I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately. Over the last month or so, I’ve made it a priority to play more real life Magic. I could feel the rust from not
playing very much in real life. I wanted to shake it off and hoped that playing more frequently would help.
A while ago, I wrote about how Magic is one big session, and
while good tournament finishes are things you can be proud of, I’m ultimately building toward something bigger. I viewed the tournaments not as separate
entities, but as learning experiences that would allow me to make better decisions in the future. This is a roundabout way of saying that all the Magic
I’ve been playing lately has been in anticipation of the Season Four Invitational. I did pretty well in Invitationals before I went to WotC, and since I’ve
been back, my finishes have been rather tame.
This time, I’m aiming higher.
Before I played in the first of my many recent tournaments, I had been playing on Magic Online and had a list of decks and ideas I wanted to try out. One
such deck was Abzan Reanimator (which is not really a reanimator deck at all, just another Abzan deck with a better lategame), which Josh Ravitz
simultaneously suggested might be a good deck. I asked Glenn Jones, who was doing most of the driving for these tournaments, if he had the cards I was
missing for the deck, but he was planning on playing the deck himself!
I settled on playing W/U Heroic, which was a deck I liked and owned all the cards for. During the tournaments, I watched a bunch of Glenn’s matches, picked
his brain on the deck, and contributed when I could. After a couple of Invitational Qualifiers where Glenn did well and some playtesting sessions where I
couldn’t really beat Glenn with anything I threw at him, I decided that Abzan Reanimator was, in fact, the deck I was going to play at SCG Portland.
We both changed some stuff the morning of the tournament and despite our slightly diverging paths, we basically crushed the tournament.
Creatures (25)
- 3 Hornet Queen
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 2 Fleecemane Lion
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 2 Doomwake Giant
- 1 Soul of Innistrad
- 1 Reclamation Sage
- 4 Siege Rhino
Lands (24)
Spells (11)
Creatures (23)
- 3 Hornet Queen
- 1 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 2 Doomwake Giant
- 1 Reclamation Sage
- 4 Siege Rhino
Lands (24)
Spells (13)
Glenn and I were two of the three 7-0s, first and second after the swiss, and ended up finishing third and fourth overall. While Glenn lost to Sheldon
Freerksen in Top 4, I beat Sheldon in the swiss and was confident about my matchup against any Abzan deck.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance at the trophy because I conceded to Brad Nelson in Top 4. It wasn’t a difficult decision, even with a trophy on the
line. At the end of the day, there are very few things more important to me than helping my friends, and if Brad missed the Players’ Championship by a
small amount, I wouldn’t forgive myself.
The majority of the time, we play Magic in a one-on-one setting, but the competitive side of me is frequently at war with the side of me that wants my
friends to succeed. It’s not just about getting my name up in lights — getting my friends’ names up there matters to me too, arguably even more than my
own.
Maybe Brad hasn’t “earned” it, and maybe he wouldn’t do the same for me, but that’s okay. Even if I wanted my return to the Top 8 to end triumphantly,
there will be more opportunities for trophies.
As for the Abzan Reanimator deck, it was great. It has a better long game than any of the midrange decks, yet it still has the option of going Fleecemane
Lion, Siege Rhino, kill your creature, kill you. That’s the great thing about playing cards like Fleecemane Lion. It might look like it doesn’t have any
synergy with the rest of the deck, and that’s certainly true. However, being able to give the deck an entirely different angle of attack is important.
If I did nothing but focus on the lategame, I’d be exploitable, especially after sideboarding. With things like Fleecemane Lion, my opponents rarely have
any idea what gameplan I’m on from the very beginning. Forcing my opponents to make difficult decisions is more important than having an entirely
synergetic deck. Fleecemane Lion is also a split card — it’s either a little beater or a good blocker against aggressive decks.
Aside from that, the deck had Hornet Queen, which is probably the best foil to the current midrange decks like Abzan and Mardu. They can’t get through what
basically amounts to five removal spells. Many of my opponents brought in Drown in Sorrow against me just to answer Hornet Queen, but it’s rarely a great
answer. Even if they have it at the perfect time, they’re dealing me very little damage after they -2/-2 their entire team for the turn, and Whip of Erebos
is active with eight mana.
I don’t think bringing in Drown in Sorrow is incorrect, but it’s certainly not a great answer. Each time, it was irrelevant or I was able to Thoughtseize
it before playing out my Hornet Queen. Sometimes I was able to Whip of Erebos a Hornet Queen early, and their Drown in Sorrow just meant I had to find
another Hornet Queen.
Overall, I beat Abzan several times, but then again, I never actually lost a match.
Everything basically worked the way I wanted it to. The manabase, while not perfect, was sufficient aside from a couple draws that included too many
painlands or too many Urborgs. Siege Rhino was an unbelievable workhorse. Hero’s Downfall was the perfect complement to Murderous Cut, killing problematic
cards like Stormbreath Dragon and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver.
The sideboard Abzan Charms killed things, drew cards, and even allowed Fleecemane Lion to immediately attack an Ashiok to death. Overall, they were more
versatile than Read the Bones while performing mostly the same function. Nissa, Worldwaker was relevant in the two control matchups I played, especially
when I was able to play it on turn 5, untap a Forest, and Thoughtseize my opponent thanks to Urborg!
Thoughtseize was a last minute addition to the maindeck, and I wanted to find room for a second copy, but I wanted everything else more. Similar to
Fleecemane Lion, Thoughtseize is kind of like a split card. I don’t want to overload my deck with them, but drawing one is generally pretty nice. Sometimes
it’s used offensively to punch a hole, and sometimes it’s used defensively. Thoughtseize is obviously a great card, but I don’t want to draw a bunch of
them because they have diminishing returns.
Abzan Reanimator is a great deck, and I wouldn’t recommend anything else over it right now. After all, I don’t think I’ve made an Open Top 8 since Delver
of Secrets was Standard legal, so any deck that is able to easily put me in Top 8 is probably pretty good.
As for Legacy, well…
At the last SCG Portland, I made a foolish agreement with Riki Hayashi that we’d both play Leylines in Legacy. After realizing it was the week before the
Season Four Invitational and I’d likely want to use that tournament to test, I was kicking myself. The cards weren’t easy to find either, but I typically
keep up my end of the bargain.
However, Riki did not, nor did he let me know until the morning of the tournament, which left me scrambling for a “real” deck. If he wasn’t taking the
plunge with me, clearly I wasn’t going to do it either. I started asking around, but everyone’s extra cards seemed to be spoken for. Suddenly, I heard a
cool, calm voice behind me.
“I got you.”
I turned around to see Tom Ross pulling something out of his backpack. He handed it to me.
Curiously, I opened the deckbox and inspected the contents.
Hydroblast. Krosan Grip. A foil Spellskite.
F%#@ it, I’m in.
Is it weird that I thought using Tom’s cards would basically give me super powers? Just to be sure I had the whole package, I asked if I could wear the
jacket too. He let out a small chuckle, shrugged, and said “Maybe.”
I didn’t have time to discuss card choices. I didn’t have time to practice. I barely had enough time to find the cards I was missing.
Maybe I should have paid more attention to Tom’s articles. I mean, I read them, but once I had the deck in my hands, I didn’t feel like I had absorbed much
information at all. It certainly wasn’t enough for me to feel comfortable with the deck. Was playing Infect better or worse than just playing the Leylines
deck?
Well, the Leylines deck looked like this:
Lands (11)
Spells (49)
I have no idea if it’s capable of winning a game or not. I was guessing not.
So I rolled with Infect.
Against Miracles, I won a tight game 3 against an active Izzet Staticaster. The next round, I botched game 3 against Death and Taxes by forgetting that
Ethersworn Canonist actually did something. Instead of spending a turn killing it with Krosan Grip and going for the kill, I tried to go for the kill and
failed miserably.
I found out later that Tom happened to walk by during that exact turn. He quickly walked away in disgust. I’m surprised he didn’t take the deck away from
me right then and there.
From there, I beat a mirror match, lost to Storm twice, and dropped. For the most part, I think I was playing alright, but that blunder against Death and
Taxes certainly cost me.
As the Legacy Open progressed, word was spreading that Sheldon, the winner of the Standard Open, was making a deep run. I was kicking myself for not having
a backup plan in case the Leylines thing fell through. I didn’t block him in the Standard Open, Brad failed me, and it felt like I was about to lose the
title I held for so long. To top things off, it was entirely my fault.
He moved to 7-0 after defeating Brad Nelson a second time on the weekend. He played round eight for seeding and won. I was sweating, but what could I do?
Even if I could do something, would I want to?
I mean, how poetic would it be if, on the very last weekend that someone could actually tie my record of winning both Opens in the same weekend, they
actually did? It gets even better when you consider that so far, I was his only loss in both tournaments.
It was the setup to a beautiful story.
As it turns out, I’m pretty good at dodging bullets. Fortunately for me, Sheldon is not good at dodging topdecked Natural Orders. If you watched the
broadcast, you could see me high fiving people in the background after receiving the good news.
Many have tried to win both Opens in the same weekend and all have failed except for one. I get to take that with me to my grave, and that’s better than
any trophy. The weekend was a great success.
On Monday, I went back to the grind and played a Legacy tournament at Card Kingdom with Shardless Sultai. The deck felt fine, and although it’s not the
monster it once was, it’s still a viable option. Perhaps by the time the Invitational rolls around, I’ll have figured out all the kinks.
The next day I spent some more time playing real life Magic with some of my closest friends and Ross Merriam. It’s been a busy couple of months, but I feel
like the work I’ve been putting in has been a great help. I’ve got decks I like for both Standard and Legacy, and pretty soon it will be time for my 12th
Invitational.
First prize at the StarCityGames Invitational is an invite to the Players’ Championship and ten thousand bucks. Does it have my name on it? I don’t know,
but I’m gonna find out.