokusho or Myojin just to Sickening Shoal it. Then of course, you’ve got protection. Namely Journey or 8.5 Tails. It’s a fantastic racer, often gaining at least four life per both attack phases. And of course, it comes out fast! There are lots of ways to bring it out turn 4 through offering, and one can even recoup the sacrifice as well. Kirin also works nicely with Patron, as six-mana is one of the better triggers to kick out.
I’ll say without exaggeration that at the Grand Prix, there was exactly one game I lost despite casting Patron, compared to an awful lot of victories directly attributed to the 5/6 beast. There is no way I could see playing White Weenie this season and not running a couple of Patrons.
Here’s the deck as I ran it at the GP:
Creatures (24)
- 4 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
- 2 Patron of the Kitsune
- 3 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
- 2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
- 4 Lantern Kami
- 2 Kitsune Blademaster
- 4 Celestial Kirin
- 3 Hand of Honor
Lands (23)
- 23 Plains
Spells (13)
I know the numbers seem kind of strange, but there is a method here. 8.5 is kind of weak on its own, but it pushes Patron through and is needed to destroy theirs. The three of each Bushido hedges the bets somewhat. The Pale Curtain is almost strictly better than Hand, both for abilities and creature types. Yet, I ran three Hand and one in the board because I simply expected a lot of Black at the GP. As it turns out, I was half right, and I did end up siding in the fourth Hand more than once.
I think the most interesting aspect is how few ways there are to trigger Kirin. The Journeys were all I wanted. Kami of the Ancient Law is pretty weak, and of course I had a lot of Items of Power in the 2 side. The one-mana trigger came up an awful lot, and the 4s, 5s, and 6s once in a while. Two is the most powerful arcane number, but it is a double-edged sword. To tell the truth, I was usually jonesing for a one-mana trigger more than a two throughout the day. Between Manriki and 8.5, my Jitte concerns were perhaps less than one might expect.
The other two noteworthy choices in the maindeck were the 2 Isamarus and the lack of Eiganjo Castle. Isamaru is a real wild card. Against control decks, it’s a fantastic turn 1, and an adequate, although unexciting, in the later game. Against the mirror it’s beyond terrible, only mildly useful when you’re on the play and it’s on turn 1, and only if you think turn 1 Shock is a fine opener. As such, I felt two main and one in the side covered things pretty well, with a total of six one-drops to start with. I could honestly see cutting Isamaru for something like Kami of the False Hope, especially if you expect more mirror matches.
The Castle had similar motivations. The land in this deck is kind of funny. It’s a very fine line between screw and flood. You definitely want 23 with Kirins and 8.5. I didn’t run the Castle because I didn’t want to get Wastelanded at inopportune times, even though I had the potential to do the same to them. The Charge also made the Castle worse. Plus, how often do you prevent damage to a legend anyway? If my legends are dying, it ain’t from Yamabushi’s Flame.
Sideboard:
4 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Hand of Honor
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Terashi’s Grasp
2 Final Judgment
3 Opal-Eye, Konda’s Yojimbo
1 Eiganjo Castle
They never see Final Judgment coming! I expected the mirror to bring in Patrons and Opal-Eye, so Wraths seemed like a natural green mushroom. They’re also pretty useful against TOGIT control, a deck this deck beat all day. The Castle is in there to go along with the extra six casting costs cards. Wasteland looks a lot better when you have a natural mana advantage, and Opal-Eye does occasionally like the extra prevention. Then of course, one takes out Charge against any deck Opal-Eye comes in against.
Speaking of, Opal-Eye was amazing all day. I called him my little Morphling, but in reality he’s got more abilities. Check this:
#1-Damage redirection.
#2-Damage prevention.
#3-Defender
#4-Bushido
#5-A Fox
#6-Survives Yamabushi’s Flame!
This little fellow does it all. Excellent defense while waiting for the Wrath, then just unload the grip and clean house. I liked every card except the 4th Hokori. It’s probably needed, but I wanted to keep (at least) 2 Kirins in no matter what I played against. I think someone could get away with going down to 3, but I wouldn’t hold it against them if they felt safer at 4.
The aggro matches are about holding down the fort and dealing with yours/their Jittes until your bomb Wrath or Patron comes out to play. At that point, it’s pretty basic. You’re a more controlling deck after sideboarding, but certainly don’t be afraid to get into a racing situation. Here’s how I sided for the mirror:
-2 Charge
-2 Isamaru
-2 Hand
-1 Lantern Kami
-1 Otherworldly Journey
+1 Castle
+3 Opal-Eye
+2 Grasp
+2 Judgment
Against any deck with Wraths, your win is going to come from Otherworldly Journey. The game plan is to get enough hits in with your people without over-committing too much. The first Wrath/Laughter/Kagemaro will probably get 2:1. Incidentally, Manriki is very useful here as a Laughter stopper + extra damage. Then in phase two, you’ll lay a few more guys and get into a situation where they need to Wrath again. If you’re against TOGIT, something like 8.5 or Patron. If you’re against Gifts, just multiple creatures with lots of toughness. At this point you’ll Journey your biggest threat away, and then drop Hokori when they’re tapped out. You might simply Journey away your Hokori to the second Wrath, which also works fine.
After the Journey/Hokori run you’ll have them low enough on life and mana that you should be able to mop up. There are cards to make this strategy tougher, like Hero’s Demise and Sickening Shoal. Still, it’s your best bet against decks that have inevitability, and it’s what this version of the deck was designed to do.
Sideboarding is a little up in the air depending on their version. Against TOGIT for example, they’ll often bring in the weak Empty-Shrine. If they do, you need to keep some Lantern Kami in for Kirin triggers. Needle also requires this. You can often lose a single Jitte against control, especially removal heavy ones. No matter what they’re playing, I wouldn’t go lower than 2 Manriki however. It’s just too helpful for your game plan against these types of decks.
Now before a big tournament, as well as before a big meal or before a large movement, I like to play some poker. Sharing in this innocent compulsion were good men Cory and Andy. As I’m sure everyone knows, online playing is both fun and profitable. However, there are times when one has an interest in sitting across the table from another person, and taking all their children’s college account money. Again, C and A shared this interest.
But alas, most of us were banned from every casino in Minnesota. Where to go? Why Turtle Lake casino in Wisconsin, natch. So the three of us headed out to Wisconsin, normally about a 50 minute drive from the cities. Unfortunately, construction forced the county road we were on to a single lane, which backed things up quite a bit.
Finally at 10:30, an hour after starting out, we saw a sign for Turtle Lake telling us that it was a mere 20 miles away. Cory, impatient innovator that he is, wagered $20 that Andy couldn’t get the three of us there by 10:45.
Andrew, a man of action if there ever was one, quickly agreed and gunned it. As we were in the backwoods of Wisconsin, I was on “deer patrol”. As Andy had a suspended driver’s license, Cory was on “cop patrol”.
Not much was said by anyone as the car raced along going 90+. I may or may not have muttered the occasional Jesus CHRIST as our driver double passed some cars or passed a semi in a no-passing zone. Aside from epitaphs, a racing engine, and my poor heart, things were oddly quiet. I believe at around 10:40 Cory started to realize Andy was going to win the bet, so he started pointing out tractors and trees as cop cars.
This did, in a very panicky manner, slow Andy down for a bit, say to 75-80. However, a look for himself would prove nothing there and he would gun it to 100MPH, as if to make up for lost time. We all did agree though that a ticket would be very pricey for Andy, as not only would it probably be in the triple digits, he would also get carted off to jail for the night and lose the bet. Quite an impetus for staying under the radar, so to speak. Luckily Andy, possessing stealth capabilities one would never know he possessed if you ever met the fellow, safely parked us at the casino at 10:43PM. $20 richer, he decided to lose a grand playing Craps. C’est L’vie.
On to the main event. 409 players show up, which I’m told is a bit fewer than expected. I run around trying to finish off my deck, and am rather excited to be playing with some of the best looking Plains in the world. Courtesy of StarCityGames.com, I have 23 Foil Odyssey #333 Plains sleeved up and ready for (pretty) action. So you see, even if I wanted an Eiganjo Castle maindeck, there simply was no room.
David Hayes, Jason Webter, Gerry Thompson, John Pelcak, and Matt Greene were kind enough to loan me the rest of what I needed. Plains were not needed; cards to cast off of them were. Luckily for me, these were cool and generous people all.
Round 1 and 2 were introspective moments, reflecting on how awesome having byes were. The answer: very.
Round 3-John Runger (Demon Aggro)
Game 1: I’ve got big smiles (on the inside) when John went turn 1 Swamp, O-Naginata. In testing, over and over again, main deck Manrikis just demolished the demon deck. My grip was quite solid too; Kirin, Patron, Manriki, Blademaster… Unfortunately, none of it was any good.
Raving Oni-Slave acquired an astonishing 3 O-Naginatas. Blademaster got Sick Shoaled and I was in a world of hurt. Journey bought me some time and did some damage but I was certainly on the backpedal. At one life I kill off the Oni with a sick Kirin equipped with Manriki-Gusari. I had a single draw step, the 6th land for the Patron to start gaining life and doing damage. John was at 6 life, after all. Alas, it was a blank and John’s next random guy took me out.
Pretty annoying to have such a bad start to such a good matchup. Shaking it off, we side:
+1 Hand
+3 Opal-Eye
-2 Lantern Kami
-2 Charge
Charge could have been useful in a potential racing situation, but I really wasn’t interested in dead cards. Worse, a couple timely removal spells could have cost the whole match if there was a dependence happening.
Game 2: Speedy, amazing Patron goes crazy on John. No Hands of C and no Hero’s Demise means the 5/6 is by far the largest man(?) on the table. An unopposed Jitte quickly seals the end.
Game 3: My Pale Curtain trades with his Oni Slave. Isamaru dies to…something. An Opal-Eye comes down and seriously stymies the beats, but I choose not to lose it to Ink-Eyes. Inky recoups the pointless puppy to John’s side. After Opal-Eye equips Manriki, John pretty much can’t win. Despite having the unbreakables, John is getting more and more upset with the floods of Swamps. After laying four in a row, John concedes in disgust at 11 life. I make soothing noises and turn in the victory slip.
3-0
Round 4-Paul Reitzl (Mirror) FEATURE MATCH
This is where the author directs the reader to a link by Wizards.com where “the staff did a pretty good job of covering the round”. Unfortunately, the coverage for this GP was pretty light. Anyone want to see all the Day 2 decklists? Yeah, me too.
Someone mentioned to me that Paul had a good talking game, so my goal was to be a conversation dampening zone. I gotta say, the spectators left pretty quick when I started answering questions via a series of blinks.
Mr. Reitzl was playing the mirror, except sans Celestial Kirin main and + Hokori. If you think this gives a big edge to the Kirined player, you win a cookie.
Actually, game 1 was pretty much a mockery anyway. Drawing three Jittes to the other guy’s one will usually be enough to take care of things quickly. The death knell was a hard cast Patron.
Standard mirror sideboarding as detailed above.
Game 2: My Manriki-Gusari nailed one of Paul’s Jittes, which was gigantic. The other big move was Kirin + Lantern Kami wiping out two Empty-Shrine Kannushis. After that, my Jitte had free reign and it was all over. Not particularly complicated games.
Paul was extremely cordial the entire match and took my fantastic draws with aplomb. More importantly, I was
4-0
Round 5-Trever Jones (Mirror)
This was one of the more frustrating matches I played all weekend. Game 1 I’ve got nothing going and all my legends are being trumped by his. I make a shot with Patron, but an opposing Jitte is too much for me to handle with such little board presence.
Game 2 goes a lot better for me. In Slowwww motion. Opal-Eye comes down on turn 3 and gums up the works nicely. Trevor is playing lots of random 2/2s but they aren’t doing a whole lot. Meanwhile, I’m just using 8.5 to get a fellow in every turn, waiting for a Jitte or Patron to speed things along. Trevor is, I feel, taking an inordinate amount of time on his turns, so I ask him to speed things up. He says sure, and doesn’t change anything.
As the clock continues to move down, I’m forced to call a judge. The judge watches the match intently for a few minutes, than wanders off to something more engaging. I make the executive decision to not call another judge, having to wait around for him/her to get there, and just go on with the business of killing my opponent. My suspicions of slow play grew when Mr. Jones reads my Opal-Eye, passes through combat, reads my Opal-Eye again and then plays his own. Okay…
I still kill him and we’re off to game 3.
Game 3 of course starts in my favor and of course the clock is at <5 minutes. We have a general crowd of spectators at this point, including some judges, but they’re impotent as things are moving along at a steady clip. I’m forced to get 5:1 with a Final Judgment, which sealed the game for me in an inevitable kind of way, but certainly not a timely one.
In the end, time is called and extra turns end when Trevor is at exactly one life facing lethal from the next attack. We sign the slips as a draw and everyone disperses. I tell Trevor flat out that I think he stalled me and he kind of shrugs, packs up, and leaves. Frustrated, I do the same.
4-0-1
Being in the draw bracket is pretty rough, generally. How many Ire decks or Black Hand decks get draws in GPs? How many TOGIT control or Gifts decks? Which are good and which are terrible matchups? At this point I’m hoping to scrape out a 2-1 on the day and play people that IDed their way into tomorrow. That’s the plan anyway.
Round 6-Greg Simon (WGU Control)
Game 1: He goes the standard Top/Sakura-Tribe action. Early Lantern Kami gets some hits in, and my 2/2 necessitates either damage or some chump blocking. I lay 8.5 Tails to force a Wrath, since his chump, race with Yosei plan was doing pretty well. No Final Judgment comes from him. Rather he casts Myojin of Cleansing Fire at eight mana.
It puts me in an interesting situation. I could stay at parity for a while, using 8.5 and Lantern Kami to hold the ground, but I felt like that was doomed to fail. Greg would eventually get Meloku or double Yosei and I’d be drawing dead.
So instead I Manriki and Pro-White my guys and force his hand. Myojin loses divinity as expected and I get everything tapped, at 5 life. I drop the Plains in my hand say go.
Greg attacks me down to 1 and passes. On my turn I draw Lantern Kami and play it with the single untapped land. It chumps the next attack, and another Yosei hits the table.
On my turn I get the untap and lay Celestial Kirin and another Lantern freshly drawn. Manriki 4/5ifys the Kirin. On Greg’s turn, both creatures attack. Kami steps in front of the Dragon, and my Kirin bounces off his Myojin. At this point, Wear Away, Meloku, or another Yosei makes the game unwinnable. None of those appear and I get my untap. I swing with the Kirin into a tapped board and play the Charge for appx. a million damage and the game. Whew!
The second game was a lot less exciting. Greg got an insane mana flood, off of a double mulligan no less. My draw was actually pretty poor, but it didn’t really matter. After lots of turns of one to two 2/2s attacking, it was mercifully over.
5-0-1
Round 7 Sean-Michael Ryder (WGU Control)
Game 1: I manage to go all the way down to 17 life before Patron pulls me back up. A forced Judgment leads to the Patron taking a Journey, after which Charge Across the Araba ends things in its sweeping fashion.
Game 2: We’re getting into a controlled racing situation after our boards are set up. I’m doing a bit of gambling with Yosei, as in if he plays another I’m finished. Instead, he seems content with Kodama of the North and a Meloku. My turns sees a crippling Final Judgment. Sean looks visibly taken aback at the Wrath and doesn’t have any recovery. I unload a decent sized swarm I had been sandbagging and swarm in for the kill.
6-0-1
Well it’s nice to be locked into Day 2. Some bad matchups were overcome with good draws, although it’s possible they’re not as bad as originally thought. Regardless, we’ll be waking up early tomorrow. One last round for the freeroll however.
Round 8-John Pelcack (WW w/Spirit sub-theme [Gohei + Promise et al])
Mr. Pelcak was a nice young man who was just starting to get decent as I moved away from Minnesota a few years ago. My little protégé made good in the last few years, winning some GP action, doing well on the Tour, and most importantly, writing for StarCityGames.com. Not many people know this, but he’s actually a male model for photography classes in the Twin Cities. Despite his glowing reputation and body, it still felt good playing a man I used to trounce regularly. Despite his current phallic nick, he’ll always be Ja-hon to me.
Game 1: On the play, I got a turn 2 creature. John goes turn 2 Jitte, so on my turn 3 I play Manriki-Gusari and kill off his Jitte.
Pelcak: “I didn’t know you played those main!”
Me: “I do. See…?”
That sequence was rather backbreaking. Getting my own Jitte online a couple turns later finished things.
Game 2: This game was kind of a mockery. John struggles with the keep and eventually decides to. Off what was evidently a one-lander, he plays 3 Lantern Kamis on three consecutive turns. He did draw a second land, but I drew far more. At one point, I had 5 lands out to John’s 2. John had out Kami of the Ancient Law and Tallowisp, but my bushido guys were trumping everything. My 8.5 Tails comes down and starts making damage happen, as well as letting the Lantern Kami I have hold off all of John’s. Finally John draws a third land to lay Promise of Bunrei. I’m actually starting to get a bit flooded, but still getting damage through when possible. John almost makes a run at it after laying Long-Forgotten Gohei to pump up the Promise tokens, but my defenses are too strong. 3 Kami of the False Hope (in a row) give John draw steps, but there’s really nothing to find. With a rueful shaking of hands, I proceed to
7-0-1
Undefeated on Day 1 ain’t too shabby. The two 8-0s were both control decks, but the other 7-0-1 was a pure mirror, which also meant the first round tomorrow was a good matchup.
Day 1 ended relatively early, so us cool people were all stuck on what to do. Little known fact: Downtown St. Paul sucks ballz after 8:00PM. We ended up getting some overpriced, over-salted Italian food and trading recent events. Always nice to catch up with the old buddies. Apparently, one of my friends had a life-threatening stroke and required serious brain surgery! Fantastic!
Around 11:00PM, everyone else headed out, leaving only myself and Ryan Elder, who was graciously allowing me the use of his hotel room that evening. All I know is, I don’t want more than five hours of sleep before Day 2.
Does that sound odd? Any more than 5-6 hours and I’m a slow waker. I enjoy sleep at least as much as the next guy, but too much won’t do me any favors. I can sleep when the other guy is dead.
So myself and Elder go up to the hotel room and watch a horrible, horrible SNL episode (redundant/Robert DeNiro does Christmas). Being told that the event starts at 8AM tomorrow, I work on this very article and drop off around 2ish to wake up at 7 for the breakfast/shower/etc.
Zzz
Zzz
Zzz
How did it all work out? Find out Monday!