Limited Lessons — It’s Fun To Be In The IPA

I’m not going to lie; I had no idea what I was going to write about this week.

My first thought was to write about Two-Headed Giant, with Grand Prix: Boston this past weekend. But then I remembered that nobody at CMU ever wants to do a 2HG draft, so I can’t really get in any practice to learn anything new. I guess I’ll have to be content with writing a report on the GP if we do well.

As far as other ideas for this week’s article, I considered something on archetypes, but I’ve already covered most of that. I’d like to write about U/G in TTP, but I’m not sure I can say enough that isn’t already obvious about the color combination. I also considered a draft walkthrough, but decided against it since Drafting With Rich is back and I’d rather not be redundant. I finally settled on doing a report on a Sealed Deck Qualifier for the IPA tournament on Magic Online. I realize it’s not a relevant format for anything now, but plenty of people play Sealed online on a regular basis, and it’s also a nice change of pace.

Before I get into that, I have an updated Wild Pair list that I’ve been trying out. The deck still needs a lot of work and there are plenty of options to try out, but this is the list I’m currently running.

G/R Wild Pair v2

Nick Eisel

Test deck on 04-08-2007

Standard

Creatures (27)

Lands (23)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

I decided to try out Weatherseed Totems against the removal heavy decks of the format. They also help some of the color problems I was having, and give you something to do when your opponent is just sitting back on counterspells. Be careful not to walk into a Brine Elemental lock with them. The White Akroma is also now out of the maindeck because I got tired of drawing it, and I’m not sure it was entirely necessary. The sideboard has also been changed some, with Avalanche Riders and Deadwood Treefolk for the control matchups. It’s possible there is a better version of this deck with Lotus Blooms, but I can’t seem to find anything I like on paper as of yet.

Now, onto the Sealed Deck.

Building the Deck

100 players entered this 4x release event on Magic Online. This made for seven rounds of Swiss. I’m sure you know the drill by now, so feel free to build a deck out of the card pool I opened before proceeding to see what I ended up playing.

IPA QT Sealed Cardpool

Nick Eisel

Test deck on 04-08-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (49)

Lands (1)

1 Urza's Factory

The first thing I noticed when the window with the card pool opened was a foil Desolation Giant staring back at me. Obviously I wanted to use him if possible, so as I separated the cards by playables and unplayables, I first tried a R/W build. The deck was very low on quality cards and wasn’t even using many of the best cards in my pool, with the exception of the Giant. My next pass at the deck was a U/B/r/g build that ended up looking something like this.

Auramancer’s Guise
Basal Sliver
Bog Serpent
Dreadship Reef
Dream Stalker
Erratic Mutation
Faceless Devourer
Fathom Seer
Havenwood Wurm
Lightning Axe
Midnight Charm
Primal Plasma
Sengir Nosferatu
Serendib Sorcerer
Shaper Parasite
Skulking Knight
Slipstream Serpent
Spitting Sliver
Strangling Soot
Temporal Eddy
Tendrils of Corruption
Treacherous Urge
Vorosh, the Hunter

2 Forest
Mountain
7 Island
7 Swamp

I wasn’t happy with the mana at all in this deck, and I also had Erratic Mutation in there with two one-drops, which is never a great thing. This is without mentioning that Havenwood Wurm is on the splash (not the most optimal thing ever). I finally decided to try G/B/u/r, since Green at least had Evolution Charm to help fix and find the lone Mountain for Lightning Axe and Flashback on Soot.

IPA QT Sealed Deck

Nick Eisel

Test deck on 04-08-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (15)

Lands (18)

Spells (7)

This is the build I settled on for the tournament with the only possible change in my mind being a swap of Slipstream Serpent for Skulking Knight. My thinking was that the mana is still pretty rough in this deck and I wanted to be able to play some guys until I could get a bomb like Vorosh or Nosferatu online. There’s also the added bonus that pretty much everyone kills a morph on sight when playing against B/G, since it’s either one of the Rare guys or a splashed Shaper Parasite (usually). The Serpent could also randomly flip up for a win if I drew the one Island, which was good enough for me. I’d rather board in the Skulking Knight in matchups where it’d be good than have it maindeck and draw it against someone with a Saltfield Recluse in play. The sad part about this card pool is that there really weren’t many cards left on the sidelines that could’ve made the maindeck, as I don’t really like Deadly Grub or Brain Gorgers at all. I was really hoping I could find another splash option to go with the Lightning Axe so that I could justify running a second Mountain, but there just wasn’t anything there. I had the option of siding in Sulfur Elemental or Ancient Grudge though, if they were good and helped the situation.

Round 1
My opponent’s rating was around 1600 so I didn’t expect too much of a challenge in this round. In the actual games, it was even easier than that as he kept hands with spells he couldn’t cast. Game 1 I completely destroyed him in his attack phase with Treacherous Urge, and then went on to win with Vorosh a few turns later.

Game 2 I used Urge to good effect again, though this time I was way behind and in trouble. The only thing I had going for me was that he was U/G/w and had kept a hand without Green mana. The game got to the point where I was at seven life and tapped out for Citanul Woodreaders, while he had Dream Stalker and Viscerid Deepwalker in play with three Islands and a Plains. The bad news for me was that he also had Pentarch Ward and Might of Old Krosa in his hand, which I knew about from the Urge, so I was forced to just hope he didn’t draw a Forest to kill me as I’d drawn removal off of the Woodreaders. He untapped and immediately put the Forest he’d drawn into play and I almost right clicked and hit concede. But then, he tapped a Plains! He cast Pentarch Ward on the Deepwalker naming Green, and then was unable to cast Might of Old Krosa on it to attack for lethal as the Woodreaders was my only blocker. After this awful misplay I was able to untap and use removal and the Essence Warden I’d drawn to get back into the game and win it pretty easily. Quite lucky for me that he threw away a game that was locked up, but I do still feel like I was in good shape for game 3.

1-0

It was at this point that Magic Online crashed for about five minutes before finally coming back up, with the tournament was still going. I really can’t stand the crashes lately, and I’ve been screwed out of multiple Top 8s when I was undefeated and waiting to draw in when the server went down. I really hope things change soon, or I feel like people are going to get sick of it and stop playing online as much.

Round 2
My opponent was pretty solid this round, and when I passed on turn 5 with five mana up and behind on board, he typed in “Muck Drubb?” before attacking with his guys. Unfortunately for him, I had Treacherous Urge, which grabbed the Clockwork Hydra in his hand, blocked his Darkheart Sliver, and shot down Deathspore Thallid. Yup, that’s three for one. I believe Ervin Tormos tried to say that I was wrong about Treacherous Urge in his Geneva article, and already in two rounds I’ve had it be really good for me every time I’ve cast it. At any rate, the Urge was even better than that as I had Nosferatu waiting in my hand, and wanted to make sure the coast was clear for him before dropping him on the board without mana up. He easily went the distance.

Game 2 I actually believe I punted by making a poor judgment call. The situation is turn 3 and my opponent had forced me to play first and I also mulliganed. I have Basal Sliver in play and he has a freshly cast Thallid Germinator. Since I saw Deathspore Thallid last game and I also know my opponent is pretty competent, I decide that he’s not going to block if I attack and then I can cast my Nosferatu post-combat, since I didn’t have another Swamp in hand. Well, he decided to block and I instead did nothing on that turn. While I did get the Vampire into play eventually, it was too late to matter. I believe that if I’d just not attacked and played Sengir I would’ve easily won this game, but I got greedy and made a bad read.

Game 3 my hand was pretty strong and my opponent now had to mulligan on the play. I had nothing great to do on turn 5 so I passed and bluffed Treacherous Urge in a situation where I was pretty sure he wouldn’t attack into it. It didn’t make a huge difference because I played Vorosh on the next turn and he had no answer to it anyway, but he typed a few things that confirmed his belief that I had Urge. Vorosh easily went the distance.

2-0

Round 3
My opponent started off strong with some guys, but I killed all of them with Midnight Charm, Strangling Soot, and then Tendrils. At this point he started to get flooded while I played Woodreaders to reload. His deck didn’t offer up much help.

Game 2 my opening hand was very strong and I played Nosferatu on turn 5 with Evolution Charm backup in case something should happen. He did in fact have the Lightning Axe but the Vampire was back online and a little bit later and even Sulfurous Blast wasn’t enough for my opponent to stop the Vampire despite killing everything else.

3-0

Round 4
Game one I mulliganed into a mediocre hand on the draw, and my opponent started with turn 2 Knight of the Holy Nimbus, turn 3 Riftmarked Knight, turn 4 Pallid Mycoderm, turn 5 Pentarch Paladin. Since I was also color screwed on Swamps this game, I died very quickly.

Game 2 I played turn 5 Nosferatu again and my opponent had only ground troops. It took a while since he played Jedit’s Dragoons and then bounced it with Whitemane Lion, but eventually the Vampire was able to bring it home (Noticing a trend?).

Game 3 was pretty close and I was forced to play Woodreaders on turn 3, as he again had the Nimbus / Riftmarked Knight draw. It took me until turn 7 to draw the Swamp I needed to play Vorosh, but after that I was able to stabilize and then eventually attack and win in a few swings from the big Dragon.

4-0

Round 5
Game 1 was very weird as I mulled into a crappy hand with no Swamps on the draw, and my opponent also got stuck on three land. I had to play Woodreaders early again to hold Shade of Trokair at bay, and then I played Scarwood Treefolk while he suspended Mindstab. Eventually he Stabbed me and I had to discard Tendrils, Faceless Devourer, and Nosferatu, as I still hadn’t drawn a Black source, and I kept Bog Serpent and Phantom Wurm. On the same turn he cast Smallpox, which knocked my hand down to only the Wurm and my board to Scarwood Treefolk, three Forests, and an Island. My opponent was reduced to only Knight of the Holy Nimbus and three land, so it looked as if I was in okay shape. He ended up drawing a few land in a row though, and then Temporal Isolation, and was able to break out of the screw before I could. I drew one land but then couldn’t get the Wurm online fast enough, and he played a Castle Raptors that eventually killed me.

Game 2, my hand was great. He started with Candles of Leng, and I laid a morphed Parasite (which was promptly Cradle to the Graved). My next play was Scarwood Treefolk while he played D’Avenant Healer. After that, I played Nosferatu and had Evolution Charm again for backup. To cut a long story short, he cast Damnation, which I was fine with as I simply got Vampire back and played it with two mana up. It attacked a few times before my opponent Mindstabbed my remaining cards, and then cast Rough / Tumble to kill the Vampire again. I probably could’ve won this game by giving him a Forest with Yavimaya Dryad, but I was pretty sure that he just had no outs to the Vampire and didn’t want to risk something stupid happening as giving the Forest didn’t really speed up my clock. I drew into Faceless Devourer with him at five life, but he drew the answer in Errant Doomsayers. After that I drew land and he eventually killed me with a bunch of White guys and Ivory Giant, while I was stuck with Vorosh in hand and no Blue mana. I suppose I should chalk this one up to a bad call by not giving him the Forest with Dryad but at the time it seemed right not to.

4-1

Round 6
This round I got paired up against one of the three undefeated players. His deck was pretty awful, and I’m guessing he got very lucky to still be undefeated as he was straight three colors with Skittering Monstrosity, Dragon Whelp, Sedge Sliver, and Serra Avenger. He was also playing Momentary Blink in this monstrosity without the ability to flash it back. Game 1 he just had all of the answers. Brute Force for my Lightning Axe, Momentary Blink when I tried to trade with a fatty. He also made the great play of casting Undying Rage on Spitting Sliver and then failing to attack with it. Sigh.

Before game 2 I asked him if he would draw since he was a lock for Top 8, and I could still win the next round and make it in. He declined my offer, and I proceeded to mulligan into an ugly hand while he had two of each land type out by turn 6 and all the double color creatures in the world. I asked him again if he would draw and he said no, but when I went on to explain that he couldn’t possibly miss Top 8 and would only be knocking me out of the tournament, he finally came around and agreed. Before anyone insinuates it, he insisted that I did not prize split with him and no bribes were involved. Honestly, I would’ve been fine just going to bed at this point, as it was 3am and my flight to GP: Boston was in a mere 4 hours and I was running on little sleep already. As it was, I got a shot at redemption in the last round.

4-1-1

Round 7
This round I was again paired against a competent opponent with a strong U/W deck. Game 1 he starts with Sinew Sliver, which I use Soot on, and then Malach of the Dawn which I Lightning Axe with the help of Evolution Charm. Things are looking great when I Treacherous Urge him and look to be in good position. Then I draw six consecutive lands and lose to Wipe Away plus Evangelize, since I can’t get enough men out to protect my Spitting Sliver when my opponent has another Sinew and Watcher in play.

Game two I start with Essence Warden, and then put Utopia Vow on my own Warden on turn 2. He’s played Jhoira’s Timebug and suspended Errant Ephemeron and Shade of Trokair so it would look like I was in trouble to the untrained eye. However, I had a plan as I played Basal Sliver and then used it to accelerate out Vorosh with the Blue mana from Utopia Vow. I then Lightning Axed his Ephemeron, and attacked and pumped up to 12/12. With me being at 28 life, you’d think this was enough. However, he had played some more guys and then attacked for 15 on his turn by pumping Shade to the max and also casting Brute Force. What this meant was that I was dead on board with him at 14 life and my board only consisting of 12/12 Vorosh and Essence Warden with Vow on it along with four lands. I untapped and prayed. I ripped the land I needed, morphed Shaper Parasite, and then unmorphed to pump Vorosh and attack for exactly 14. Phew, that was far closer than I’d expected it to be when I saw my opening hand.

Game 3 I decided to keep the following hand on the draw.

Essence Warden
Faceless Devourer
Shaper Parasite
Forest
Forest
Swamp
Swamp

It was a close decision but I decided that I had a better shot of drawing well off of the top than mulliganing into some weird hand and possibly going to five cards, which was suicide in this match. My draws were fine for the first few turns, as I drew Strangling Soot while my opponent suspended Ephemeron again. I had to use the Soot on his freshly cast Amrou Scout to prevent any searching nonsense. He then played a 3/3 Primal Plasma while I drew Phantom Wurm for my turn. At this point he seemed flooded, and I drew and played Yavimaya Dryad and gave him the Forest to get a good clock going. He had passed the turn previously with five mana untapped and did nothing, so I felt like the Forest wouldn’t help him. The game turned into a race once Ephemeron came out since I couldn’t block either of his guys, and he used Wipe Away on my Phantom Wurm to attack in again for seven more damage. I drew Midnight Charm, which I felt would be very helpful in tapping down Ephemeron one turn. He kept attacking and then played Duskrider Peregrine, and chump-blocked my Phantom Wurm with it. I was so close, I could smell the victory with him at two life and only Ephemeron and a morph in play, while I had finally morphed the Shaper and had Essence Warden as well. He attacked and I blocked morph on morph and he flipped up Brine Elemental, which looked like it would win him the game. I drew another land on my turn and passed, and then tapped the Ephemeron and blocked the Brine with my Warden, and thankfully he had drawn nothing on his turn. I pulled out a very close match.

The Top 8 Draft
At this point, making Top 8 qualified you for the IPA event this coming weekend, so I was already more than satisfied. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel that I had a huge edge in the draft. I drafted the following deck.

IPA QT Top 8 Draft Deck

Nick Eisel

Test deck on 04-08-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (18)

Lands (17)

Spells (5)

Sideboard

I built the maindeck a little different than some of you would, I’m sure. I decided to run the Ana Battlemage off just Calciform Pools instead of running a second Ashcoat Bear, as I wanted the Pools in the deck with Verdeloth, Hellkite, and Conflagrate to abuse. I also decided to splash the Mystic Enforcer to give the deck a little more power overall.

I lost the first round to the same guy who had two answers for Nosferatu earlier in the Sealed portion. Both games I played what I would consider ideal Magic, and really couldn’t make any other decisions. Game 1 wasn’t really close, as I got flooded and he abused Smallpox with Gorgon Recluse and also had Blightspeaker and multiple Rebels. In game 2 I Acid-Mossed and then played Yavimaya Dryad into an early Hellkite, killing two guys when my opponent was tapped out. He obviously had the one out in his deck, Dark Withering. I was mildly annoyed because it seemed like his draws were near perfect against mine in both of the matches we played, but I was still happy that I qualified for the IPA Sealed next week.

This has been much longer than I expected, but hopefully if you made it this far you enjoyed it. I’ll see you next week, most likely with a GP: Boston report.

Nick Eisel
[email protected]
Soooooo on Magic Online

Creatures (27)

Lands (23)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Creatures (49)

Lands (1)

Spells (24)

Creatures (15)

Lands (18)

Spells (7)

Creatures (18)

Lands (17)

Spells (5)

Sideboard