Levelling Up - Pro Tour: Geneva: Day 2

At the time of writing, it’s a couple of days before I leave for Grand Prix: Dallas. Even though I would like to talk a little about Extended, I still haven’t played enough to reach any conclusions. I arrived in the Netherlands yesterday, to test for the upcoming Grand Prix. Hopefully I’ll talk about it next week, with the results of GP: Dallas in the mix. [And it was a fine performance there, fella. Well done! – Craig.]

For now I’ll conclude my report of Pro Tour: Geneva. Part 1 ended with me getting my fourth consecutive win after a 0-2 start, as a result of a concession from Hidenori Katayama (who couldn’t make Day 2).

At the beginning of the day there were 11 Portuguese playing in Geneva. For a small country that only has four slots available via the Pro Tour Qualifiers, that’s a healthy number of alternative invites acquired through Pro Levels, GP performances, and ratings. We even had a Portuguese winning a slot at the Last Chance. I think it reflects a strong period of Portuguese Magic lately. More players are becoming interested in competitive play, after seeing friends or people they know performing well, so they’re more willing to travel to Grand Prix tournaments or prepare well for the Pro Tour. However, after the cut to Day 2 was made, only two from the initial eleven survived, and both of us were on the edge of elimination.

I was feeling good, for the simple reason that I was still alive in the tournament. I headed to my third draft pod. I planned to continue drafting U/W control, and was ready to force it once again if needed. Despite my weak result in the first pod, the plan proved to be good enough. I don’t think the low score was due to a flaw in the decks or the plan, but instead there were situations that happened during those games of Magic where I lost and couldn’t blame anything.

I opened my first pack and searched for the Blue or White cards. There was a small problem with those colors: they didn’t exist. It’s not like there was no Ephemeron or Seer or Raptors, or even the great Jedit’s Dragoons… when I’m set on forcing U/W, I’m mentally ready to pick weaker cards in these colors over better ones in other colors. I would be happy with a first pick Tolarian Sentinel, like I picked in a later draft, or a first pick Knight of the Holy Nimbus, like I picked in my next draft. But for now, if I wanted Blue or White I had to take a Clockspinning. In the end I picked a Word of Seizing, but I wasn’t happy about it. Even though it’s a rare, kind of unexpected, and sometimes can be really devastating, I still value it below Strangling Soot or other top commons in my "list" (if I had one). My second pick was Lightning Axe, the best card in the pack, and once again not Blue or White. It was in the same color as my first pick, so it seemed I would go Red this time. Third pick I got passed Spike Tiller, and I took it as a sign to go Green.

The way I see it, there are at least three ways to draft R/G in Time Spiral Block so far:

1- Empty the Warrens or storm based decks; of course this tends to be a little harder without a pack of good storm and suspend spells available. Though still, in one of my last drafts I had multiple copies of spells like Empty the Warrens, Pendelhaven Elder, and other cheap suspend spells, but it’s pack dependant.

2- Green fatties, mostly starting at four mana, using acceleration like Gemhide Sliver, Prismatic Lens, and Search for Tomorrow. The problem is you need a balanced combination of acceleration spells and fatties in the early game and in the late game.

3- Cheap creatures and cheap pump spells to keep the pressure and tempo. This way you reduce the need for mana accelerators. For example, you make a turn 2 Spinneret Sliver, and you attack. If they block you use a pump spell and replay another creature, or you can even play an Aether Web to turn your 2/2 creature into a 3/3 that already took down a creature in combat. Of course, this plan also has many flaws, the major one being aggressive tempo decks are not very good in Time Spiral. This is the decklist of my R/G deck from the third draft:

PT: Geneva - Draft 3

Tiago Chan

Test deck on 03-04-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (14)

Lands (16)

Spells (10)

I was not very excited about playing with this deck, to say the least. Since we were seven players at the pod, I had already guaranteed a 1-2 score in the worst-case scenario, but I had some doubts if this deck could win 2 rounds by itself without having the bye.

Round 7: Guillaume Cardin – R/G
Round 8: Daisuke Hirose – U/W
Round 9: Bye

Since I had the bye in the third round of the draft, it’s safe to assume that I went 0-2 in the first two.

I played round 7 on Day 1. After losing it, and thanks to my awful tiebreakers due to a bad start, I was second to last among the players who did make Day 2. The games against Guillaume were a R/G mirror. He had at least two Nantuko Shaman, a Durkwood Baloth, and Sulfurous Blast so maybe his version was better suited for the mirror. I did win game 2 with a Phantom Centaur holding the ground while I was hitting with evasion creatures – Yavimaya Dryad or Orcish Buzzardiers – but mostly because he drew only lands in those important turns. Game 3 he went first, and curved with a Gemhide Sliver and other quality creatures, so I just spent some turns trying to survive. It turned out to be not that many, to be honest.

4 – 3

My first round in the following day was against a Japanese player with a U/W tempo deck. The first game was just a pure race, that he won either by tapping or bouncing one of my creatures in one of the key turns, In the second game I elected to keep a risky hand of Mire Boa, Orcish Cannonade, Word of Seizing, Uktabi Drake, Forest, and two Mountains. I knew it was risky, but it had turn 2 Mire Boa and turn 3 Orcish Cannonade, with the potential to do turn 4 Uktabi Drake and something. The only spells I played were the first three, as I drew only into Mountains or cards with double Green in the cost. Maybe I should have mulliganed, but it’s very tempting to keep a hand that allows you to play turn 2 Mire Boa and turn 3 Orcish Cannonade.

4 – 4

And just like that, I was now standing 0-2 at the pod. At least things wouldn’t get worse, as I had already guaranteed a bye for the next round, unless someone at the pod dropped or got disqualified.

5 – 4

In the fourth draft, I was placed at the second to last draft pod, as my tiebreakers were the worst among the players still playing: around forty something percent. This draft was very strange at the beginning, before I settled on my eventual colors. I started with Knight of Holy Nimbus, followed by some Blue cards in Crookclaw Transmuter and Slipstream Serpent. Then I fourth picked a Red removal spell… I’m unsure if it was Orcish Cannonade or Sudden Shock. Fifth pick there was still a Strangling Soot and a Phthisis in the pack, so I took it as a clear sign to go Black and picked the Soot. After the first booster I had the chance to go U/B and maybe splash Red for the flashback of the Strangling Soot, or go straight Red/Black.

For the rest of the draft I picked almost only Black cards, because I was a little unsure which directions to follow, but I knew at least that Black was one of them. Really late into pack 2 I see an Evangelize, and decide to pick it. Usually Black/Red has good spells and removal but lacks good creatures, and sometimes it has trouble dealing with large creatures. Evangelize is the perfect splash in a Black/Red deck, since you can kill all the small ones and guarantee that your Evangelize target something really worthwhile. After picking Evangelize I settled into drafting R/B splash White for Evangelize and other possible good cards that I would see. Hopefully Oros, the Avenger, but even a Sunlance would be good.

I didn’t open Oros. But I get something really juicy from my first pick of Planar Chaos: Enslave. This is a great card for the same reasons why Evangelize is good in Red/Black, only Enslave can steal exactly the creature you want on the table. From here, I was only picking cards from my colors, but strangely Red was very dry.

PT: Geneva - Draft 4

Tiago Chan

Test deck on 03-04-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (11)

Lands (17)

Spells (12)

As I expected, the deck ended running some filler cards and had a bad creature base. I showed this deck to some Portuguese players, and most of them thought it was awful, but I believe they just looked at the quality of the cards and not at the deck as a whole. Evangelize and Enslave are bombs in this type of deck. Sarpadian Empires is a little better in Red/Black than in other decks, providing an endless supply of creatures even though they’re only 1/1; the deck doesn’t have many other quality creatures. Even Brain Gorgers and Midnight Charm serve their role if they take out a small creature, since it powers up the Evangelize.

Round 10: Bye
Round 11: Andrea Garella – U/W control
Round 12: Daisuke Hirose – U/G/W

It was lucky to have a first round bye, and it may sound a little ridiculous to have back-to-back byes. But the previous bye was a certainty because I was 0-2 at the pod, while this one was definitely luck.

6 – 4

I’d already played Andrea Garella twice, in Italian GPs. The first time was in 2005 during Kamigawa Limited, the second time was last year during Ravnica Limited, and now I was playing him at the Pro Tour. Even though he claims to be a Vintage lover and a casual Limited player, I’ve definitely seen him improve his Limited game. Two years ago we played in the 3-2 or 4-2 bracket at the Grand Prix. Last year, we played while still undefeated at the GP, probably at 6-0 or 7-0, and now we were playing in a Pro Tour Day 2 match.

In the first game I stole a creature with Enslave, killed some others, and overwhelmed him with many 1/1 creatures from the Sarpadian Empires. The alpha strike was possible thanks to a Stingscourger, and after the attack a Sudden Shock dealt the remaining point of damage. Game 2 was very similar, only I played the Evangelize this time. It got me an average creature, but it was still a two-for-one. Later I drew the Enslave and nabbed a Tolarian Sentinel that was either tapped or had summoning sickness, and he was forced to use Temporal isolation on it to prevent being pinged for one every turn. The game ended once again with some desperate attacks, with a Drudge Reavers a bunch of 1/1 tokens leading into combat for the remaining points of damage.

7 – 4

In the finals of this draft I met the Japanese player I had played in the draft before. I won game 1, but the only thing I remember was he playing a Looter il-Kor and me killing it. I offered him the second game because I had some mana problems, either the wrong color or an insufficient amount. He had played two Looter il-Kor in one of the games, so I choose to draw first in game 3, as I had seven cards that kill the Looter. I don’t think it’s a bad strategy, when your plan is to kill all the creatures your opponent plays. You’d rather have the extra card, and you’ll eventually catch up with the tempo of the game at the expense of some life points. In game 3 I was forced to play a Stingscourger targeting a Thallid Shell-Dweller with two counters, and let the Stingscourger die, because I was holding Evangelize and I was aiming for something a little better than a 1/1. I got an Amrou Seekers, that (together with my Trespasser il-Vec) was good enough to attack past the 0/5 wall multiple times.

8 – 4

In my fifth draft I started with a first pick Castle Raptors, leaving open the possibility to go U/W control once again. That didn’t happen, but in the end I think this was the best deck I had all weekend. Second pick I had to choose between Lightning Axe and Tendrils of Corruption. During the Pro Tour I always had the feeling that Black was underdrafted, and there were some few pro players that were forcing it precisely for that reason. With that in mind, I went for it, and picked the Tendrils. It was a happy gambit, as I was passed much more quality Black cards.

PT: Geneva - Draft 5

Tiago Chan

Test deck on 03-04-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (16)

Lands (17)

9 Plains
8 Swamp

Spells (7)

Sideboard

This deck is a fine mix between a good curve, solid creatures, quality removal, and bomb cards. I really believed I could make a very good result with this deck, that would allow me to finish in the Top 32 or even higher. Unfortunately, things didn’t go very well.

Round 13: Olivier Ruel – B/R
Round 14: Phu Dao – U/W
Round 15: Adam Chambers – R/G

I offered Oliver a one-game advantage as I was stuck on three lands the whole time. His deck was good, with double Sudden Death, and a small rebel chain with two Rathi Trappers and two Dunerider Outlaw. The second game was one-sided in my favor, as I had a very nice draw. The third was very close. Olivier drew many lands, but used them as sacrifices for the Phyrexian Totem. I’m finally able to kill the Totem with a double block by Castle Raptors and another creature, losing the Raptors. At some point Oli is at two life, with a Basalt Gargoyle and plenty of mana, and two Rathi Trappers. I have two fliers: Mana Skimmer and Flickering Spirit. We played draw-go for a few turns, and Oli tapped just one of my fliers with a Trapper. A few turns later I drew a Midnight Charm. Oli again tapped just one of the fliers, I attacked with the other, and before blockers I tapped the Gargoyle with the Charm for the win.

9 – 4

Against Phu Dao I think I was a little unlucky. Before sideboarding he had misbuilt his deck, so maybe I had an edge there. After the quick match, we played many more games and it was close, with me winning a little more than half of them. In the Pro Tour match, I lost the first because I mulliganed to four (for the second time in Geneva… and, by the time of writing, GP: Dallas is over… and it’s becoming quite annoying to play with just four cards). In the second I kept with three lands, Saltfield Recluse, Sudden Death, Tendrils of Corruption, and Dark Withering. The problem was that even though I managed to kill all the problematic creatures he played, the Saltfield Recluse was not a threat and dealt very little damage. I drew a second Sudden Death and a second Dark Withering, and ended with thirteen lands in play, plus the Saltfield Recluse and those five removal spells.

9 – 5

My tie-breakers were very bad, so I was playing the last round for an extra point and a few more dollars. I might have lost the first game because I was afraid to overextend. I suspended a Corpulent Corpse on turn 1, and had a turn 2 Benalish Cavalry plus turn 4 Moorish Cavalry. On my fifth turn, Chambers still hadn’t played anything, and I decided to pass without playing Flickering Spirit. I had a Corpulent Corpse coming into play next turn with haste, and besides the Spirit, my hand was just land. Chambers played Firemaw Kavu, dealing with the Benalish Cavalry right away, and then with the Corpse when he didn’t paid the Echo. He then played Stonebrow Krosan Hero, and this was the turning point as I had no way to deal the final points of damage fast enough, unless I drew some Black removal spell (which I didn’t). I won the second with a regular draw, as he stalled on four lands for a while, and his smallest guys weren’t too threatening, but in game 3 I was overpowered, as all of his creatures were bigger than mine and I didn’t had an explosive draw.

9 – 6

I finished 77th, on the same points as the 50th-place finisher. It would’ve been nice to cash an extra point. Good tiebreakers are worth one point, as you are ahead of all the other players with the same points of you. If they’re bad, you’re ten or twenty places behind the players with the same points and good tie-breakers. If someone offered me a draw during Day 2 before a round, I would happily take it. In the X losses bracket I was condemned to being always the last of the dozen players in there, and in the X losses and 1 draw bracket there are fewer players. Simplifying, it means I would get the same jump in the standings with a win or with a draw, as I had so many players in the same bracket as me with better tiebreakers. For example, at PT: Kobe I had the same points as Andre Coimbra. We drafted together in two out of five pods, including the last, and we were never separated by more than three points. In the final standings, he won $1500 more than me just because he had better breakers.

After Geneva I concluded that U/W control is a very fine option. I recently did a side draft in Dallas where I had 3 Jedit’s Dragoons and 1 Eternity Snare, and it was very solid. I had two drafts where I forced this plan – the first two – and I am more than satisfied with the quality of those decks. The other plan would be to force Black, as my last two drafts where I drafted Black were also reliable, with the last one being the best of the weekend. My final conclusion would be to not draft aggressive decks, as the control cards are just better. For example, in my last match against Chambers, as soon as he hit six mana I had no chance to win the game, because the high-cost cards are so much better than the cheap ones.

I have mixed feelings about luck in Geneva. On one hand, I had back-to-back byes at a Pro Tour. One of them was not due to a lucky draw, but because I was 0-2 (which was well deserved) in a seven-man pod. However, receiving the second right after the first was clearly luck, and it gave me a huge psychological boost. On the other hand, I lost two games where I mulliganed to four, and I got the feeling there were many rounds where I offered a one-game lead to my opponents just because I couldn’t draw two lands of the same type to play double-colored-mana spells. That affected both the way I drafted later and my deck building decisions, as I started to leave double-colored-mana spells in the sideboard whenever possible. I’m starting to believe that this is a fine decision, as it reduces your chances of being color-screwed. I remember some Kamigawa drafts where people asked me why I didn’t pick those Moonwing Moths when I was playing White, and I answered them because I already had two Gnarled Mass.

With the release of Planar Chaos on Magic Online, let’s see how this format evolves, since it won’t be seen in real life tournaments for a while. I’m certainly anxious to try and force U/W control again, if only I find time for it during all these travels to GPs. Join me next week, where I’ll talk about my trip to the Netherlands and Grand Prix: Dallas.

See you next week!

Tiago