Grand Prix: Dallas was only my second American GP. Unlike GP: New Jersey, this time I wasn’t coming scrapping for points to level up. After I finished the 2006 season at Level 6, I was very excited, and anxious to play (and receive my attendance fees) at all the Grand Prix tournaments in the coming year. Dallas happened to be the first of the year, and since we booked it a long time ago, Julien Nuijten, Rasmus Sibast, Frank Karsten, and myself found a cheap flight departing from Amsterdam. At the time, GP: Singapore hadn’t been announced, because if we knew, we’d have probably headed there instead. My opinion, which is shared by many non-American players, is that the locations of American Grand Prix tournaments have been pretty bad for foreigners who don’t have a car. Take, for example, GP: New Jersey in Tom’s River; GP: Dallas in Grapevine Mills, Irvine; or GP: Massachusetts in Fitchburg.
My initial plan was to go to Amsterdam a day before the flight to Dallas, as I had not enough time to fly from Lisbon to Amsterdam in the morning before the flight. Knowing this, Julien suggested we could gather in the Netherlands some time before Dallas and run a mini colony to playtest. It didn’t seem profitable to have a colony just for a Grand Prix, but since there was nothing else to do in Grapevine Mills, Irvine other than the GP, we might as well go prepared. Fortunately, we met with many other players in Dallas who made for good times, and prevented this trip to Dallas of being a boring experience.
The mini colony was scheduled for Eindhoven at Frank Karsten’s place, starting on the Monday before the Grand Prix until Thursday. I decided to fly from Lisbon to Amsterdam one day before, on Sunday, stay with Julien for one day, and take a train in the morning to Eindhoven. I took the following Extended decks:
Boros with Kird Ape: I still had the exact same list I ran at Worlds. I asked my friends, from whom I borrowed cards for this deck, if I could keep them for the journey. Since none of them fancied running Boros at the PTQs, I simply left it built as it’s always good to have a Boros for testing purposes.
U/W Tron: I read in an article at this very own site (by Richard Feldman and Zac Hill) that this deck was very good. Before Geneva, I built and sleeved an exact copy of Feldman’s list, and leant it to a friend to play the PTQ, but it wasn’t until arriving in the Netherlands that I played a game with it myself.
Aggro Flow Rock: This deck is very popular in Portugal, and at some point, while checking decklists and trying to make some metagame calls, I thought this deck would be a good metagame choice. I also leant it to a friend to play the PTQ in Geneva, but soon I realized I didn’t like the play-style behind this deck.
Trinket-Tog: A friend of mine had won a 100+ player PTQ the day before I left for Amsterdam. The week before the PTQ he talked me into building it, because he was consistently making Top 8s in MTGO Premier Events, and the deck was rising in popularity.
Aggro Loam: I was sure I was not playing Aggro Loam, but it’s one of the top decks of the format, so it’s good to have the feeling on how it plays.
Scepter-Chant: In the weeks before Pro Tour: Geneva, Rasmus Sibast played this deck a lot, tuning it well. I built one of the later lists he gave me.
I arrived at Julien’s place on Sunday around midday, and we spent the day playing random matchups between Extended decks just to get a feel for the decks and the format. Except for the Boros and the Scepter-Chant, it was the first time both of us played with those deck. At first, we were really excited by Trinket-Tog: it had Psychatogs, countermagic, and card drawing. Sadly, the results weren’t very convincing versus Boros and U/W Tron.
Going into Eindhoven the following day, I had already eliminated three decks. Scepter-Chant was outclassed by better-suited control decks in Tog and Tron. I disliked both Green decks – Aggro-Loam, because every game I found myself cycling and dredging, dredging and cycling, and at the next moment I was down to a very thin library and no threat in play; and Aggro-Rock because it didn’t fit my play style. Usually these decks have a huge disadvantage in the first game, as you have cards that are not very good versus control, and cards that are weak against beatdown. It’s very bad if you draw these matchup-specific cards in the wrong matchup.
Since Julien left the train before me on Tilburg and would only join us later, Frank and Rasmus picked me at the Eindhoven Station. At Frank’s place I found Jelger Wiegersma. who had bought a flight to Dallas a couple of days before, and Rogier Maaten who was still deliberating if he should attend. Fortunately, I managed to settle on a deck in this very same day. I think I was the first one to settle on a deck, which is great for tuning it and building a sideboard. Of the three remaining decks (Boros, Tog, Tron) I considered playing Boros, as it’s the deck that best punishes the bad draws of the opponent… and we all know lots of things can go wrong in Magic. Plus, in this metagame, most of the decks take three or four free points of damage from their own lands, so Boros doesn’t need to deal twenty. However, if my plan consisted of flying over the Atlantic to play a Grand Prix and hoping to get lucky, I might as well try to be lucky with U/W Tron as it can be much more explosive, and it seemed a better choice overall than Tog.
I started playing with Richard Feldman and Zac Hill decklist from the PTQs. For reference, here is the list Feldman used to Top 8 a PTQ, and it was my starting point. I’ll ignore the sideboard for now, as I usually tune it after I settle on a decklist, before that it’s such a huge pile of cards.
Creatures (3)
Lands (21)
Spells (36)
After playing some games, I was impressed. At the time Richard and Zac built it, it must have been the best deck choice, but now I felt I had to make some changes… not only because the metagame evolved and players were now ready for this deck, but also for me to be more comfortable playing it (which most of the times means “more land”).
+ 1 Azorius Signet
+ 1 Land
+ 1 Triskelion
+ 1 Mindslaver
– 1 Chrome Mox
– 1 Chalice of the Void
– 1 Engineered Explosives
– 1 Razormane Masticore
I don’t want to argue over Triskelion and Razormane Masticore. After playing some games against beatdown, I always felt I’d rather have Triskelion, and it’s also a better card than Masticore against control. Mostly, these changes were made because I was being destroyed by sideboard cards like Ancient Grudge and Shattering Spree. People say that against decks like Boros or Aggro Loam, Chalice is good set on one, two, or even three, so it’s always good. I disagree. Nowadays, those decks are prepared for Chalice and have diversified the mana costs of their threats (and their answers for the Chalice), so a single copy on the table, no matter what number it’s set at, will have a smaller impact than before.
For example, against Aggro Loam, the ideal would be to have a Chalice set on two to counter Burning Wish, Life from the Loam, and Ancient Grudge. But that costs four mana, so if you have a Chalice on your hand, you might want to play it right away on one to counter Birds, Therapies, and Duress, because it’s unlikely you’ll have the Chalice in your hand when you hit four mana. And even when you have a Chalice on two, they can deal with it, having Putrefy, Pernicious Deed, or Shattering Spree.
To minimize the damage of Ancient Grudge and Shattering Spree, we removed one Mox, one Chalice, and one Masticore. Most of the time, the Masticore would just trade for half Ancient Grudge without killing a single creature. The one copy of Explosives was not efficient enough, as it was slow and unreliable.
The next day, Frank was almost convinced to play U/W Tron. One of my friends on MTGO told me to try the Cloudpost / Vesuva plan, and I built it just to try it. In theory, it seemed to have a strong colored manabase, and since the engine only costs eight lands, it had room for a second copy of Academy Ruins and Ghost Quarter maindeck. Plus, it had an edge in the mirror, as it played up to six copies of Academy Ruins, the key card in the matchup once the Tron is assembled.
4 Cloudpost
4 Vesuva
2 Academy Ruins
1 Petrified Field
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Skycloud Expanse
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
2 Plains
3 Chrome Mox
4 Azorius Signet
4 Remand
4 Condescend
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Gifts Ungiven
2 Repeal
3 Wrath of God
2 Decree of Justice
2 Mindslaver
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Chalice of the Void
Strangely, this version with Cloudpost wasn’t performing well in the mirror, even with access to more copies of Academy Ruins. I believe everyone knows the disadvantages of playing with this version… the lands coming into play tapped, the dependence of drawing Cloudpost in your opening hand etc, but what I haven’t realized so far was that Tron was much more explosive from one moment to the next, while the Cloudpost version was not. If it didn’t get going from the start, it was painfully slow to get the mana engine online. After a while, I reverted to the Tron version, while Frank never even considered running the Cloudsposts. Now that we had settled on the Tron version, we started tweaking and adjusting.
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Tower
4 Urza’s Power Plant
1 Academy Ruins
1 Petrified Field
1 Flooded Strand
1 Skycloud Expanse
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
3 Chrome Mox
3 Azorius Signet
1 Talisman of Progress
4 Remand
3 Condescend
1 Stifle
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Gifts Ungiven
2 Repeal
2 Wrath of God
1 Faith’s Fetters
2 Decree of Justice
2 Mindslaver
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Chalice of the Void
We diversified the manabase in order to be able to Gifts for colored mana when needed. The Faith’s Fetters was added because sometimes it was problematic to find two White mana for Wrath of God. It was also good for Gifts Ungiven piles, because now we didn’t had Engineered Explosives. Both the Faith’s Fetters and the lone Stifle were Frank’s ideas. While I agreed with the Fetters, I didn’t like the Stifle. It didn’t interact well with the Chalices, and I’d rather have 4 Condescends as they can deal with some of the problematic cards like Destructive Flow and Dark Confidant, but scry is also very useful to find the Tron or a threat. I consider Condescend superior to Remand in this deck.
I wanted to run 4 Condescend, but Frank wanted to run less, so he tried a Stifle instead of the fourth. Jelger wanted to run zero: he had nothing against Condescend, he just wanted four counters in the deck to make room for three or four copies of Solemn Simulacrum, a card he loves. The night before we left for America, this was my deck:
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Tower
4 Urza’s Power Plant
1 Academy Ruins
1 Petrified Field
1 Flooded Strand
1 Skycloud Expanse
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
3 Chrome Mox
2 Azorius Signet
2 Talisman of Progress
3 Remand
3 Condescend
2 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Gifts Ungiven
2 Repeal
3 Wrath of God
2 Decree of Justice
2 Mindslaver
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Chalice of the Void
The Faith’s Fetters were dismissed because they couldn’t deal with one of the biggest threats for our deck, Dark Confidant. At this point, none of us wanted to run 4 Remand and 4 Condescend because of Cabal Therapy. Having three of each provide a better defense against turn 1 or turn 2 Therapy, as their chance of hitting is smaller, and it’s very unlikely they’ll go two-for-one. Jelger was still a big fan of Solemns, as they were another defense against mana denial strategies, and they allowed us to run more basic lands. I still think they’re poor if there’s a Flow on the table. The other reason Frank liked them was that they provided another creature to attack, and in some slower matchups the Solemn is not a card they want to counter… but it will give you mana and card advantage.
I looked at the clock: it was already dawn. We had to leave to take the train to Amsterdam, so I went for a shower. When I came out, Frank showed me the new list he had made from scratch, inspired by Feldman and Zac and Kenji. We were really short on time, so I didn’t examine it carefully, but it was basically Kenji’s U/W Tron with Solemn Simulacrum and Exalted Angel, plus Zac and Feldman’s U/W Tron with the Gifts engine to search for the Crucible and the lands… or the other way around if you prefer. The only number I remember were the three Thirst for Knowledge. Fighting Cabal Therapy is a noble plan, but it might be a little too extreme to run only three Thirsts.
When Kenji’s article was posted, some players, including us, thought he was one step behind by not having Chalices, Masticores, Platinum Angels, and the Gifts engine. After a week of playtesting with this deck, maybe he was one step ahead instead, by having a deck less vulnerable to Ancient Grudge. I’m not claiming one deck is better than the other, as they’re all different versions of the same deck adjusted for the expected metagame.
After arriving at our hotel room in Grapevine Mills, we built our final decklists. All of us had plenty of time to think about the deck during the flight, and we decided to finally drop the Chalices. Our final questions concerned the twelve slots for these four cards: Remand, Condescend, Repeal, and Solemn Simulacrum. The easy way would be to have three copies of each, but Jelger wanted the fourth Solemn while I wanted the fourth Condescend.
This is the list I submitted for the Grand Prix.
Creatures (7)
Lands (23)
Spells (30)
- 3 Wrath of God
- 3 Gifts Ungiven
- 2 Decree of Justice
- 1 Crucible of Worlds
- 4 Thirst for Knowledge
- 2 Mindslaver
- 4 Condescend
- 2 Talisman of Progress
- 2 Chrome Mox
- 3 Remand
- 2 Repeal
- 2 Azorius Signet
Sideboard
I was really happy with this decklist for GP: Dallas, and seriously considered flying from the Netherlands to Singapore. I would have no problem paying for a last minute flight… I only skipped because I had some commitments and I needed to go back to Portugal.
The last adjustments were made to the manabase. Skycloud Expanse is the best card for colored mana in this deck, but now that we had Stifle and Piracy Charm in the sideboard we opted to cut it for a second Hallowed Fountain. By the same logic, Talisman is probably better than Signet, so maybe you want three Talismans and one Signet, but Frank thought that two of each would be fine as you want a balance in between your mana and the pain you take from the mana sources.
The sideboard seems a little random, but it was well constructed out of the multiple options we had. Some choices are obvious, but I’ll comment on the less obvious ones. Stifles are mainly for the mirror, and they’re also fine against TEPS, even though in that matchup you might want to take out your whole deck. Piracy Charms are the best card, and you board them in every matchup where you’re facing Dark Confidants or Birds, as well as when facing Boros. After testing the matchup, we realized the only way we could lose to Tog was for them to have a turn 2 Confidant, or for them to draw three Counterspells during the game and for us to not draw the Tron. Charm kills their best hope and reduces the chance of them drawing three Counterspells. Against Flow Rock and Aggro Loam, they also kill their supply of cards – the Confidant – and they can serve as a mini Time Walk. By killing the Birds, you delay the Destructive Flow for one turn. We needed an extra card against Boros, and from the options available and tested, Sphere of Law seemed the best. After controlling the board, it prevents you from being burned to death with spells.
Before Dallas, we assumed the metagame at the top tables would be face-off between three decks: Aggro Loam beats U/W Tron, U/W Tron beats Tog, and Tog beats Aggro Loam. In this case “beats” is not a given, but we can say it has a 60-40% advantage, except the Tron that has a really good advantage over Tog. Overall, I think the safer choices for this Grand Prix were either Aggro Loam or U/W Tron. This doesn’t mean they were the best choices, but they were the ones that posed the fewest risks. The matchups I playtested the most were these three decks precisely: Aggro Loam, Trinket-Tog, and the mirror. I was aware I would face trouble if paired against TEPS or Aggro Rock, so I’d rather focus on the matchups that were close rather than matchups in which I was heavily favored (like Scepter-Chant), or terrible matchups like TEPS. It seemed a better investment to dedicate more time to close matchups where in-game strategies and play decisions could have a bigger impact.
Testing proved useful, as I mainly played against the expected decks of U/W Tron, Tog, and Aggro Loam, and in the other matchups I played (like beatdown decks) the plan was simple: stay alive.
My first day went like this:
Round 4: Justin da Silva – U/W Tron
Round 5: Kate Stavola – U/W Tron
Round 6: Kaidar Sheen – Domain Zoo
Round 7: Thomas LaPille – Trinket-Tog
Round 8: Ervin Tormos – King in the Castle
Round 9: Clayton Gillete – G/W with morphs
My first two rounds were the mirror, and both my opponents were inexperienced with the deck. This is sometimes key when playing the mirror. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened, as I was just luckier than them. Against Justin, a Portuguese emigrant in Massachusetts, I had the Tron a couple of turns before him in both games, and I gained a huge advantage. Against Kate, we both had the Tron at roughly the same time, and we both Mindslavered each other, but after that we were both reduced to lands on the table and in the hand, so we just played a topdeck game. I found a Decree of Justice approximately three turns after we entered topdeck mode. In the second game, she played without Blue mana.
5 – 0
Domain Zoo was a close 2-1 victory. I took the first without drawing the Tron, by Wrathing, and then I played big creatures like Triskelion and Exalted Angel. Before Wrathing, I played Gifts for Wrath and three other good cards. I got two cards that were not Wrath, so I played the one I had in my hand. I lost the second to a fast creature start. He played Tribal Flames on my morph, and I was left with very little to defend myself. I didn’t draw either a Wrath or a second White mana to play it. In the third game I was playing first, and started with Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Power Plant, and Urza’s Tower, having access to seven colorless mana on turn 3. I used it to play a morph and a Solemn Simulacrum to fetch a Plains (I had the second in my hand to unmorph the Angel). He managed to kill the morph, but after drawing some extra cards with Thirst or Gifts I was able to get a Sundering Titan and kill four out of his five lands, netting a 7/10 in the process.
6 – 0
Tog is supposed to be a good matchup. In game 1 I planned my turns with regular mana, when all of a sudden, probably around turn 5 or 6, I drew the remaining Tron piece. It’s very hard to lose against Tog if you have the Tron. I lost game 2, where a Pithing Needle on Mindslaver forced me to find another plan, as I was very close to achieving Slaver recursion mode. I wasn’t able to find it before dying to a Dark Confidant and a Trinket Mage attacking for four. Game 3 I had two Piracy Charms for his two Dark Confidants, and with the third one imprinted on a Chrome Mox I figured I shouldn’t worry too much about Bob. My opponent was stuck on one or two lands and a Mox that I had already Repealed, so while he’s busy activating the Top, I managed to resolve a morph. Since I assume he took out his Damnations, I just needed to attack a couple of times with the Angel.
7 – 0
My last two rounds gave me two easy matchups. U/W Tron is probably the worst matchup both for G/W and King in the Castle. I managed to win both rounds with relative ease, even though in the second game Ervin had me really low on life with some creatures on the table, and despite the fact I lost game 2 against Clayton because I played unfocused Magic. I knew he had nothing other that a Troll Ascetic in hand, and a single creature on the table, because I had Mindslavered him. I had the Mindslaver lock next turn. I can’t remember how, but I was holding seven cards, and by looking at the board it didn’t seem like I could achieve Slaver lock so soon… but a Wrath was also game (which I didn’t have). He attacked me with his creature and played the Troll Ascetic, keeping only one mana open, and holding the card he had drawn after the turn where he was Slaver locked. In my upkeep he plays Orim’s Chant, and I’m forced to pass. On his turn he attacks, Chants me again in my upkeep, and attacks for the win on his turn. I think I could’ve won this game if I had played differently – playing creatures like Solemn or Exalted early, for example – but I knew that I could easily pull a Mindslaver lock out unexpectedly so I went for it as soon as possible, figuring that my life would be high enough for me to weather some attacks until I found the combo. I won the third after playing two face-up Exalted Angels.
9 – 0
My second day went like this:
Round 10: John Pelcak – Affinity
Round 11: Jim Davis – Goblins
Round 12: Conley Woods – U/R Tron
Round 13: Paul Nguyen – U/W Tron
Round 14: Luis Scott-Vargas – Aggro Loam
Round 15: Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa – Trinket-Tog
The first game against Cak was only close because I had the Tron on turn 3 or 4, plus a Signet to smooth my mana. In one of my turns, Cak had no cards in his hand. His board was creatures, a Pithing Needle on Flooded Strand, a Cranial Plating, and a Chromatic Star. My life was high enough so that even if he drew the Shrapnel Blast I was still safe. My hand was Gifts, Thirst, Mox, and Wrath. I played Gifts, and I had Mindslaver lock on the next turn. I even played the Wrath, so Cak was down to a Plating and a Star. On his turn he drew a Ravager, sacrificed the Star to equip it with the Plating… and drew a second Pithing Needle, naming Mindslaver. So I went from having Slaver lock on the next turn, to being unable to activate Mindslaver and facing possible lethal damage next turn.
On my turn I Thirsted and played Solemn, to ensure I could block the Ravager, and with the Tron and Academy Ruins I had access to recursive Solemns. On his turn, Cak drew and played Ornithopter, and equipped it. I cast Gifts for Repeal, Decree of Justice, Exalted Angel, and Triskelion, and was handed Exalted Angel and Triskelion. I played them both, but I should’ve played the Exalted Angel face-up and alone, because with the Triskelion on the stack Cak sacrificed the Ravager to make the Thopter a 2/4 equipped with a Plating, that was good enough (or one point short) of killing me. I admit, I didn’t do the math – I thought I could afford to take one hit. Cak drew Seat of the Synod, with the only blank in his deck being Glimmervoid, as the other non-artifact spells also deal damage (see Shrapnel Blast and Fire / Ice) but I don’t even know if it was necessary for him to draw another artifact. Had I done the math, I would probably just played the Exalted face up, instead of a morph and Triskelion.
I mull to four on the play in game 2. My only decision this game was to either Disenchant or Repeal a Cranial Plating, and I was already too far behind, with nothing else in hand and only three lands on the table. It was more painful to lose game 1 to a bad play.
9 – 1
Against Jim Davis and his Goblins, I once again mulliganed down to four, and unsurprisingly I lost. In game 2 I mulliganed to five, and I even managed to play a Sphere of Law that nullified some of his goblins and his triple Sulfuric Vortex… but he had two Piledrivers to attack into the Sphere, and I was left with no cards after playing the Sphere of Law. I’ve only “competitively” mulliganed to four cards five times in my whole life, and four of them were in my past two tournaments – Pro Tour: Geneva and Grand Prix: Dallas. I didn’t win any of those games, even though some of them were actually played out.
9 – 2
Conley Woods had one of the most interesting decks I saw in Dallas. U/R Cloudpost with techy Detritivores in the sideboard. I don’t remember how I lost game 1, but game 2 was looking good for him when he suspended a Detritivore and I had two Tron pieces on the table. I played the remaining third piece on my turn, and played a Crucible of Worlds, which meant in his upkeep he would remove a counter from Detritivore and destroy one of my Tron pieces, taking the Tron from me in his turn, but on my own turn I could replay that piece from the graveyard gaining access to the Tron in my turn. I managed to hold like this until the suspend counters where all removed from the Vore, and I won shortly after. In game 3 he didn’t find any Cloudposts, and he was a little mana tight. I took advantage by destroying a Great Furnace with Disenchant. With him at three mana, I tapped out for something, and on his turn he played two Chrome Moxes and a land, tapping out for a Mindslaver. I kill it with my own Mindslaver, and two turns after I managed to put it back on top and use it again. I left him with no cards in hand, after playing a Fact or Fiction for zero cards and playing an Izzet Signet, so he couldn’t discard it in case he drew a Thirst. This was probably a bad play, as it left him with seven mana. Next turn he drew and said go. I try to play something and he Remands it, drawing a Sundering Titan from the Remand, and a land on his draw to make eight mana. Maybe I should’ve left the Signet in his hand, but he could play it by himself on the turn he drew Remand.
In his turn, he tapped eight mana for a Sundering Titan, which I let resolve as I had no counter. He indicated which lands he was targeting – my Island and Plains – but then I remembered I had a Stifle in my hand, and I pointed out to him that I would like to Stifle the comes-into-play ability. He was a nice guy and let me do it, but we both know he could’ve just refused, as he had already pointed to the lands he was targeting. I wouldn’t have argued about priorities and stuff, because I had messed up. However, either with or without those two lands, I was very close to Mindslaver lock, while holding more lands in my hand. He’s even forced to Trash for Treasure his own Sundering Titan just to kill my two lands, so that I can’t play more spells when I’m paying thirteen for the Slaver combo. With time running out, I did the Slaver lock until the end of the game, dealing him two every turn with double Shivan Reef. Playing his turns on autopilot, I even forgot to play Demonfire targeting him, which would’ve saved me some turns. I guess you can say I played a bit sloppy this round.
10 – 2
Next, I played my fourth mirror of the tournament, but I only knew that after losing the first game. I think I kept a hand with two Tron pieces and a Signet on the draw. He countered the Signet and I was left with only colorless mana, just like Kate Stavola the day before. Since I never drew a colored mana source, he reached Slaver lock quite easily. The second game was very long and interesting, and I had an Academy Ruins locked with Faith’s Fetters. When I drew Disenchant to destroy it, I had a recursive threat every turn, and took the game soon after. In the third game, I had a morph face down, and seven mana without the Tron. He had the Tron, but no White mana, so he couldn’t Wrath. He played Mindslaver, which resolved, and sacrificed it. In response I Thirsted, and discarded some cards that would have hurt me, leaving me with Solemn Simulacrum, Remand, Azorius Signet, and Decree of Justice. He untapped my seven mana and drew Gifts Ungiven (argh!). Suddenly, a hand which he couldn’t cripple was turned into the worst-case scenario for me. He played Gifts and searched for the second copy of Decree of Justice and a Mindslaver, and put them in my graveyard. He should’ve at least grabbed a second copy of Academy Ruins and played it from my hand, as I had already one in play, and this way I would have both my Ruins in the graveyard while he still had his copies in his deck. As he put me a Mindslaver in the graveyard, when I had Academy Ruins in play, this can’t be considered optimal. With the three remaining mana after the Gifts, he cycled the Decree, therefore putting both my copies in the graveyard. I figured drawing a card from the Decree couldn’t hurt me, as he had already tapped all my mana, so he couldn’t cast any spell, and if it’s a land, he’ll just hold it.
Unless I drew the second copy of Academy Ruins from my Decree of Justice… which I did.
I mean, it was pretty demoralizing, those two draws being precisely Gifts Ungiven and Academy Ruins. I still had a chance, which involved him not having a Wrath or Slaver lock, and me riding an Exalted Angel to victory. The plan worked for a while, but eventually he found Solemn Simulacrum and the second White source he needed, and Wrath followed. Now I didn’t have many win-conditions left: I needed a Crucible of Worlds or Sundering Titan. He played Condescend, and when he Scryed the two cards on top, I knew I was close to death. One was Decree of Justice for fifteen tokens – the other didn’t matter.
10 – 3
Round 14 was the first time I faced Aggro Loam at the Grand Prix, and it was against one of the masters of the deck, Luis Scott-Vargas. I assumed his version didn’t have Dark Confidants like Paul Cheon, so it should’ve been an easier matchup than the one I tested. In the first game he knew that I had a Condescend in my hand from a previous Cabal Therapy, and he already had the Life from the Loam engine going. End of his turn I played Thirst for Knowledge and discarded two Condescends, because I only had one Blue mana to operate, and my hand had a Gifts. In my turn, I completed the Tron, having seven mana from the Tron, plus an Island, and a Chrome Mox on White. I tapped four and played Solemn Simulacrum, fetching a land, and keeping five mana open, which was good enough to play a Gifts at the end of his turn. He sensed danger coming, and cycled furiously for an answer, which he found by using Burning Wish to fetch Devastating Dreams. He played it for four. He guessed that I didn’t have a counter, which was a good call, as I had just discarded two Condescends.
The Dreams was still good for me, as I put five mana in my pool. After the Dreams resolved, he had no hand and just one land, while I kept the Mox and one land of my choice. I even drew a card from Solemn, and cycled a Decree for two tokens and another card. With some lands in my hand, and two mana on the table, soon after I played Gifts Ungiven. I’d already attacked with the 1/1 tokens, and he was too far behind and conceded.
Second game he started with double Leyline of the Void, which can be counted as a mulligan as he only had five cards left. He played a turn 2 Life from the Loam for zero, and dredged it back next turn. And, just like Rasmus in playtesting, he didn’t dredge lands… so he had just cast Time Walk on me. He played it again for zero lands, and dredged next turn, this time hitting one land, but he was once again way behind in land drops, and I won this round much easier than I expected.
11 – 3
My last pairing saw me play against Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, probably for a slot on the Top 8. I liked the matchup against Tog, but I wasn’t happy to take on a friend. I killed his Dark Confidants whenever I had the chance. Even though he had Top plus Counterbalance both games, I just needed to wait until I drew my high mana spells that worked through the Counterbalance. In one of the games, he even missed the third land drop – so as long as I didn’t do the same, I definitely had the advantage there.
12 – 3
I didn’t even bother checking the standings. I just looked at the faces of the people there, and they pretty much told me everything. I finished ninth on tie breakers.
Is there anyone out there with more Top 16 finishes than me?
More than three Pro Tour Top 16s? Yes, probably.
More than seven Grand Prix Top 16’s (as far as I remember) without a single GP Top 8? Probably not.
For me, this game is no longer about the money, or about the points, or about the honor, or the fame. It’s a personal goal, toward my checklist of things to do. I don’t want to quit Magic one day without having a GP Top 8. A long time ago, I made a checklist which involved the following:
Being National Champion. Check.
Being, even if only for a little while, on the Gravy Train (now Pro Club Level 3). Check.
Making Top 8 at a Grand Prix. Not yet.
My next Grand Prix tournaments are Amsterdam, Kyoto, and Massachusetts, and since teams doesn’t count and Kyoto is a new Constructed format (and in Japan), I can’t see my Top 8 coming soon… but I have faith it may happen later in this season, and that I’ll be able to talk about it in this very column. As for Grand Prix: Dallas… I would like to thank all the people I spent time with since leaving home on Sunday.
As for the deck, I would strongly recommend it to anyone… for the metagame at Grand Prix: Dallas. Sadly, I have no idea how the metagame will evolve.
When people I don’t know ask me which deck should they play, I give them my opinion. They thank me, and are grateful. It’s not the same with my friends. I hate advising them on deck choice. I’ve never met anyone so afraid of picking decks! I advised three or four of my friends to play this exact same list for a PTQ, and all of them reacted the same way:
What do you do against a Destructive Flow?
Doesn’t this deck lose to TEPS?
How do you win against X?
In this format, there is no best deck. Whatever deck you happen to choose it will have good and bad matchups, and they’ll auto lose to some card that some decks might run. At the time of the Grand Prix: Dallas, this list of U/W Tron was very good against all other control decks. It had good chances against most of the creature decks, and some tough matchups (like the mirror and Aggro Loam). I liked to think that, most times, the better prepared player would win. It had a bad matchup against TEPS, Aggro Flow, and possibly game 1 against Affinity. But I was aware of that, and I signed a contract stating that at the moment I chose to play it.
If you are well prepared for the tough matchups, and you can accept the fact that you can only beat Aggro Rock and Affinity with some luck, then I recommend this deck. The advantages and the easy matchups certainly make up for the disadvantages. Just make sure the changes you make are justified for play situations you encountered in testing or metagame shifts, instead of making changes just because you feel you have to change a net deck.
As of this moment, I’ve stopped thinking about Extended. I have two 2HG Grand Prix tournaments, and one Standard with Planar Chaos tournament, ahead of me. Wish me luck!
Thank you for reading,
Tiago