What are some of the most embarrassing plays you’ve ever made? Was it the time you forgot to leave up two mana to save your Thrun, the Last Troll from a Day of Judgment? Maybe you forgot to find an equipment with Stoneforge Mystic’s ability? Or did you Preordain on turn 2 and forget to play the land you just drew? What about keeping a hand of Brainstorm, Counterspell, Counterspell, Wasteland, Mishra’s Factory, Tundra, and Island against a Dredge player in game 3 on the draw in your win-and-in at a Grand Prix? Yep, you got me. Even Gerard Fabiano told me he thought that hand was a mulligan, and he’s kept hands no sane person would ever dream of keeping. What was I thinking?
I know why I kept the hand: because I expected a turn 1 Cabal Therapy from my opponent to name Surgical Extraction, and I thought the game might get a bit grindy from there. But instead my opponent played aggressively, and I was left holding embarrassingly slow countermagic. My justification was thoroughly flawed, though, as my friend Max Brown explained to me that if a Dredge player doesn’t have a Cabal Therapy in his opener, he can’t sit around waiting to draw it before he starts his engine; rather, he frequently must simply “go for it” if his hand gives him the tools to do so.
A quick Brainstorm in response to a turn 2 Breakthrough + Lion’s Eye Diamond sacrifice turned up no lucky Force of Will or Surgical Extraction, and soon after Zombies ate my brains. I had to settle for a second Top 16 and no coveted Pro Tour invite. Yuck. But let me back up for a second.
Grand Prix Indianapolis
It was late February and after barely missing at Grand Prix Baltimore, I’d decided that I was going to travel to Indianapolis and see if I could show people why they need to respect the ‘Blade. After making some plans to drive all the way to Indy from the east coast, I packed up my Brainstorms and headed west on the Friday before the GP. I was ready to battle, and all that was left was a discussion of the last few cards with some of my favorite Magicians. The only thing was, when I showed up at the site early Saturday morning, it turned out that Matt Costa and Jason Ford were off of U/W and on RUG Delver.
Oh no! Luckily, I had the esteemed Adam Yurchick to turn to, and we bounced ideas off each other until it was time to turn in the decklists. I ended up playing a fairly stock U/W list, with Engineered Explosives to help beat up on any unsuspecting Nimble Mongoose that fancied himself untouchable by traditional means. I was pretty excited to be battling, and despite some last minute panic involving quick changes to our equipment and land base I was confident going into round 4.
That confidence was soon lost, as after conceding when I found myself in a close, yet slightly unfavorable board state at the end of additional turns I took a quick loss to Storm combo. I found myself questioning my ability to do well at the tournament; it seemed like everyone I knew was 5-0, and I was just wallowing in self-pity. I took a long walk, reminding myself that at the last Legacy Grand Prix the same thing happened at the start of the day, and I still ended up making day 2. A close match against a very chill guy playing Mono-Black Helm of Obedience/Leyline of the Void combo lifted my spirits, and I started to find my groove, capping off my run with a win over a Maverick deck in the win-and-in round.
Day 2 went very smoothly, starting with a win over a High Tide deck and including close wins over Sneak and Show combo and Lewis Laskin on camera with BUG Control. I was feeling unbeatable, like I was really going to take the tournament down after starting 0-2. Then the unfortunate pairing in the last round against Ando Ferguson led me into my poor game 3 keep and disappointing finish, although after starting the tournament 0-2 I was certainly somewhat happy with a Top 16. The deck performed well, and although Tom Martell Esper Stoneblade deck truly changed the paradigm of what U/W is all about, I was happy with the deck. My play, of course, left something to be desired, but I knew that there would be more tournaments and more chances to make Top 8.
Unfortunately, I had a week of school to get back to before I could worry about Nashville and SCG Open Series: Baltimore featuring the Invitational. Even worse, Nashville was Limited, which is my weakest format. I really wanted to get another Top 16 or better so that I could get to Gold in the Player’s Club, but to be honest, my mindset going into Nashville was so much more pessimistic than going into Constructed GPs that I think I sabotaged myself.
Grand Prix Nashville
Nashville was awesome, despite the Grand Prix being awful. My tournament was a huge disappointment, since I had a Sealed pool that Matt Costa called “unbuildable” and I played embarrassingly poorly. The only good part of the tournament was my one win in which I cast a Hanweir Watchkeep into a Feed the Pack for five 2/2 Wolf tokens. The next turn was a good one. I cast Moldgraf Monstrosity, sacrificing it to Feed the Pack for sixteen power of Wolves and returning two creatures that had died earlier in the game. My opponent could do nothing but laugh and pick up his cards. I’ve never identified as a Timmy, but boy, did that game get my blood pumping!
The day went downhill from there, though, as I got crushed and played terrible Magic. Dinner at the Caney Fork restaurant was interesting, to say the least. I’ve never seen fried alligator before, but that’s just par for the course at a dinner that also included frog legs and other campfire delights.
The next day I decided to sign up for the online PTQ, but just as Matt Ferrando and I sat down outside the tournament hall with Wi-Fi connected and  my Melira deck at the ready, my Magic Online client refused to load the “scheduled events” menu until about two minutes after the PTQ started. At that point, all I could do was chuckle and express my relief at having saved thirty Magic Online tickets, while Matt got to play his Delver deck in the PTQ to a modest 0-1 drop because he, “Just didn’t want to play it anymore.” Yeah, sounds about right for a losing Magic weekend.
At least I salvaged the end of my weekend with a cab ride down to Vanderbilt to visit a friend from high school. Talking about Magic to a person who isn’t intimately familiar with the game is usually a lot of fun for me. They’re usually pretty impressed when you explain to them that you can travel around the country playing in these tournaments. After much reminiscing and discussion of our respective directions in school and life, it was time to start the long drive home to Baltimore. A week at home preparing for the Invitational lay ahead, and I eagerly counted down the days until I got to host a sweet crew of gamers at my place for the tournament.
SCG Open Series: Baltimore featuring the Invitational
Fellow StarCityGames.com writers Gerard Fabiano and Reid Duke were the first to arrive Thursday evening, and we zipped down to pick up Larry Swasey before spending some time testing and snagging Jonathan Sukenik. While Reid and I ground games of U/W Delver against U/B Control, Gerard got in some sweet trades and cracked some boosters, but when Reid and I decided to play a match for stakes, we had his full attention.
Even though I lost in an embarrassing and convoluted fashion, the match was extremely instructive of the dynamic between the format’s premier control deck and its chief aggro-control deck. Game 1 is usually heavily slanted towards the U/B deck, as Delver is kold to a Curse of Death’s Hold and it doesn’t run enough maindeck countermagic to effectively play control. Therefore it has to beat down, which is exactly what U/B wants it to do. U/B owns the late game, and it has all the trumps game 1. The dynamic totally flips in games 2 and 3, however. Batterskull and Jace, Memory Adept completely flip the script on U/B, and the plentiful removal for Curse of Death’s Hold and Liliana in Celestial Purge make it hard for U/B to lock things up. U/W gets to play with seven real counterspells and four Snapcaster Mages as well as Moorland Haunt, which actually makes it the better control deck.
U/B is forced into an awkward spot where it must keep in plenty of removal for fear of being destroyed by an early Insectile Aberration, but it also has to worry about a Jace, Memory Adept and Moorland Haunt + equipment late game that it really can’t beat. Its only way of getting ahead is by playing sweet creatures to create an advantage in the middle turns, but cards like Bloodline Keeper also play right into the Celestial Purges that U/W should be bringing in. The matchup should, with careful play by the U/W player, go to Delver in three games, with U/B almost always taking the first and losing the next two. If you find yourself on the Delver side of the matchup, my only advice is to play patiently, since you don’t need to tap out aggressively if it opens you up to getting wrecked by a planeswalker or other expensive threat. You should pick your spot, resolve Jace, Memory Adept, and win with him. You have the Moorland Haunts and the Celestial Purges for your opponent’s Curse of Death’s Hold, so just wait him out!
In the actual match, I misplayed by waffling on what to do with my Jace, Memory Adept and was justly punished for it. I also targeted myself with a Thought Scour that should’ve hit Reid, as the game ended with just one Black Sun’s Zenith (that had been cast a dozen times or so) in his deck and a Blue Sun’s Zenith that hit me for my exact library. I was unlucky to lose, as I bricked for several turns and Reid drew the Black Sun’s Zenith over the Blue Sun’s Zenith several times when he needed to, but it was ultimately my own fault for losing my $5. (Small stakes for now, people, the big money was yet to be lost!) It was well worth it, though, as I learned a lot about the dynamics of a particular type of matchup in which the aggro deck actually gains the late-game inevitability through a certain trump that the control deck is unable to properly handle. Ironically, it was just this type of interaction that proved to be my undoing in the quarterfinals against Max Tietze Punishing Maverick deck, and I was blind to it until it destroyed me in two drawn-out games.
Sam Black was unfortunately grounded in Detroit, but he managed to catch an early morning flight down to Baltimore to make it in time for the tournament. After meeting up with him and discussing the sweet Esper Stoneblade deck for Legacy, I registered the following 150 for the tournament:
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (23)
Spells (26)
Creatures (15)
Lands (21)
Spells (24)
Yeah, that Esper list could use some changes. The Delver list, though, is fairly close to perfect in my humble opinion, and not only because I get to play a Batterskull main in a 21 land deck. The only change might be the addition of a Corrosive Gale or two back into the sideboard or perhaps a Ratchet Bomb. The deck wants more answers to Spirits, which is still a player in the metagame and is not a great matchup. As for the rest of them, you’re playing essentially the closest thing to Faeries since the great Bitterblossom herself graced Standard tables back in 2009.
The most important thing with this deck is to recognize when it’s time to aggressively jam your threats and when it’s time to hold back. You can always see what your opponent is up to thanks to Gitaxian Probe, and you can sculpt your game plan to be proactive or reactive based on what they have. I swear it feels like cheating when you see that your opponent is helpless against a Geist of Saint Traft or a Sword of War and Peace, and you get to just kill them right away. As an added bonus, and this is for those of you who love feeling superior (I’m looking at Yu, Jarvis!), you can play a fun game with your friends between rounds to see who spies the loosest keeps with turn 1 Probes. It’s fun and educational, too!
As for the Esper list, it does actually need the Swamp, much to my chagrin. I thought that if a land doesn’t make blue or white mana, it needs to have a sweet ability to justify seeing play in my deck, but Swamp does have a sweet ability: being able to untap under an opponent’s Choke. There also might be room for more Glacial Fortresses, and that maindeck Zealous Persecution is probably a bit too ambitious. Maybe that Intuition can come back and hang out, or maybe another Engineered Explosives is the correct answer (meaning we get to play Academy Ruins too!) I know it might be sacrilege, and I even doubt my own sanity at this point, but maybe it’s truly time to say goodbye to Force of Will. We’ll see you in the sideboard, good buddy. Instead, we can play a third Spell Snare and either a Vindicate or a 24th land, maybe even starting to involve a pair of Wasteland in this whole mess.
With a Swamp, a Plains, two Wasteland, a Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author], an Academy Ruins and a Riptide Laboratory (no Karakas), we would still have seventeen blue sources, which is as many as the U/W deck was playing pre-Lingering Souls. We’d also be super resilient to Choke. Also, with regards to the sideboard, I’m not sure where I stand on the Dark Confidant plan. If we cut him, we can play a sweet Crucible of Worlds to go with our Wastelands. I’m definitely in favor of at least one Crucible, since I want a way to beat Grove of the Burnwillows. It’s really up in the air at this point, but I know that I really like where this deck is at. I think with a bit more tweaking it can be unbeatable. We just need to figure out how to beat these pesky RUG Delver decks with their Sulfur Elementals and Sulfuric Vortexes. I’d look to a second Disenchant and maybe a Wrath of God or two in addition to the Perishes lurking in the sideboard. There are just so many options to consider! If only we got 25 sideboard slots…*drool.*
The Invitational started off smoothly, with two byes and a pair of wins over Eli Kassis and Matt Beverley with Esper Control and R/G Aggro, respectively. Those Divine Offerings and Celestial Purges work wonders against R/G’s Sword of War and Peaces and Huntmaster of the Fells. The Phantasmal Images are also insane, as you feel unbeatable the second you copy a Strangleroot Geist. Cut Mana Leak in that matchup, as you can bet that they’ll play around it! Moving into Legacy, I was the beneficiary of a concession after a match against Metalworker went to time with no clear advantage to either player. I guess the karma from my scoop in Indy worked out for me here, or the fact that Phil Fortner is super nice and didn’t want to put either of us into the draw bracket. Congrats on the Top 16, man!
I then proceeded to lose two straight on camera to superstars Nick Spagnolo and Ben Hayes playing BUG Control and the mirror, respectively. I wasn’t too fussed, although I was surprised to have dropped two matches in what I considered my stronger format. I brought it back against the one and only Gerard Fabiano when I ripped a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on a fairly even board to just put Team Italia out of commission. Even though Gerard runs comically badly (to hear him talk), he still managed to make Top 16 of this tournament, so he must have been doing something right with his W/R/B concoction. (Sometimes I think he plays his brews to make up for his massive skill advantage. After all, he wouldn’t want to win too easily, right buddy? Hero of Bladehold + Hymn to Tourach + Grim Lavamancer, anyone?)
The next day, I started winning and didn’t stop. It was weird running so hot. I beat up on Dan Musser Poke-Maverick, Harry Corvese in the mirror, Ryan McKinney in a sweet match against Reanimator, and the esteemed Dan Jordan with the new pop sensation designed by Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me, Maverick.” This was the zone I knew and loved, where everything was coming together and I was playing at a level I was happy with. I felt fairly invincible, and my friends’ encouragement certainly helped me keep my spirits up throughout the day.
Next I got to play against Brad Nelson in the Delver mirror, where Delver did me wrong and didn’t flip at all for several turns in game 1, then showed me he really did love me and crushed in games 2 and 3. Afterwards, I got to battle against Drew Levin in another mirror where despite being locked for Top 8, my deck still wanted to keep winning. It served up the perfect Divine Offering to blow Drew out in game 2. Luckily for Drew, he won his next round and was able to draw into Top 8 anyway. I, however, still wasn’t done, and closed out the day with a thorough drubbing of Josh Ravitz Spirits with really awesome and aggressive draws games 1 and 3. Those mirror matches really aren’t that interesting; when both players know what’s going on, it seems like a pretty high-variance matchup to me. My deck served up the goods on Saturday, what can I say?
Finally, Javier Arevalo was willing to take a draw, locking me into the first seed for the Top 8. I was so high on winning the whole day and my friends’ encouragement was so intoxicating, I didn’t give splitting the Top 8 much thought. Of course I declined the split. After all, I’d been doing so well; what could possibly go wrong? As it turned out, lots could go wrong against Max Tietze and his Punishing Fires. The matchup is fairly bad for my particular tweak on Esper. With different draws I might’ve been able to create a tempo advantage in the middle turns with some Lingering Souls, but I kept slower hands and allowed the games to drag out to a point where no matter what I did Max was able to answer it and come back with a must-answer Knight of the Reliquary or Mother of Runes. Oops.
Anyway, after I lost I decided to play in the Magic Online PTQ, where I piloted R/G Tron comically badly and lost to two Storm decks, capped off with an Ignite Memories targeting me about eighteen times. My hand had three cards, and I was at 26. The first two cards were Grove of the Burnwillows and Urza’s Tower. Unfortunately, I took fifteen twice in quick succession and died. I couldn’t even be mad, because my opponent had to have been some genius to know I’d raw dog the single Emrakul for the total embarrassment. I guess it serves me right to run so badly after the insane draws I’d gotten on Saturday, but it still stung to miss so hard at the PTQ. Hopefully this weekend’s PTQ is mine to win, because I’d really like to go to Barcelona and lock up Gold. If not, I guess I’ll just have to earn my PT invites the hard way for the next year. After all, if it’s not a challenge it’s not worth earning!
May we all have just enough luck to compensate for our lack of skill :),