For a few weeks, I’ve been comfortable. Sitting at home, working on ideas and theory. Now, I’m back on the road, doing what I like the most: traveling and playing Magic. I’m on a long fourteen-day stretch that will carry me from Lisbon to Montreal to San Diego. The past weekend saw me visit the city of Montreal, playing my trustworthy Blue/Black Teachings deck that had served me well at Grand Prix: Strasbourg. Things didn’t turn out so well this time, but after watching who made Top 8 – Kenji and Shoota, Wafo-Tapa, another Japanese player, a Brazilian, Paul Cheon, etc. – I was under the impression that these are the same guys over and over again. This should prove Magic is truly a game of skill. Clearly these guys make Magic look easy.
As for me, now that we’re about to enter the second half of the season, maybe I should rename my column name to Levelling Down, as this is an approaching inevitability. There’s one thing that I assume my readers know: it’s hard to become a better player, especially when there’s no one to point you the right direction. But there’s one thing someone told me at Grand Prix: Montreal… a person who has been giving me a lot of Magic advice, like an older brother or even a parental figure. If you have some skill, the minimum required to be a decent player, succeeding is dependant on how much do you really want it. It’s largely down to your own will. Unlike real life, in Magic, all the adversities can be overcome. It’s amazing how a ten-second exchange of words motivated me so much.
Since we’re at the start of a long qualifying season using Time Spiral Block Constructed, and since this is a tournament report from a Grand Prix using the very same format, it is only appropriate to direct our attentions to the decks. After Grand Prix: Strasbourg, I tried a Reanimator deck for too much time, both Online and Offline, but in the end I dismissed it because I couldn’t beat Blue/Black Control most of the time. I assumed many Top Pro Players would play that deck. Somehow, I missed Bridge from Below in my deck. I don’t know if they’re as good as they seem – I never tried them – but in Montreal some French players, like Pierre Canali and Antoine Ruel, were running similar Reanimator decks using Bridge from Below and splashing Green for Tarmogoyf (such a French idea), so it might be viable.
When Future Sight was released on Magic Online, I started playing eight-man queues with my Strasbourg decklist, with one card difference in the sideboard, trying to win some Future Sight packs to draft. I managed to score many wins at that time, but in most of the queues I ended up losing the finals against Jelger Wiegersma and his U/G deck. After yet another defeat to Jelger, it occurred me that I should ask him for his decklist and try it myself, despite it being far too Green for my taste… you know, Search for Tomorrow, Wall of Roots, Edge of Autumn and Prismatic Lens, and mana intensive spells. Indeed, the deck was good against Blue/Black – I never won against Jelger, and I never lost against Blue/Black when playing the deck, except once when I timed out thanks to Urborg and Urza’s Factory. However, the deck would often lose to itself: no double Green, no double Blue. Too many mana sources in the late game, no acceleration in the early turns. Still, it seemed a solid choice for this Grand Prix. It was a deck that could claim a winning percentage against Blue/Black… so what happened?
Some time before the Grand Prix, a new deck appeared. Multiple people claimed that they designed the deck themselves. The first person that I know that had something like the deck some time before the others was André Coimbra. Of course, I don’t have access to multiple playtest groups, so it’s natural that multiple people reached the same idea at the same time in different locations. The deck I’m talking about is Green/White Tarmogoyf, with or without a Blue or a Red splash. André is an innovative deckbuilder, always full of ideas. Of course, not all of them are winners, but most of them seem quite fun. Most of the time I only choose not to run his decks because they have shaky manabases. An example is his Worlds 2005 Standard Deck, or the four-color Blink Riders from Pro Tour: Yokohama.
I discovered that this new Tarmogoyf deck was very good against the Blue/Green deck, the one I was probably running, and since people always jump into new online deck technology (be it good or bad), I figured there would be too many of these decks at the Grand Prix for me to play Blue/Green. Boy, was I right. After playing against myself with the Tarmogoyf deck, I didn’t like the matchup against Blue/Black Control, so I was back to the starting point. Let’s see where we are…
The first deck I had was Blue/Black control, a solid all-round choice I had played to a decent finish the previous Grand Prix.
I then switched to Blue/Green morphs because it had good game against it, and I expected many Pros to play Blue/Black.
I gave up on the Blue/Green because it was bad against the new emerging Tarmogoyf deck.
From my personal experience piloting the Tarmogoyf deck, I figured it wasn’t very good against Blue/Black (the results from the Grand Prix prove me wrong, though)
I switched back to Blue/Black because I expected many Green/White decks, as people always play the new deck the first week or so after it comes out, and only abandon it after a while. Plus, the Blue/Black is, and always will be, a Tier 1 safe choice for Block Constructed, regardless of whether or not it’s the best deck, just because there are so many powerful cards in those colors.
I settled on this decklist after playing and exchanging some ideas with Frank Karsten once again, in Montreal.
Creatures (8)
Lands (27)
Spells (25)
There are so many options for this deck. Cards like Korlash, Tombstalker, Venser, Coalition Relic, Phyrexian Totem… so instead of building a new version, we opted instead to update our Strasbourg deck with Future Sight cards. What did I change?
Slaughter Pact replacing Temporal Isolation
Temporal Isolation or Snapback were needed as an answer for a creature enchanted with Griffin Guide, and Isolation was the better choice because it was one of the few answers that could be fetched with Mystical Teachings for a Spectral Force or a Bogardan Hellkite. Both are quite bad in the mirror, against morph decks, and against Mono Red, so replacing this slot with one Slaughter Pact was obvious. It was a lot worse against Bogardan Hellkite, slightly worse against Spectral Force, but so much better in most of the other scenarios. Against Griffin Guide, a popular card brought back by the Green/White decks, it can be better and worse depending on the situation. It’s worse against Griffin Guide after the aura resolves, but sometimes you’d have a Griffin Guide creature Isolated when you needed to play Damnation, thus giving them a 2/2 flyer. Also, I’d played many games against Blue/Black where they tapped out to play Infiltrator on turn 3. If I played Griffin Guide on my two-drop, and they had the Pact, it was game right there.
Triskelavus replacing Draining Whelk
I never played Mystical Teachings for Draining Whelk, and whenever I hardcast the Whelk it seemed to me it was a “win more” card when the game that under control. The reason I had Draining Whelk was because I needed a way to win against an opposing Urza’s Factory in a situation where my opponent had life and/or factory advantage. Shadowmage Infiltrators can’t go through, so another form of evasion is needed. Triskelavus is also a big flyer, a good card against Mystic Enforcer, and can be another way to get inevitability in the mirror match if you have Academy Ruins.
2 Take Possession replacing 1 Mystical Teachings and 1 Haunting Hymn
Take Possession seems such a powerful card from Future Sight, and it’s an answer against any threat. I clearly wanted to try it, so I replaced one Haunting Hymn because that card is only especially good against Green/Red mana ramp. It’s good in the mirror, but not that good as most of the time you need to have it in your hand rather than Teaching for it in order for it to be backbreaking. Even if you can resolve one, Blue/Black has so many ways to get back into the game. Due to the fact that the deck has a considerable amount of card drawing – three Careful Consideration, four Shadowmage Infiltrator, two Aeon Chroniclers – we decided to cut one Mystical Teachings because it’s the slowest, and without Haunting Hymn and Draining Whelk there are fewer one-ofs maindeck for which to search.
I can’t say this is the optimal version of the deck, because that would be a big lie. I honestly don’t know what the optimal build may be, and even if I did know, it’s wouldn’t be the best for long due to the shifting metagame. However, it’s a version I felt comfortable playing at the Grand Prix, and Frank (playing the same build) finished in the Top 32 after losing his last match. As for me, it didn’t go that well. After the three byes, I played the following matches:
Round 4: Antoine Ruel – French Reanimator
I lost the die roll and took a mulligan. My six-card hand had four lands, so it’s a keeper. Antoine started with Urborg and Chromatic Star. I thought for a while about what land to play, and decided to play my Urborg. This is the second game at a Grand Prix where I won on turn 1 because I played the correct land. Antoine drew land far too late. I lost the second game after dealing with the initial rush of madness enablers and Bridge from Below tokens, where I had to morph Shapeshifter into a 0/0 to get rid of the Bridge, and play Damnation. He played Body Double reanimating Bogardan Hellkite. I dealt with the first, but not with the second. I won the third game because I countered or killed all his madness enablers, and we entered a topdeck war. I drew a regular mix of lands and spells. He drew fatties, Bridges, and lands.
4 – 0
Round 5: White/Green Tarmogoyf splashing Blue for Delay
I’m writing this in some terrible corner of Newark airport, next to a power socket. I have no Internet access, and therefore I have no access to my opponent’s name. Sorry about that!
I felt I lost game 1 because I drew far too many lands, even after two Careful Considerations. I lost the second because I was stuck on two lands and a Prismatic Lens for a very long time. I was very irritated with this round, which is clearly not how I like to play and enjoy Magic. After all, I had taken 4 mulligans in my last 5 games, so like many superstitious Magic players I decided to de-sleeve and re-sleeve my whole deck. This helped me calm me and cool my head.
4 – 1
Round 6: Eugene Harvey – Mono Green
Game 1 he mulliganed and kept a one-lander. The best he could do was to suspend Search for Tomorrow on turn 2, and when he got lands he was already facing a big Aeon Chronicler and a Shadowmage Infiltrator. Game 2 he had a much better draw: turn 1 Search for Tomorrow, turn 2 Edge of Autumn, turn 3 Baru, Fist of Krosa, discard a second one to make a 5/5 token. Turn 4 he attacked me for eleven after playing a Forest, and played a Deadwood Treefolk returning the discarded Baru. I played Damnation, and he returned the Baru that just died and replayed one Baru next turn. I Tendrils it, but he makes a 6/6 or 7/7 token with the Grandeur ability, to which I had no answer. Game 3 and Eugene had a much slower draw after a mulligan, only attacking me for one with Scryb Ranger. At some point he had four cards in hand, and I had plenty of mana because all I did was charge my lands. I played Mystical Teachings, getting the Haunting Hymn I sideboarded because of possible Enchantment removal for my Take Possession, and forced him to discard his hand. Next turn I played Damnation, and then I Took Possession of the creature he drew after the Hymn.
5 – 1
Round 7: Kyle Sanchez – Blue/White pickles with Momentary Blink
This is probably a not-so-hot matchup for me, but the two games weren’t even close because I was stuck on lands. I hope he writes something about it, as I can’t remember what happened. I only remember losing the die roll, and he suspended Cloudskates on turns 2 and 3. On my third turn I didn’t have the third land to play Infiltrator, so I and passed. When I drew the third land, the Infiltrator was bounced multiple times.
5 – 2
Round 8: Mono Red
Game 1 he had a fast start, and dropped me down to four life with his creatures before I could cast Damnation. After that, I was hitting with an Infiltrator, and he wasn’t playing anything. He either held lands, or creatures that he didn’t want to play (guys that’d fall to my telegraphed Tendrils). I decided to Tendrils my own Infiltrator, since I already had Urza’s Factory and enough mana to make guys, in order put my life back up to double-digits. He then played some creatures, which I killed, and from here he drew nothing but lands. Game 2 he had quite a fast draw, and I didn’t have Damnation.
Game 3 we go to extra turns. On the fifth extra turn I attack with three Urza’s Factory tokens. My opponent used Fiery Temper to kill one, Sudden Shock to kill another, and stayed at two life with no non-land permanents in play and no cards in hand. I have a factory token, an active Urza’s Factory, and three cards in hand. My life total was twenty-two, and his life total was two.
I ask for a concession, since a draw just eliminates us both. He refuses.
I try to explain that a draw is really bad, as it eliminates us both, and that I have the win on the table for sure. The nearby judges don’t let me present my arguments, since you can only ask, “do you want to concede?” and obtain a one word answer: Yes or No. This answer had already been given.
I feel I have the win. In my head, I kind of won this match. Still, I was going to be eliminated. The unwritten book of Pro Tour etiquette says that the player who’s clearly losing the game should be nice enough to concede if a draw eliminates both players… but my opponent wasn’t a Pro Player. When this happens, and the player in the losing situation doesn’t want to concede, the player in the clear winning position tends to curse and badmouth the guy who’s refusing to concede, and the draw is forced.
I believe in these situations, where a draw is equal to a loss, that someone should concede… so I conceded myself.
5-2-1, eliminated.
For me, the loss was equal to the draw, and in both cases I was going to drop, so at least I had the consolation of knowing that the right thing happened even if it wasn’t the “right” person doing it. Instead of claiming that I deserved the win, and blaming my opponent for refusing to concede, I did what I believe to be right. I conceded. No one should be criticized for not conceding, and I’m sure my opponent had his own reasons for refusing to play along.
And thus ended my tournament, but fortunately not my fun! I partook in many Two Headed Giant Drafts during the rest of my stay, which was one of the reasons I decided to go to Montreal in the first place. I’m off to my gate to catch a flight to San Diego… I’ll let you know how it goes. Hopefully, it’ll be a little better than this past week!
Thank you for reading,
Tiago