Joshie Green v.Final

Before I get into it, I have an apology, and a request.

A couple weeks ago I did a complete rant column that was great fun for me, and I know a few people enjoyed it, a few people hated it. One of the things I ranted about was the lack of skill in Magic. But today I went to MagictheGathering.com and was reading Mark Rosewater article. What most intrigued me was the links he had, to a previous column detailing the history of the Pro Tour.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr134

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr136

Kai Budde won seven Pro Tours?

It shocked me how he showed people in the Top 8, and how many times they had been there. Many people made the Top 8 5, 6 or even 7 times. In Finkel’s case, 11 times.

It appears I was wrong and my rant was somewhat misguided. It appears there is a lot more skill in Magic than I initially thought. I had no idea that so many people had consistently made Top 8 at a Pro Tour. I knew some people (like Finkel) had done it multiple times, but was unaware that dozens of people had done it.

My apologies Wizards.

And now, the request. I know there are people out there who love playing with statistics (glances over at Sean McKeown) and I’m not one of them. But I know you folks are out there and I need your help.

The first thought that hit me after I read the reflections on fifty Pro Tours article was “I was wrong.” And the second thing I thought was… “Hey… Wait a minute. What kinds of players repeat at Pro Tours? How come Dave Price hasn’t repeated more? How come Pikula hasn’t repeated more? Or Olle Rade. Or other beatdown players?” And yes, I do consider Olle Rade’s Frenetic Efreet / Hammer deck as “Beatdown.”

What I would like to know is what the breakdown on Control decks is in the Top 8 at each Pro Tour, as compared to beatdown decks? Or even mid range decks? What’s the breakdown of Combo decks compared to decks that are concerned with the battlefield? (And hey, Hatred is a combo deck, not a Beatdown deck.)

Try to remember, I’ve been out of Magic for five years. If I remember correctly, Finkel is a control player. A Blue Mage at heart. And Kai Budde isn’t he a control player at heart as well? He played five-color Gifts at the invitational.

I don’t need real actual percentages or sophisticated breakdowns, but I think it would be a nice article (or even 5-10 different articles by different authors) that explore what has won at Pro Tours.

If 80% of all Pro Tours are won with Islands in the deck, that would sort of explain why Dave Price hasn’t made it to the Top 8 a staggering eleven times. And why Jon Finkel has.

On with the article.

Honestly, I was debating about not going to Regionals until I started playing Joshie Green. On the flip side, Joshie is considering not going to Regionals since he started playing Joshie Green. I think that sets the tone nicely for the state of Magic right now, and for today’s article.

Thursday is Magic night and Paul wants to have it at his house. Paul lives with his girlfriend in a very cool little house a couple miles outside of Middlebury. It’s very well kept, with hard wood floors, and tons of tidy books, magazines, and graphic novels. A nice size TV, an okay computer and an incredibly comfortable futon couch. A couple small tables are set up in the middle of the living room for us to play Magic on today.

Beer is in the fridge, Pizza is being delivered, and Kevin Smith is on TV.

Some good.

I show up late because I got home from work and immediately entered an 8-man online MODO tourney and my finals opponent took forever. I swear to God, second game, he seemed to think he could time me out with 20 minutes left on both our clocks and pressed “o.k.” to pass priority about once every three minutes. Considering I was holding a Might of Oaks and he had Forests, this plan didn’t work too well for him.

I get there and Josh is playing his five-color Gifts deck against Paul’s Tooth deck. For some reason, Paul can’t buy a win, which is very odd. Tooth usually smashes Joshie’s version of five-color Gifts. There’s a lot of luck in Magic.

I borrow Jittes from Paul and put together the final version of Joshie Green.

Joshie Green

Jamie Wakefield

Test deck on 06-19-2005

Standard

Creatures (23)

• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 3 Iwamori of the Open Fist
• 4 Jukai Messenger
• 4 Troll Ascetic
• 4 Rushwood Dryad
• 4 Elvish Pioneer

Lands (23)

• 23 Forest

Spells (14)

• 4 Umezawa's Jitte
• 4 Beacon of Creation
• 2 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 4 Blanchwood Armor

Sideboard

• 2 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 2 Defense Grid
• 4 Might of Oaks
• 4 Creeping Mold
• 3 Arashi, the Sky Asunder

There are some options to play with depending on preference, but this is what I am playing in Regionals. Joshie and Pete prefer to go with 2 Sword of Fire and Ice in the Main and 4 Sword of Light and Shadow in the side. If you can’t get Arashi, then Matsu-Tribe Snipers have been amazing for us. We’re taking a risk and just assuming Arashi will be better. He looks better on paper, and can be sided in against Red as an added bonus. I’m changing from Dosan to Defense Grid because it’s one cheaper, and can’t be stolen by Shackles and forced to block a Troll. I don’t expect to see much Blue, and I’m going to lose to it unless I get really lucky anyway, so that’s a concession I’ve made.

Hope I don’t face Blue.

My thoughts on sideboarding –

Tooth

-2 Swords of Light and Shadow

-3 Iwamori of the Open Fist

-3 Troll Ascetics

+4 Creeps

+4 Might of Oaks

Creeps are to slow them down that one more turn we need to win. To kill that final piece of the Urzatron they just played. Might of Oaks are to, well, win. The Swords come out because they are five mana for two extra damage, and the Iwamori comes out because, hey, allowing them to put Kiki-Jiki into play without Tooth is horrible. And even though he serves, he doesn’t come out until late. We really want to be casting Might of Oaks on a Forestwalker on turn 4. Trolls are amazing in some matches, but in this one, they usually just get chumped, and that doesn’t help us.



Red –

-1 Jukai Messenger

-4 Rushwood Dryads

+3 Arashi

+2 Swords of Light and Shadow

Pretty self explanatory. Forestwalking doesn’t help much, but we still need one drops. Arashi is huge and if they can get rid of a 5/5, then just play another one.

MUC –

You’re not going to Nationals! You lose! Go home!

Okay, on the more serious side… Go home. No. Seriously. You’ve lost. Shackles kill you. Try to resist punching your opponent in the face as his one card destroys your whole deck. I suppose you could try this:

-3 Iwamori

-4 Blanchwood Armor

-2 Swords of Light and Shadow

-4 Jitte

+3 Arashi

+2 Defense Grids

+4 Creeping Mold

+4 Might of Oaks

And if you think you’re getting off any four-mana spells against MUC I have a legendary “Bridge, of the Golden Gate” to sell you. Good luck in this match up. It’s possible, but not likely.

5-Color Gifts

-2 Swords of Light and Shadow

-1 Iwamori

-1 Beacon

+4 Might of Oaks.

Forestwalk, oops, I won.

Rats

-2 Blanchwood Armor

+2 Swords of Light and Shadow

They’re just going to kill whoever has the armor on them, so we trade one enhancement for another that’s better vs. the deck and causes card advantage vs. card disadvantage.

G/B Deathcloud

-2 Blanchwood

+2 Swords of Light and Shadow

All their elimination is Black.



White Weenie

-4 Rushwood Dryads

-1 Jukai Messenger

+3 Arashi

+2 Swords of Light and Shadow

And now, Pete’s thoughts on the sideboard. Remember he has 3 Sword of Fire and Ice and only 3 Jittes in the main.

I’d love to give you Joshie’s thoughts on Sideboarding, but I think you get the idea and he didn’t respond in time.

I love the deck. It’s what Josh and I will be playing at Regionals. But, like some other decks in the format, it’s a “Win Big Lose Big” kind of deck. Sometimes it just decimates people, and other times your opponent gets a first turn Slith, second turn Arc-Slogger, third turn Stone Rain, fourth turn Stone Rain, and you die. Or Tooth goes off turn 4 without even searching for anything. Or WW plays first turn Skyhunter, second turn 3 Lantern Kamis, fourth turn Glorious Anthem and you roll over and die.

Magic is just explosive right now.

And because of that, I continually witness people who made Top 8 multiple times, drop after two rounds in a tournament. Or even myself. I entered three premier tournaments and one of them went undefeated to the Top 8 and then rolled over and died to Blue Tron in the first round. Then in the next two went 0-2 drop, 0-2 drop. So to make myself feel better I entered an 8-man and won it. Got up this morning, entered another 8-man and won it too. Joshie racked up 18 packs in one day of wins. Then the other night I logged on to find that not only were all my tickets gone, but he had sold packs to buy more and lost those too. “Huh. Joshie must have had a rough night.”

Yup, he lost in the first round of four straight 8-man’s. He got off the computer, his girlfriend asked him what was wrong and he ranted and raved for 20 minutes.

Magic is like a scratch off lottery ticket for me right now.

Your results may vary, but this is what I’m taking to Regionals. And if I go 0-2 drop, I won’t be any more surprised than if I crush people all day and make Top 4 and go to Nationals. (If past Regionals are any indicator, we will have a 4-slot tournament and I’ll come in fifth. I’ve never been to Nationals, but I have taken ninth two years in a row. (Three?) A long, long time ago.)

So, anyway, let’s get to a short bonus tournament report where I take Joshie Green to an amazing 2-2 record in an NAC qualifier.

Hilary has set up 4 NAC qualifiers. North American Challenge. It’s like a mini Pro Tour, not run by Wizards. Winner of the NAC gets $2600. Today is just a qualifier.

Riding with me today is Josh and Paul. Josh is with 5-color Gifts, but wants to be running Joshie Green. Paul is with Tooth. The thing is, Tooth really is the best deck. It’s not only explosive, it’s also consistent, and has late game as well. It’s just far and away the best overall deck for the field. And even though Paul hates it, he plays it like a Master, beating other Tooth players like it was nothing. No sweat at all. Not only is Tooth the best deck, Paul usually wins the mirror. So that’s what he’s playing in Regionals.

The ride is pretty uneventful, and when we get there, we help Michelle build up a White Skies deck. I use the list Chris Romeo posted as a base, and Josh and Paul tweak it to their liking and donate a bunch of rares too it. Like Chrome Mox and Jitte and Worship and Auriok Champion. Joshie keeps hollering for me get him cards out of their case, and I comply. I balk when he says “COP: Green” and tell him so. “J! COP: GREEN!” Okay, okay.

Side note – When the tournament is done, Michelle hands me back 2 Jittes I lent her. She says,

“These are amazing. I need my own. What can I trade you for these?”

“Nothing. I just bought them out of your case this morning. I need them.”

“I’ll trade you the store for them.”

…

The tourney finally starts and I am playing Patrick. Very nice guy with his own deck, which I respect. He plays a Forest and inwardly I jump for joy. Yay! A bye for me!

Third turn he plays a Ghostly Prison. Oh noooo’s!

He plays a Wrath of God, but I keep struggling along. He plays another Wrath. I keep struggling along. He plays Final Judgment. I keep playing to see what his kill his. His kill is Rude Awakening with entwine.

I side in 4 Creeps and 4 Might of Oaks.

He plays a couple of Ghostly Prisons and a Story Circle right off. I don’t have near enough enchantment elim to get through that and lose to a very rude Awakening.

Yay!

My next round opponent is Adam. He seems like a nice guy, but we have a short match. He seems sort of new to Magic, and his deck needs some tuning. He gets out Spire Golems and Tangle Golems, and I get out Forestwalkers and Trolls. In game two, he got a hand of fat with not enough land. I got Troll, Blanchwood, and Beacon.

1-1

Next round is Michelle.

She tells me I should win easily since I designed her deck. Actually, it’s a Chris Romeo, Josh Trudeau and Paul Habday deck, but who am I to argue? I explain that even though I “designed” it, if she gets a bunch of fliers, I’m done for.

She starts out with a Chrome Mox, Leonin Skyhunter. Then she plays a Glorious Anthem, and I have no where near the speed I need to catch her.

Game two looks really good for me as I start off with a Forest, Pioneer, and Forest. And turn 2 plays a Forest, Troll. Then I play another Troll and Iwamori and Michelle is stalling on land and nothing big enough to stop me.

Until she plays “COP: Green.”

And that’s game.

She’s at two life when she ripped it off the top… Ripper McRipperson.

1-2! Go Joshie Green!

I go tell Joshie his deck is crap.

Round 4 is against Travis Bingham playing WW. Almost identical to Michelle’s.

Like Michelle he starts off with a Mox, Plains, and Leonin Skyhunter. Except, instead of Glorious Anthem turn 3, he plays a Jitte instead.

I get him to 19 before I die.

Game 2 I think I side in Creeps, afraid of another COP and also side in some Snipers. He starts off incredibly fast with a Hawk, Hawk, Wolf, Baestnj? Yeah, that’s what my notes say. A Baestnj. No, I have no idea what that means either.

He wrecks me down to 10, but them I recover thanks to a Troll with Blanchwood Armor and a Jitte on it. Then I play a Matsu-Tribe Sniper. He enters the scoop phase.

Game three starts off with us trading Jittes. He gets stuck on two lands but manages to get a COP out. I manage to draw a Creep for it. A Troll with Blanchwood goes all the way.

2-2 with Joshie Green. Of course, I did face Prison once and WW twice, two matchups I don’t expect to see a lot of at Regionals. What is odd is the fact that no one was playing Red. Not a Red deck in the field.

What was cool is that Joshie and Paul took first and second with Paul beating Josh in the finals. Josh and Paul have both made Top 8 at every tournament I’ve been to with them since I came back to Magic. But, despite the fact that Josh beat Paul at Thursday night Magic night, he has no chance against Paul. He even gets a couple Plow Under off, but with no threats on the board, can’t capitalize on it.

We get into my RAV4 to go home and Joshie says, “I’m playing ‘Joshie Green’ at Regionals.”

Me – “What? Why would you do that? You’ve made Top 8 every single time you’ve played Five-Color Gifts, and today you took second. I went 2-2 with Joshie Green.”

“I just want to beat Tooth. I hate Tooth so much. And next weekend Tooth is going to be everywhere.”

Later on he also adds that you have to play the deck named after you at Regionals. It’s a moral imperative.

I agree. Don’t you Mike Flores?

*Smile*