Last week I focused on Future Sight for competitive play, as it was a theme week dedicated to the new set. Today I’ll continue talking about Pro Tour: Yokohama and Time Spiral Block Constructed, a format that will still be played at the upcoming Grand Prix: Strasbourg. I suggest you have a look at Part 1 to refamiliarize youself with the setup.
For Constructed events, I have what I like to call "a deadline". I set myself a date some time before the Pro Tour, and I imagine the tournament will take place on that day. As a result, I force myself to choose my deck by that date, which leaves me the time between the deadline and the Pro Tour as a safety net to tune and practice my deck of choice. For example, after picking my deck for Yokohama I was losing a lot against White Weenie, even though our results (which consisted of a considerable amount of games) showed that White Weenie was a good matchup. What happened was I hadn’t played much with the deck at that point, and thus I was playing incorrectly. After playing more, and (more importantly) watching others playing and winning the matchup, I learnt how to play against White Weenie.
In the first part I presented you our gauntlet, which consisted of White Weenie, Blue/Black Teferi, Red/Black splash Blue, and Green/Red mana acceleration. This was more or less the scenario we encountered at the Pro Tour, except we underestimated mono-Red. We knew about mono-Red, but the persons in charge of testing it gave us the impression that mono-Red shouldn’t be part of our preliminary gauntlet, and so we put it together with our Tier 2 decks like Blink-Riders and Wild Pair.
Eventually I settled on the Black/Red splash Blue deck, thanks to the results collated by Frank Karsten. For the metagame we expected it seemed the most solid choice, it was performing well against White Weenie and Blue/Black Teferi, even if they weren’t auto-win matchups. They were however, better than 50% matchups, and we’re talking about two of the biggest expected decks, possibly the most-played beatdown and the most-played control deck. The acchiles heel of the Black/Red splash Blue deck was the matchup against Green decks, but we were hoping the White Weenie menace would keep those decks at low numbers.
Frank Karsten wrote an article about this deck for the Mothership. You can check his article here.
Unsurprisingly, I agree with everything he says. We played almost mirror versions of the same deck; we had one land different in our main decks. I had the fourth Molten Slagheap and one fewer Swamps, and we had one card difference in the sideboard. I lived at Frank’s house the week before leaving for Yokohama, therefore we went through the same process and reached the same conclusions. Instead of going through all that again and repeating Frank’s words, I’ll start with our final decklist. I’ll dissect the card choices, and talk about some that didn’t make it to the deck.
Creatures (8)
Lands (26)
Spells (26)
Sideboard
I like the manabase as it is, with these 26 lands plus four Prismatic Lens and four Phyrexian Totem. It is possible to play with an extra Swamp and just five storage lands, but in that case I would add a Mountain to the sideboard like many of the Dutchies did, boarding them in together with the four Sulfur Elementals.
The untouchable core of the deck is the 4 Aeon Chroniclers, 4 Damnation, 4 Void, 4 Sudden Death, and the eight artifacts. The last ten slots were trickier, and were only settled the night before during dinner. Curiously, after much debating and changing, the final configuration looked a lot like what we had earlier.
Damnation and Void are the main reason to play Black/Red control. Aeon Chronicler gives the deck card drawing and a little extra power, and in my opinion turned the deck from “passable” to “very good.” Sudden Death is the most reliable creature removal option overall, being good against White Weenie and Teferi decks, and it could be replaced by the extra copies of Tendrils of Corruption in the sideboard for the matchups where they’re not stellar.
We wanted four each of Tendrils of Corruption and Plague Sliver between main deck and sideboard, but how were we to distribute them?
Plague Sliver is very good in this deck, because it can be played as early as turn 3 and it’s immune to Sudden Death, the most commonly played removal spell in the format. Also, in a slowish control deck, it allows you to have a fast clock for those games you need to win quickly, and it’s probably your best chance to win against Green decks. You don’t want too many in the main deck, because they’re not amazing against White Weenie, and they’re not so good in multiples.
Tendrils of Corruption is not a "four of" in the maindeck, because it costs four mana and you need to have cheaper removal. You want to have access to four after sideboarding because lifegain is important against some decks, and it’s the best removal card for the mirror as it’s the only one that can deal with Phyrexian Totem. We settled for two copies of each in the maindeck, and two more in the sideboard.
Stupor was a controversial card. Some of us liked it, while others had doubts. My opinion is that they get the job done against most decks. Against control, they’re still a two-for-one, or they trade with a counterspell at worst. Against Green they’re not so good, because they only discard one card at random, but you definitely have worse cards in the deck for this matchup. Against White Weenie they’re not very good, and they’re amongst the first to be removed during sideboarding, but they’re still better than the alternatives.
There are obviously better cards than Stupor for any matchups, but overall the effect of discarding two cards was balanced against every matchup. While looking for alternatives, we wanted cards that also cost three mana. The deck is already slow, and in those games where you don’t have a Prismatic Lens on turn 2 you need to have some action for the early game. There was the possibility of having Shadowmage Infiltrators instead of the Stupors, since they both cost three mana. They were better against Green decks, but not so much better in the other matchups to compensate the price we were paying for them. We’d have to weaken our solid manabase by increasing the amount of Blue mana, and we’d be giving opponents some targets for Sudden Death.
I was not very fond of Bogardan Hellkite. It’s very difficult to cast them without a Molten Slagheap, thus the reason why I’m playing four. They’re also not very good against any specific deck. Instead, they’re an amazing topdeck in the late game. Instead of being good and bad against certain decks, they were good or bad in certain game situations. If you lived long enough for the late game, they were awesome, but I felt they were sometimes unnecessary – a “win more” card. I would have been satisfied to play with one, but I stuck with two like all the other Dutchies (mostly because I couldn’t come up with something better).
I’ve already mentioned how I like this deck because of the consistency and the solid manabase, but not everything is bright and shiny. I wasn’t very happy with this deck overall, even though the results and testing showed it was a viable choice. I simply had the feeling that it wasn’t the right deck. It seemed a good deck for a solid performance, but not for a great one. In all matchups, the deck was just that: a solid consistent choice. There wasn’t a very good matchup you really wanted to see. At the Pro Tour, I was just hoping to avoid playing against Wild Pair, which almost happened.
Round 1: Kris Kavanagh – White Weenie
For me, the Pro Tour started with the matchup I’d played the most, but all those practice games only mattered for game 1. It was the only real game we had. We both had a nice mix of lands and spells, but mine proved to be superior as it developed to include double Damnation, double Void, and double Sudden Death. You really need to know when to save your mass removal spells so that you’re not too exposed to Calciderm, and for that, you need to know how to spend your targeted removal spells.
Game 2 I mulliganed, and my six-card hand featured double Urborg. I went down to five, and didn’t drew enough lands to feed a mana-hungry deck like mine. In game 3 my opponent drew close to twelve or thirteen lands before I found the second copy of Sulfur Elemental, which is victory most of the time.
For this matchup, I usually bring in 4 Sulfur Elemental, 2 Tendrils of Corruption, and 2 Dead / Gone, and I take out 4 Stupors, 1 Bogardan Hellkite, and a combination of Aeon Chroniclers and Plague Slivers.
1 – 0
Round 2: Kyle Tracy – Blue/Black Teferi
After White Weenie, this was the matchup I’d tested the most. Both were slightly favorable, but I preferred playing against Teferi since there was less variance in the matchup. Sometimes White Weenie would just win, thanks to strong draws from their side or weak ones from mine.
I can’t remember the games exactly, because this was the matchup I faced most at the Pro Tour. I think I got game 1 thanks to drawing more Aeon Chroniclers than my opponent. In game 2 he mulliganed to five on the play, but got a good draw from the few cards he had available. I was facing some small mana problems, like being stuck on four or five lands, which can be annoying in control matchups. He took advantage of it by attacking many times with Phyrexian Totem for the win.
In game 3 I felt I had the advantage, but with time running out I decided I needed to be a little more aggressive. I knew he didn’t have a Tendrils two turns ago, and since then he had drawn two cards… one was a land, and the other he was holding. I decided to be more aggressive and activate my Phyrexian Totem for a quick win, but he had indeed drawn the Tendrils. It killed my Totem, made me sacrifice half a dozen permanents, and gained him some life. I played aggressive to prevent the draw, and as a result I turned an advantageous board position for me into one that ended in a draw.
I wasn’t too upset about it, as I figured I would be playing against more control decks in the draw bracket.
For this matchup, I usually board in 2 Plague Sliver, 2 Haunting Hymn, 1 Psychotic Episode, 1 Enslave and 1 Detritivore, taking out 4 Damnation, 1 Bogardan Hellkite, and 2 Tendrils of Corruption (or 1 Tendrils and 1 Sudden Death depending if they have Shadowmage Infiltrator).
It’s possible that I have one extra card in the sideboard for this matchup. Frank did not have the Psychotic Episode – he had a Mountain instead. I had the Psychotic Episode because I wanted an extra card against Green decks, but I also boarded it in against Teferi. With my sideboard I have 7 cards to board in, and I don’t know if I have enough cards to take out. It seems wrong to take out so many removal spells, because one of the advantages in this matchup is having more than enough ways to kill all their threats, thus preventing them from winning.
1 – 0 – 1
Round 3: Takuya Oosawa – Blue/Black Teferi
This round was a feature match covered by the Japanese, so I translated the link into English in order to remember some facts. The first thing I discovered was that this Blue/Black Teferi Control deck with splashes (thanks to Terramorphic Expanse and Prismatic Lens) was Katsuhiro Mori’s creation, called Baby Star.
According to the coverage, Takuya started with turn 2 Prismatic Lens and turn 3 Shadowmage Infiltrator which hit many times, because I stalled on two lands for a while. When I drew my third it was an Urborg, with one already on the other side of the table. When I drew my “real” third land, I played a Phyrexian Totem and tried to race with it against the Infiltrator. I failed.
Strangely, I don’t remember drawing the Urborg when I was stalling on two lands, but it probably happened if it’s written on the coverage. I do remember seeing the Shadowmage Infiltrator on turn 3 and being powerless against it.
In game 2 we both started with Prismatic Lens, but Takuya destroyed mine with Ancient Grudge and later flashed it back to destroy a Phyrexian Totem. The coverage pointed out that he could’ve saved the Ancient Grudge just for my Phyrexian Totems, as I drew a second later, but I think it’s good to take down a Prismatic Lens in the early game against a mana-hungry deck like mine, since you still have the flashback as an insurance. The game came down to my many Urza’s Factory tokens, staring at his Phyrexian Totem and Aeon Chronicler, but I soon created enough to attack with everyone.
Game 3 was all about Plague Sliver. I got one into play quite early that stuck around for a while before being Disintegrated, but I simply replaced it with another one on my turn, taking advantage of him being tapped out for the x-spell. When he was at five, and facing a Plague Sliver and an Aeon Chronicler coming into play, he cast Draining Whelk on the Chronicler, but I was holding three different cards for the win. Sudden Death on the Whelk with the ability on the stack, Void to kill the Whelk and attack with the Sliver, and Bogardan Hellkite. I just needed to show him one with the Whelk on the stack.
2 – 0 – 1
Round 4: Robert Jurkovic – Blue/Black Teferi
I played a lot of Black/Blue Teferi decks, and it’s difficult to remember what happened each game. But it also doesn’t help having played against both Robert Jurkovic and his friend Lucas Blohon, as both playing an identical build.
I remember game 1 was very easy, because I played Stupor on turn 3 and randomly hit his remaining land, and he didn’t draw any more for a while.
I believe he got game 2 with a Plague Sliver or Phyrexian Totem beats (wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around?), while I took the third game by a very close margin by playing very aggressively with Phyrexian Totem.
3 – 0 – 1
Round 5: Kazuya Mitamura – Blue/Black Pickles
At this point I was playing at table 10, and everyone thought I was 4-0 and almost a lock for Day 2, but in fact I was 3-0-1. If I lost this round, I was pretty much the same as the 3-2 guys.
Blue/Black is a decent matchup since you can kill their threats easily and draw cards with Aeon Chronicler. If they have Shadowmage Infiltrators you kill them, and they don’t draw many extra cards. Unless they have Careful Consideration, of course. In game 1, at some point I left Kazuya with no cards in hand, but he drew Careful Consideration into more Careful Consideration, and after a small blip his hand was refilled. I don’t remember how he eventually won, since he had diverse win conditions, but the Careful Considerations were the turning point. After that, the game was pretty much lost.
Game 2 I was once again wrecked by Ancient Grudge, which he cast thanks to Prismatic Lens just like Takuya the round before. He won this game by attacking multiple times with Phyrexian Totem and eliminating every attempt I made to block with Damnation, Strangling Soot, and Cancel.
3 – 1 – 1
Round 6: Oyvind Andersen – Black Control splashing Aeon Chroniclers
This deck looked more like ours (but without Void) than a Blue/Black Teferi deck.
In game 1 we both knew each other’s hands, thanks to his Psychotic Episode and my Void, and my hand was garbage against his. He knows that I have many creature removal spells, and I know he has a Venarian Glimmer, a Disenchant, and a Pull from Eternity. We both have hands full of answers to each other’s threats. I got lucky and when I cast the Stupor I randomly discarded the Disenchant, which allowed me to play my Phyrexian Totem and attack. His sole defense was an Urza’s Factory, but I kept the tokens under control with Void and a pair of Sudden Deaths long enough to ride the Totem for the win.
Game 2 he stole my Plague Sliver with Enslave and killed me with it.
Game 3 he took advantage of me being manascrewed to play much more aggressively with a Totem. I was stocking a Molten Slagheap, but when I was one turn away from casting Bogardan Hellkite (which would potentially wreck him if he attacked with his Phyrexian Totem again), he drew Haunting Hymn and forces me to discard my hand. If I had lands, the game would’ve been totally different, which doesn’t mean I would’ve won. It means all the strategies and interactions would’ve been different and close, instead of being in one direction only. For example, he played very aggressively with his Aeon Chroniclers, while he would’ve suspended both with many counters if I were casting spells.
3 – 2 – 1
Round 7: Lucas Blohon – Blue/Black Teferi
It’s a shame, but I don’t remember any details about this match, other than I won 2-0. My opponent from round 4, Robert, was sitting at the next table, and he talked with Lucas before the match in a language I couldn’t understand (despite me understanding six). When the game started and he played Blue/Black cards, I assumed they were friends and were playing the same deck.
The games were close, but at some point I had more cards in hand thanks to my discard spells, and more lands in play thanks to drawing more cards with Aeon Chronicler. When this happens you’re clearly in a good shape to win.
4 – 2 – 1
With one round to go, I needed to win it to make Day 2, but I was also playing for four points instead of three. I tried to explain my logic to Pierre Canali and he didn’t quite get it, so I’ll explain it to my readers to see if it makes sense. I was playing Day 1 with a draw, which for elimination purposes or advancing purposes counts as a draw, since you can only afford two losses beside it. But once you make it into Day 2, the draw becomes relevant, as the extra point ensures that you are slightly ahead of the pack, as if you had the best tiebreakers. In case I made Day 2, it would felt like I gained a bonus point.
Round 8: Shouhei Yamamoto – Wild Pair Slivers
I recognized the name and the face from the Worlds Team competition, and I had already seen him play at this Pro Tour. I knew he was playing Wild Pair Slivers. My plan of avoiding Wild Pair almost worked. I wasn’t happy with this pairing at all, but I shrugged and headed to the table.
My best chance in this matchup is for them to not draw Wild Pair, or if I force them to discard it with Psychotic Episode, Haunting Hymn, or Void. Or try to get lucky with Stupor. It’s very difficult to win against a Wild Pair on the table.
Cutting a long story short… the first game he played Wild Pair on turn 5. The second game, it came down on turn 4.
There are two plays worthy of mention. First, our sideboard plan involved keeping Sudden Deaths to kill mana accelerators like Gemhide Sliver, or a Sliver with the Wild Pair trigger on the stack. The problem was that when I did this, I thought he would have to search for a creature with -2/-2 power and toughness, but instead he was allowed to search for a 0/0 as those negative values are treated as zero. This caught me by surprise, and he was allowed to search for a Vesuvan Shapeshifter.
The second play is a mistake I made in my last turn of the Pro Tour. This is a play I will keep for a further edition of the "Could Things Have Been Different" series. I don’t think I could’ve won anyway against a Wild Pair on the table, but I could’ve played at least one more turn instead of losing right away.
My opponent had four lands, Wild Pair, Gemhide Sliver, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Firewake Sliver, and two Wall of Roots. I thought for a long time if I should name two or three with my Void. Eventually I made a choice, and it was the wrong one. It seems so simple after you consider everything and know all the possibilities, but when you’re sat down and playing, you have a lot of unknown information. Anyway, either way, I was losing the game, but it’s still no excuse for incorrect plays. Join me in my next Could Things Have Been Different article for more details!
4 – 3 – 1
Looking back at the results, I did win against the single White Weenie I faced. Then I played against six Blue/Black decks – four Teferi, one Pickles, and one resembling Mono-Black. If we exclude that one and just consider the ones running Teferi, I went 3-1-1 against them. Our winning percentage against Blue/Black in testing was 60%. If we consider Oyvind Andersen’s deck as a Blue/Black deck, then the results are 3-2 and a draw, which is a winning percentage of 60% – three out of five. These numbers describe the matchup the same way I did it with words – slightly favorable, a matchup you don’t mind facing – and my early draw raised the possibilities of playing against these deck. I faced six of them. Also, everything went according to our results against Wild Pair. I lost.
For Grand Prix: Strasbourg, I still don’t know what I’ll be playing. It doesn’t seem profitable to playtest that much for a Constructed Grand Prix in a format I won’t be playing again afterwards. However, I still remember every time there was a Constructed Grand Prix in Portugal, local players practiced intensively for months so the Pros who play multiple formats might be at a disadvantage when it comes to preparation.
But despite this deck being a valid choice and having not failed me in Yokohama, I will be happy to ditch it for Strasbourg and pick another. The main reason is because it’s a slow deck, and Grand Prix tournaments only have fifty-minute rounds, and I hate picking up draws. It’s not so “under the radar” anymore since the Top 50 decklists are public, and Frank Karsten talked about it in detail. If I am lazy until then, it’s possible for me to simply run the same deck. I still have it sleeved, but I wouldn’t be too happy about it. We’ll see how this week develops.
Thank you for reading,
Tiago