Magical Hack - One Last Stab at Shards Limited

With the release of Magic 2010 right around the corner, we will soon be leaving behind Shards of Alara / Conflux / Alara Reborn Limited for the unknown shores of what is shaping up to be the most interesting Core Sets in recent memory. It’s my intention to take a pretty intensive look at M10 Limited as of next week, in time for the Prerelease (and after we’ve given the spoiler list a good bit of time to settle down, in case there are going to be any changes)… but start looking at Limited as of today. While we do have a lively PTQ season going, it’s too early to say what the fallout of M10 will be on the current PTQ metagame, and Limited is going to be just as critical to work on for the National Championships season. Ultimately my hope is to have had a good, thorough look at Limited going into Grand Prix Boston, and for our first look we’ll explore the outgoing format. Since we know it so well, this is going to be more of a flavorful tournament report than an in-depth manual on the ins-and-outs of Limited, which feels about right since many of the lessons of Shards Limited will not translate to M10 Limited.

As mentioned last week, I was going to enjoy the opportunity to play in the Magic Online Season Three Championships, which is the last major tournament I know of to play Shards Block Sealed Deck. While the 9pm start time was certainly not my favorite thing in the world, the only way I could change it would be to move, so the evening started by setting out and shopping for needed essentials. When burning the midnight oil, or worse yet the 4am oil, fighting sleepiness is best done by making sure you are constantly occupying at least some part of your attention, and snacking is a great way to do that… as I have learned on more than one late night car ride home from a PTQ that was to occupy much the same â€˜till dawn’ time block. Caffeine is wonderful if that is your thing but water’s more useful for keeping your body sound and you can drink all you want without worrying about overdoing it. (One tournament attendee mentioned they were going to go through two cups a round, which is a great way to actually poison yourself with caffeine. You can’t poison yourself with water, only drown.)

With chips and candy and Snapples, plus the ability to play the tournament from the comfort of my own home, all I was really lacking was that comfort in my own home. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, but it’s still summer, and even the weather trying to beat the heat hasn’t been perfect… and my lack of air conditioning at home remains a sore topic. It wasn’t especially hot, but what hot there was came with plenty of humid, which is just how the northeast is in the summer.

Nine o’ clock hits and I have the joy of seeing the following hit my screen:

Shards Block Sealed Cardpool

Sean McKeown

Test deck on 07-05-2009

Shards of Alara Block

Creatures (48)

Lands (3)

2 Jund Panorama
1 Rupture Spire

This has a lot of awesome things going for it, not the least of which are a passing resemblance to the entire Alara Block Constructed format with Broodmate Dragon, Bituminous Blast, and Bloodbraid Elf all present and accounted for. Strong removal across a variety of colors, a soild core for either an Esper or Jund deck, and enough possible mana-fixing to try and bridge everything into a five-color deck if you want it. Trying to assemble an Esper deck, you see the following:

Creatures:
1cc:
2cc: Vedalken Outlander, Deft Duelist, Tidehollow Sculler
3cc: Parasitic Strix, Windwright Mage, Talon Trooper, Ethersworn Shieldmage, Aven Mimeomancer
4cc: Viscera Dragger, Sludge Strider, Esper Cormorants
5cc: Vectis Agents
6cc+: Steelclad Serpent, Jhessian Zombies

Spells: Crystallization, Resounding Silence, Oblivion Ring, Drag Down, Infest, Lapse of Certainty, Absorb Vis

Fixers: Rupture Spire, Fieldmist Borderpost, Mistvein Borderpost, Obelisk of Bant. (Obelisk of Naya plus 2x Jund Panorama if we want to splash for Bituminous Blast while we’re at it.)

Filler as needed to bring us to 23 (such as random 2/4’s), or splash as desired (if we have Black already, at the very least Bituminous Blast is coming in).

The Jund, however, is more appealing right from the get-go. What it loses in â€˜artifacts matter’ synergy, it gains in a dose of sheer power, which looks like this:

Creatures:
1cc:
2cc: Putrid Leech, 2x Naya Hushblade
3cc: Matca Rioters, Gluttonous Slime, 2x Hissing Iguanar, Kathari Bombers, Sanity Gnawers
4cc: Viscera Dragger, Rhox Charger, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Canyon Minotaur, Madrush Cyclops, Bloodbraid Elf
5cc: Monstrous Carabid
6cc+: Jungle Weavers, Broodmate Dragon

Spells: Dark Temper, Drag Down, Infest, Yoke of the Damned, Absorb Vis, Colossal Might, Vengeful Rebirth, Bituminous Blast

Fixers: Rupture Spire, 2x Jund Panorama, Obelisk of Naya if we want an Obelisk.

Neither of these are free of â€˜card 23′, as even after shaving off the detritus from the Jund deck you still have to play a pair of Hushblades and the Gluttonous Slime just to fit the curve. Naya Sojourners likely gets played as well just as a trick, even without stretching the mana to make him castable. If you wanted to try and stretch in everything, you could reasonably play all of these:

Creatures:
1cc:
2cc: Putrid Leech, 2x Naya Hushblade, Qasali Pridemage, Stun Sniper
3cc: Rhox War Monk, Knight of the Reliquary, Matca Rioters, 2x Hissing Iguanar
4cc: Viscera Dragger, Rhox Charger, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Canyon Minotaur, Madrush Cyclops, Bloodbraid Elf
5cc: Monstrous Carabid, Naya Sojourners
6cc+: Jungle Weavers, Broodmate Dragon, Jhessian Zombies

Spells: Oblivion Ring, Crystallization, Resounding Silence, Dark Temper, Drag Down, Infest, Yoke of the Damned, Absorb Vis, Brainbite, Bituminous Blast, Colossal Might, Vengeful Rebirth

Fixers: Rupture Spire, 2x Jund Panorama, Mistvein Borderpost, Fieldmist Borderpost, Obelisk of Naya, Obelisk of Bant

This is realistically too many cards to play, since we have 20 creatures and 12 spells, and cutting it to allow for eighteen mana sources (presumably 17 lands/Borderposts plus an Obelisk) means we have to cut ten to reach the following:

Creatures:
1cc:
2cc: Putrid Leech, Qasali Pridemage, Stun Sniper
3cc: Rhox War Monk, Knight of the Reliquary, Matca Rioters
4cc: Viscera Dragger, Rhox Charger, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Canyon Minotaur, Madrush Cyclops, Bloodbraid Elf
5cc: Naya Sojourners
6cc+: Jungle Weavers, Broodmate Dragon

Spells: Oblivion Ring, Crystallization, Resounding Silence, Dark Temper, Drag Down, Bituminous Blast, Vengeful Rebirth

Mana: Obelisk of Naya, Fieldmist Borderpost, Mistvein Borderpost, Rupture Spire, 2x Jund Panorama, 2x Plains, 2x Swamp, 3x Mountain, 5x Forest

Considering all of the different options, if I was going to stretch my mana it would be to add just the Oblivion Ring to my Jund deck, but ultimately I decided that ten rounds playing just the Jund deck sounded more appealing than ten rounds playing the Jund deck with shakier mana but another removal spell. I had to decide pretty quickly… twenty minutes is not a lot!… but played the following:

Rupture Spire
2 Jund Panorama
3 Swamp
6 Forest
6 Mountain

Drag Down
Infest
Vengeful Rebirth
Colossal Might
Dark Temper
Bituminous Blast

Putrid Leech
2 Naya Hushblade
2 Hissing Iguanar
Gluttonous Slime
Matca Rioters
Rhox Charger
Canyon Minotaur
Bloodbraid Elf
Kliffrunner Behemoth
Madrush Cyclops
Monstrous Carabid
Naya Sojourners
Broodmate Dragon
Jungle Weaver

After that, there was nothing to do but shuffle up cards and play. For the first round, I
played versus Elvish Warrior, who wins the die roll and elects to play. Elvish Warrior has no plays turns one through four, just three different colors of land. I have all three of my colors in my opening hand and start off with Hissing Iguanar into Madrush Cyclops, attacking him to 14. For his first spell he has Slave of Bolas, targeting my Cyclops and then crashing me in the face with it. I’m able to take a pretty aggressive stance, as after that exchange the life-totals are 17 to 10 and I get to play the next spell, deploying another fatty before slowly starting to stall out. I’m able to deploy threats quickly and eat away at his life-total, getting him to four before he starts to crawl back into the game with his five color of spells. The game has started to stabilize in his favor, as he’s drawn all of his colors now and stifled my attack, and I am waiting to draw a pump spell to break through, Double Dragon, or Vengeful Rebirth for the outright kill. I try to buy as much time as possible, and he all-out attacks me at a very bad juncture, but I correctly managing his attack to go to exactly one after a trick and his Iguanar triggers, but have nothing left in play and thus have only Vengeful Rebirth that I can topdeck. I don’t.

For the second game, I get to display my deck of choice’s power. I win Game Two in about three minutes with the nuts Bloodbraid Elf draw on the play. Naya Hushblade followed by Hissing Iguanar into Bloodbraid Elf that Cascades up a removal spell for his first play besides two Traces of Abundance, Hissing Iguanar. Win on turn five is assured by Colossal Might for a billion damages, or at least so it feels.

Remember that question, whether you’d keep nothing but a Broodmate Dragon as your hand? For game three I keep two Mountains, two Forests, Jund Panorama, Drag Down and Broodmate Dragon, comfortable in the knowledge that this hand is awesome and not just because it has a Drag Down, if you know what I mean. To make it sweeter, my opponent mulligans on the play, as one is wont to do when one plays five colors all mashed together. I use the Panorama on turn two to get the Swamp and draw Putrid Leech for turn three, and attack into Wild Leotau on turn four only to pay two life and kill his Leotau with my Drag Down. For turn five I have Monstrous Carabid, and turn six Broodmate Dragon. Meanwhile, on his side of the board, he has two Forests, an Island and a Plains, has cast Wild Leotau and nothing else. And then he dies. Broodmate Dragon versus one spell opponent: win for Broodmate Dragon.

For round two, I played versus FloozyBoozy, who drew first with his 4+-color deck. I sort of disagree with this just on principle, because this is a heavy tempo-advantage format, which is also why I chose to have stable mana rather than splash the extra colors. For the first game I have an excellent start, getting good aggressive tempo with a Madrush Cyclops after losing my Putrid Leech to his Vithian Stinger + Branching Bolt. I unfortunately draw mostly lands after my opening hand, while he has enough action to overpower me and has drawn his lands properly. For game two, I figure if he wants to be on the draw so much, don’t let him… I make him play first, and promptly win game two against an opponent who applies one manafixer (Jhessian Zombies) but literally casts no spells all game.

Game three leads off with me on the play again, and he leads with Wild Nacatl to my Putrid Leech plus cycled Sojourner, trying to find my fourth land on time for a hand of Canyon Minotaur, Naya Hushblade, Bloodbraid Elf, Bituminous Blast, and (off the Cycle) Drag Down, to go with my Forest/Swamp/Mountain in play. FloozyBoozh has Forest, Mountain, Island into Matca Rioters, I draw the fourth land and can deploy monsters but apply Drag Down to his Rioters before it can become a 4/4, which would stop most of my team for longer than I want. The following turn, Bloodbraid Elf cascades me up my own Matca Rioter next turn and I attack, willingly walking my Leech into Branching Bolt. (“Willingly.” As in, I didn’t even bother trying to remember if he had any removal spells that were damage-based, I was just so excited to get in there I clicked the â€˜pump’ option before asking â€˜What if…’.) He follows up with Vithian Stinger, while I follow up with Canyon Minotaur. Said Minotaur eats Dark Temper plus a Stinger ping, and I play my Monstrous Carabid with him at four life and a hand of Dark Temper + Bituminous Blast while he still is stuck on those same three lands. He draws a second forest and plays Bloodhall Ooze, so I attack, putting him to one, and follow up with Naya Hushblade, still holding Bituminous Blast + Dark Temper to stop him from stopping me. His mana-screw costs him the third game as well, the risks of playing shaky manabases and too many colors, as I only saw two fixers (U/B Landcycler and R/G Borderpost) but four if not five colors of spells.

Note to self: Play tighter for subsequent games. Opponent holding up Branching Bolt mana, and known to have Branching Bolt, should be respected as possibly having a Branching Bolt… better to guarantee he take three than play the card-guessing lottery to deal five.

For round three, I am playing versus Gosu., and he starts with Rhox Charger into Rhox Meditant into Enlisted Wurm for Akrasan Squire. I start with Matca Rioters, Drag Down on his Charger and a Charger of my own, Bituminous Blast into Bloodbraid Elf into Hissing Iguanar while he follows up with a 10/10 Apocalypse Hydra, keeping back everything as blockers. I draw Colossal Might and attack, and Colossal Might my Bloodbraid Elf when he blocks it with his Meditant and letting my 3/1 die to his 10/10 Apocalypse Hydra. The attack puts him to four with me having five lands and Vengeful Rebirth in hand, and a cycled Jungle Weaver from turn two in the graveyard. I follow it up with Putrid Leech and block his 10/10, and he has a Vagrant Plowbeast as his next drop. I draw Land #6 and kill my opponent in a game where he cast Enlisted Wurm and Apocalypse Hydra. Nice deck, amirite?

For the second game, I sideboard out Infest for Yoke of the Damned since all I saw were fat monsters. Gosu. mulligans to 6 on the play, and I keep 2x Forest, Mountain, Naya Hushblade, Hissing Iguanar, my sideboarded Yoke of the Damned, and Drag Down. We both lead with Forest while I drew Colossal Might. Gosu. has Plains + Naya Hushblade, to my Mountain + Naya Hushblade. Gosu. attacks and I offer the trade, as his Blade is probably better than mine, it being one of my filler cards. He has Druid of the Anima (“all I saw were fat monsters”, yes…) to my Hissing Iguanar, and his Plains to my still no Swamp. Gosu. has Sighted-Caste Sorcerer and no attack; I swing and pump when Sorcerer blocks the Iguanar, knocking him to 13. He has Beacon Behemoth and I offer the trade, having drawn Broodmate Dragon for the turn. He doesn’t accept this offer, going to 10. He attacks with both his creatures, not giving his Behemoth vigilance, and no play despite having a fourth land type.

I draw Swamp like it’s nothing, and attack my Iguanar into his Resounding Silence. I play Double Dragon and crack, “Isn’t this the Alara Block Constructed queue”, my opponent now having seen Blast-into-Bloodbraid shenanigans plus my Dragon. I get hit to nine by his Behemoth, and crack him to two with Dragons. He attacks with both and I Drag Down his 5/3, going to 8. He has Intimidation Bolt for my Dragon when I go to attack, but I know it says “other” and attack to kill him and advance to 3-0.

For round four I am playing against TaZi. I start with Forest and Rupture Spire to play a turn-three Naya Hushblade, with Swamp and Jund Panorama enabling my fourth-turn Madrush Cyclops. TaZi, meanwhile, has played Forest, Swamp, Mountain and Rupture Spire, Dragon Fodder and Cerodon Yearling. Naya Hushblade trades on turn three (his turn four) when his Cerodon Yearling attacks, as I set up my hasty 3/4 the next turn and don’t want him having enough power to kill it when I attack. It is chumped from 20 by a token, which is pretty much always the wrong life-total to start chump-blocking from. I’m able to play out two more creatures all hasty and attacking, then TaZi plays Plains as land #5 and hits me with Voices of the Void to make me discard my two Forests plus Colossal Might… which I can live with. He then attacks with his token rather than chump that turn, seemingly figuring out that chumping is a touch premature. I draw Infest and attack him to seven, and his follow-up is Battlegrace Angel, attacking with the token to go back to nine. I attack with everything, having drawn Naya Sojourner for the turn, and his Angel blocks my 3/4 which becomes a 4/5. I draw Mountain off the cycle and play it. On his turn he has Igneous Pouncer which stays back to block; I draw Hissing Iguanar and cast it and then Infest to deal a bunch of damage and get my attackers through for lethal. I SB in Yoke of the Damned for Naya Sojourner, as he has at least one bomb to control and the trick doesn’t seem as strong against him, it only worked out because he was low enough that he had to block with Battlegrace Angel, not because a cantrip Battlegrowth is an awesome card.

TaZi mulligans to six on the play, and I keep Drag Down, Gluttonous Slime, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Forest x2, Mountain, Jund Panorama. We both have basics and Panoramas for the first two turns, he gets Mountain #2 while I get Swamp to complete my three colors of mana. Drag Down kills his Jund Battlemage, and his fourth land is Rupture Spire while I have all basics and a Rhox Charger. Charger attacks for four and I follow up with Monstrous Carabid, while he has another Mountain and Fiery Fall for my Charger. As this is a Haste-filled deck of many such things, Cliffrunner Behemoth comes down and attacks him alongside the Carabid to 7, and he has as his next play a Valley Rannet which I push out of the way with Dark Temper to finish murdering him.

It’s now nearing 1am, and things are starting to flag here. I’ve kept up solidly off just natural energy, but since we’re nearing what sane people would consider bedtime I find it’s time to start on snacking, just to help entertain me and build a little more fire inside.

For round five, I’m playing versus Lucchesibr. It takes him five minutes to even show up at his keyboard, and I’m thinking I’ve just gotten a bye at 4-0 due to the sleep deprivation issue. I’m ready to pump the fist in celebration, but he does actually appear, and then I lose game one trying to race against a Blades deck and come out at the wrong end of the trades, with him stabilizing with Bant Sureblade against my Hissing Iguanar and me stuck without the Black mana for my Drag Down that would have gotten it out of the way. In all fairness, I made a poor attack into his Sureblade and am forced to use Colossal Might earlier than I really wanted to, which is a fair part of why I lost that tempo… on the following turn, I could have played the Might and another creature, so instead of swinging and asking if he was willing to lose his guy to my trick, I should have stayed back and just played another guy. For game two, he is the clear aggressor in the game, full of Blades and kind of surprising to me considering how very, very aggressive I had been in my previous matches. I am able to stabilize with Double Dragon and pull back a removal spell with Vengeful Rebirth that itself kills a creature, buying enough time to turn the life-totals back around with a Cliffrunner Behemoth with one of my two Sureblades out, pushing me back up to a healthy life total and changing the race dramatically since it did just literally come out of nowhere.

Game three is the sickest yet, as I have the right lands including a Panorama and a Rupture Spire in the first few turns, plus Matca Rioters and Putrid Leech, and get to choose between playing a guy that isn’t very impressive (a Sureblade) or keeping five mana untapped on into his turn for my Bituminous Blast which I can follow up the next turn with Vengeful Rebirth to buy the Blast back. I’m willing to kill almost anything, so I keep the mana up. He has so far played an Elvish Visionary and Algae Gharial, and Sacellum Archers joins the team in time to be targeted with my Bituminous Blast. Bituminous Blast reveals Bloodbraid Elf which revealing Hissing Iguanar, and he is on the wrong end of sick variance this time since I could have just gotten a 2/1. I was going to Vengeful Rebirth him to death on my turn, but he conceded before he could receive such rough treatment as that, simply commenting that my deck was the sickest thing ever. Any turn that has a multiple-cascade chain in Limited feels pretty disgusting, and I consider going to take a shower after that.

True fact.

For round six, I’m playing versus BugstepperToren, who wins the die roll, returning us to the first three rounds of play rather than the latter two, where I actually even got to be on the play. Again I’m kept waiting for Bugstepper to appear, and crossing the fingers that sleep or another sort of mishap will score me a free win, not that I need one with this deck but I’ll take one when it’s on offer. Again, five minutes of crossed fingers and we play. I keep a Mountain and Jund Panorama with Hissing Iguanar, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Jungle Weaver, Dark Temper and Bituminous Blast, and draw Rupture Spire for turn two while he leads with Swamp and Island. His next play is Plains, go, while I have Hissing Iguanar… he follows up with Messenger Falcon, and I play Cliffrunner Behemoth and send both, trading my Iguanar with his flier. He then plays Talon Trooper and Forest, showing he is the too-many-colors special, and I just attack him to 9, play a second Panorama and prepare to use my Panoramas. He has a second Messenger Falcons and doesn’t attack; I fetch up Swamp and Forest to go with my Mountain and Spire, and have the Drag Down to kill Talon Trooper and 2-for-1 him in combat when he double blocks. A replacement Talon Trooper appears, and I play Madrush Cyclops to add more haste to the party. He has Bant Charm for the Cyclops and takes another five, down to four. Then that Talon Trooper chump blocks as well, and I play Matca Rioters to add to the assault, intending to play a precombat Iguanar if he has another blocker that my Dark Temper can’t kill. Instead, he cycles Viscera Dragger and concedes.

For game two I’m on the draw and mulligan a two-forest, very Red hand into one of each basic, Infest, Hissing Iguanar and Canyon Minotaur. He leads with Island, I with Forest, and he has a turn-two Courier’s Capsule to my turn two Swamp-go. He draws on turn three to make his third land drop, while I just play Mountain and cast my Hissing Iguanar. He has an Infest for it and trades one-for-one, while I have a Bloodbraid Elf that digs deep (fifteen cards!) and finds the other one, then attacks. For his turn five he plays a Plains and Messenger Falcon, which I kill with a Dark Temper and attack, bringing him to ten, and cycle my as-yet-uncastable Monstrous Carabid, drawing Bituminous Blast. He plays Viscera Dragger, I don’t draw land and Drag it Down, warning bells in my head about his untapped Swamp and Plains. He has Zealous Persecution, which is probably what my very clever warning bells were trying to tell me about, but which I didn’t think to attack into and kill his creature in response to, because that wasn’t a conscious thought, and thus not a card I tried to play around. After saving his guy from removal, he then accepts a trade of his Dragger for my Elf. He Unearths his Dragger and attacks, then has Traumatic Visions to counter my Canyon Minotaur, and his fresh Unstable Frontier allows him to double up on Talon Troopers the next turn. I play my Cliffrunner Behemoth, and predictably he doesn’t attack, readying to trade a flier for my 5/3. I draw land #5 and offer that trade, and Bituminous Blast turns the trade into some ridiculous card-and-tempo-advantage monstrosity that gets me a Naya Hushblade and also turns on Lifelink.

To try and recover, Messenger Falcons appears again, joined promptly by a Grixis Grimblade, and I have no play so I just crash. We trade but I have Gluttonous Slime as a 4/4, which is followed up with a replacement Naya Hushblade. He plays land #10 and says go with two cards in hand, so I attack with just the Slime, correctly smelling Resounding Silence and following it up with Matca Rioters. He has Vedalken Outlander and Zombie Outlander, I have Infest and Colossal Might, so I play patient, as he’s out of cards. I draw Jund Panorama the next turn and patience starts to be rewarded, but I hold back a turn on my Infest to play Putrid Leech, so I can see if he has another counter or maybe plays out his last card, as I know one of the two in hand is a land off his Armillary Sphere that turn. He plays Rupture Spire instead of the known land, still with a mystery card, but I pump my Leech and cast Infest, which resolves.

I leave back the 1/1 Rioters in case Mystery Card is a second Resounding Silence, and he takes the two from the Leech. He plays Sangrite Backlash on the Leech, leaving me my Rioters, and I draw and cast a fresh Madrush Cyclops. I could kill him with Colossal Might but instead get him to two instead of exposing my trick to his last card, and he draws and concedes.

It’s now the small hours of the morning, and already I can see my play has started to deteriorate. I’m recognizing about half of the possible tricks or removal spells he has, and was not exactly in peak form to begin with as evidenced by some of my previous rounds of mistakes that thankfully hadn’t cost me a match yet, and I’m brutally cavemanning my way past my opponents, taking Bituminous Blasts and Broodmate Dragons and clubbing people to death with them. Can I draw these same cards I’ve been relying on forever, or will I have to win honest matches without my bombs?

For round seven, I played against TheGenk1818, who starts off with a Mountain and Panorama, leading into Goblin Outlander and post-combat Madrush Cyclops, while I lead with two Naya Hushblades, Hissing Iguanar, and then a Cyclops of my own while we sit there not-attacking. I’m confused by his post-combat Cyclops, as he should be attacking me and is missing points he could have left and right for only moderate risk, but I decide that with my Dragon and Cascade stuff that not attacking profits me, so I am content to develop the board. His play is explained as I get Lavalanched out of the game. There’s moderate risk, and then there’s no risk… apparently I was the aggressor this game, and misassigned my role.

I SB Infest out for Yoke of the Damned, as his creatures all seem sizable, and hope for a better game on the play as his Outlander stopped my early game action cold despite me not being a White mage. In game two my opening hand is one of each basic, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Broodmate Dragon, Colossal Might and Jungle Weaver. He leads with Dregscape Zombie and I cycle my Weaver, which after the next draw nets me the sixth land for my Dragon. He has his third land type as well and an Obelisk of Jund, while I have Canyon Minotaur. He follows with Shambling Remains, while I play a Cliffrunner and attack for hasty damage which his Dregscape chumpblocks. Wretched Banquet now kills my 3/3, explaining his blocks, and Shambling Remains attacks me. Rather than play my Dragon I play the Rhox Charger I drew and have mana open for Colossal Might, and when he attacks I block and stack damage then pump; he has a Fiery Fall for my Cliffrunner but nothing to deal the last one to Charger, and I get to feel all sorts of clever. I follow it up on my turn with an attack and two dragons. Shambling Remains and Dregscape unearth, and actual-Dragon blocks the Dregscape, which sees a Branching Bolt take out my dragon and Charger. I attack him to three with the Dragon token and cast a freshly-drawn Putrid Leech, only to see Slave of Bolas take my Dragon token. With that being all he had, however, then Putrid Leech kill him on the backswing.

For the last game, I sideboard out Gluttonous Slime for Viscera Dragger, figuring I can get better advantage from the cycler/Hill Giant than try to get something better with my Slime. With all the one-for-one removal, I’ll have to work hard even to get the Slime to be a 3/3, and I could have a slightly stabler mana-base thanks to that Cycler as well as a creature that trades with at least some value, keeping aggressive potential with Unearth. For game three I keep Jund Panorama, Rupture Spire, Swamp, Mountain, Madrush Cyclops, Dark Temper, and Monstrous Carabid. I lead with Forest and Rupture Spire, while he landcycles Fiery Fall for Forest to go with his Swamp and Mountain. He has Matca Rioters for turn three while I draw Putrid Leech and play it, and when he attacks I block right into his Branching Bolt, content with the trade of his turn and removal spell and saving a life for my two mana plus a card. Madrush Cyclops then appears and gets a hasty attack, then dies to Wretched Banquet. He attacks and plays Dregscape Zombie while I play my Monstrous Carabid, and he has a Gorger Wurm that devours the Dregscape. Dark Temper kills his Wurm before I attack with Carabid, and my Matca Rioters also joins the fray. Rhox Charger comes down and makes the Carabid a 5/5 attacker, then I eat a Lavalance for five as his last card. If I’d thought to play around Lavalanche, I would still have that Charger in my hand, and have more than a Mountain as my last card. I draw a Naya Hushblade, which dies to his unearthed Dregscape Zombie before I realize I just chumped for one less life than I could have, somehow thinking I was â€˜trading’. Viscera Dragger off the top should trade with value, and does in fact take out the Rioters, but he follows up with Rhox Brute. I draw another land, wonder two turns too late whether I had to overextend with that Rhox Charger instead of just attack with both Charger and Rioter and let him trade Rioters if he wants, but 4 AM sees the end of my undefeated record as I just stopped playing around stuff I knew about, which I’d noticed started the previous round.

I’ve played late tournaments before, having been inches from a Nationals invite back when they had midnight meatgrinders, and noticed that 4AM is right where the wall of tiredness starts to appear. I’m right at that wall now, and while I have a pair of sweet ladies cheering me on and â€˜staying up with me’ via IM and have been trying to walk around between rounds, keep myself hydrated and make sure I’m snacking enough to keep awake, some of that attentiveness has slipped away as it is wont to do. I have done the math and some 8-2’s make it, but not more than two or three depending on how the tournament shakes out, and I hate that I have to realize that now that I am playing tired caveman Magic I have to be cognizant of that fact. I probably have one of the eight best decks in the room, because this is about the nuttiest Sealed Decks I have ever seen, but I’m just not playing it as well at 4am as I did at 10pm.

For round eight I played against McFish, and kept Swamp, Forest, Naya Hushblade, Canyon Minotaur, Matca Rioters, Hissing Iguanar and Infest on the draw. Not the very best of keeps, but with eighteen lands and only needing one of any color by turn three to start to keep myself in this, I figure it has a solid chance of developing. McFish leads with Plains and Firewild Borderpost, while I have Forest + Swamp, having drawn a second of each, which at least turns on my Infest. I draw Mountain turn three and play a 3/3 Rioters, which he Resounding Thunders off a Grixis Panorama plus those two sources, then plays Forest and Leonin Armorguard. I play Canyon Minotaur and offer to trade 3/3s, which he accepts. He follows up with Gorger Wurm, a big old 5/5, while I play Naya Hushblade and Hissing Iguanar. He attacks and I double-block, and he doesn’t have a trick, so it’s like I won some kind of â€˜how did I not just get blown out?’ lottery when I was eerily aware that my balls were on the table ready to be thumped. He has only Aven Trailblazer to follow up, and I am much more comfortable with the way the game is playing out, as I’ve stabilized and now have time to draw my good cards to do nutty stuff with. I now have two each of Mountain, Forest and Swamp, with Infest still in hand and a Jungle Weaver to be played next turn, and after I take two as all he has for followup is a Naya Hushblade. I deploy Jungle Weaver and pass the turn, he cracks his second Panorama for his fourth basic land type, and block his Hushblade on the attack figuring it was a pretty safe block since he can’t pump the Shrouded Hushblade, only to see Drag Down turn that around and not even kill his Hushblade. I cycle Naya Sojourners and draw Madrush Cyclops, attacking again, then he has no play and plays Celestial Purge in response to my Cliffrunner Behemoth. I play my Infest to kill his Hushblade and turn the math back in my favor, trading two a turn at 11 against five a turn at his 15. Then he plays Tower Gargoyle. I attack him to ten but draw a Forest, he attacks me to three and plays Marisi’s Twinclaws. Another land off the top was not the card I needed. I SB Infest out for Yoke of the Damned, as again his creatures are large and I would rather have a mediocre spot removal spell than an Infest that may just do nothing while also being the hardest spell in my deck to cast, unless you want to be really pedantic and point to Naya Sojourners.

On the play for game two, I have Forest, 2x Mountain, Jund Panorama, Hissing Iguanar, Naya Hushblade and Vengeful Rebirth, a comfortable hand that thankfully has one of my card-advantagey cards in it, as I haven’t seen one in a while. We trade his Wild Nacatl for my Naya Hushblade, and I draw a natural Swamp on turn three to complete my mana while he uses Bant Panorama to get Plains, and has his Swamp to Drag Down my Hissing Iguanar. I have no turn-four play save a Panorama search, and he plays Aven Trailblazer. He sticks on three lands so I choose not to Rebirth when I get to six mana, assuming that just taking two a turn I can find a better target, both to kill and to get back. I draw a Matca Rioters to go with my Colossal Might in hand, for which he has Crystallization, and I draw my Bloodbraid Elf off of the top and cascade up my other Hissing Iguanar. He keeps attacking — fine by me! — and has Naya Hushblade. Hushblade trades with my Iguanar, Valeron Outlander comes down and trades for my Bloodbraid Elf, and I get to devour it with Gluttonous Slime and eat Matca Raiders while I’m at it for a 4/4. Vengeful Rebirth re-buys Bloodbraid Elf, killing his flier, and he draws Land #4 on turn nine or so, another Plains. He casts Marisi’s Twinclaws, I play Bloodbraid Elf and flip up a nonlethal Dark Temper, dealing two to Twinclaws and getting an extra two trample when my Gluttonous Slime gets blocked and then Colossal Mighted. Bloodbraid Elf hits for three while my Slime is hit with Resounding Silence, and he has Drumhunter to follow up. I draw Naya Hushblade, which is Dragged Down, and his fresh Rupture Spire threatens to turn his hand very much alive. I draw and cast Jungle Weaver, and he has Firewild Borderpost… and no play. Jungle Weaver gets Terminated while attacking and I get Thought Hemorrhaged for my Broodmate Dragon, then draw a still-lethal Putrid Leech on my turn to which he replies with Gorger Wurm. Canyon Minotaur eats an Intimidation Bolt in response to Yoke of the Damned on his Wurm, then I trade Leech and Yoke for his Wurm while he follows up with Extractor Demon.

A complicated exchange comes up — I can Bituminous Blast with Drag Down, Rhox Charger and Madrush Cyclops as my Cascade targets. I have my Cliffrunner Behemoth, which can gain Haste with Madrush Cyclops and kill his 5/5 while he goes to one, I can flip the Drag Down to actually kill the Demon, or I can hit my Rhox Charger and basically lose my Bituminous Blast actually doing anything. I want more information if I can get it or to at least be put in a desperate situation before I have to throw the dice to the randomness of Cascade, so I wait a turn as I am not actually in danger of losing yet. He attacks with his 5/5, putting me to 5, and plays Gorger Wurm… I have to go for it, I either get Madrush Cyclops, Rhox Charger, or Drag Down, and only Drag Down wins me the game (killing the blocker). I get Madrush Cyclops and lose instead, wishing I knew that was what I would have hit with my Cascade so I could go back in time a turn and do it. Now, at 6-2, I’m likely out but going to push forward anyway. And certain that I could have done something better but didn’t because I’m not awake enough, which given the hour finally starts to summon a second wind in me as the sun has begun to rise.

For round nine, I played against Profane Command, the opponent not the spell. I keep a hand of Rupture Spire, Jund Panorama, Mountain x2, Forest, Madrush Cyclops, Bituminous Blast and we’re back in the sorts of rounds where I bludgeon people with crazy bombs, not draw my second-stringer cards and have to try and win with just them. I lead with Forest, Rupture Spire, Jund Panorama to his Forest, Plains, Gift of the Gargantuan revealing Nulltread Gargantuan plus Island, discarding a Forest because his â€˜card advantage’ pushed his hand to the brim. Madrush Cyclops comes down and hits Profane, who plays his Island and a Valeron Outlander. I play a Mountain and attack with just my new Matca Rioters, then my opponent drops his Nulltread Gargantuan. I play Forest and swing with both creatures, and he blocks the Madrush Cyclops, which will actually live through this exchange where Matca Rioters wouldn’t have. I play Colossal Might because I’m not a colossal idiot, I had a plan all along but didn’t tell you a card I’d drawn. At end of turn he landcycles Sylvan Bounty, shuffling away his pro-Black creature for a Plains, and plays Sigiled Behemoth. I play Bituminous Blast getting Gluttonous Slime and attack him to two, which is enough for him to call it a game.

For game two, I mulligan a one-lander on the draw, keeping a sketchy hand of 3x Mountain, Infest, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Gluttonous Slime. I draw Jund Panorama turn one while he leads with Bant Sureblade, followed up with a Talon Trooper and between the two this makes my life hard. I search for Forest despite really wanting to get Swamp, draw Mountain and have to say go. Leonin Armorguard pumps his attack, I play my Slime at end of turn, untap and draw Bloodbraid Elf that finds me Hissing Iguanar, attack with the Elf and end up far, far behind to Oblivion Ring, taking my Hissing Iguanar and attacking me to two life. I’m dead the next turn, and now know enough to take out my Infest, bringing in Viscera Dragger and Yoke of the Damned for Infest and Naya Sojourner, figuring neither the hard-to-cast Infest nor the mild trick will help me as much as another potentially-aggressive hand-fixer and my worst pinpoint removal spell.

For game three, I open with Broodmate Dragon, Madrush Cyclops, Matca Rioter, Viscera Dragger, Mountain, Swamp, Jund Panorama. I start with Mountain and a Panorama for my Forest, play turn three 3/3 Rioters to his dangerous Lorescale Coatl. Madrush Cyclops comes down and attacks with his friend to put Profane at 14, he’s still missing White mana and attacks with his 3/3 Coatl and plays no spell. He goes to four when I draw Monstrous Carabid and add it to the attack roster, and I’m holding land #6 plus Broodmate Dragon for next turn.

His Oblivion Ring takes my Madrush, and the new kill for next turn is to cycle Dragger and unearth it to kill him with two 3/3s after his 4/4 blocks my 4/4, and the Dragon sits in hand as the most powerful cheerleader ever. A win is a win, even if it isn’t with the awesome factor of double hasty flying Dragons.

For the last round, I am paired against RareFactionQ. I win the die roll and play first, keeping Forest, Mountain, Dark Temper, Rhox Charger, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Bituminous Blast, Hissing Iguanar. RareFaction mulligans on the draw, and I draw a mountain for turn-three Hissing Iguanar, while he has a Mountain and Grixis Panorama to find a Swamp. I don’t draw a land but do have a Dark Temper for his Pestilential Kathari, but his turn sees a cycled Jund Sojourners to Zap my Iguanar, and he draws an Island to go with Mountain, Plains and Swamp. Back to facing off against the many-colored special. I draw Rupture Spire, and am back in the game with Madrush Cyclops, Rhox Charger, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Infest and Bituminous Blast in hand. He has Obelisk of Bant while I play Madrush Cyclops and swing, to which he cycles Igneous Pouncer for a second Mountain and plays Magma Spray and Dark Temper to kill the Cyclops on his turn. I draw Vengeful Rebirth to go with my Bituminous Blast and play Cliffrunner Behemoth, sadly without Haste, only to have my opponent Vengeful Rebirth it. Jhessian Zombies is cycled for a land as well and my Rhox Charger is Dragged Down. RareFaction plays Forest for land type #5 and has Sphinx of the Steel Wind, which will in all probability kill me. He follows it up with Enlisted Wurm and cascades into Bloodbraid Elf, which gets Grixis Grimblade. In all fairness, now I know what it feels like, and it doesn’t feel so good. Soul’s Majesty on the Enlisted Wurm hammers the game home, earning my concession.

Looking for options, I consider switching to the Esper deck and splashing still for Bituminous Blast, but settle on what I had rather than be afraid of one Rare and sideboard out Infest for Yoke of the Damned, adding about my only way to actually kill the Sphinx. I play first and keep 2x Forest, Mountain, Jund Panorama, Rhox Charger, Vengeful Rebirth and Bloodbraid Elf. I search up Swamp turn two, while my opponent plays Hissing Iguanar turn three and trades it with my Bloodbraid Elf (whiffing, hitting Colossal Might) turn four. Jhessian Zombies cycles to find him his Swamp, and I draw Madrush Cyclops off the top to bring service. Pestilential Kathari appears and I cast Rhox Charger as well, attacking with both and having his Kathari trade for my dangerous Cyclops. I play Rupture Spire with the spare mana for the turn, and he summons an Enlisted Wurm which turns up a spare Matca Rioters for him, and I attack with my Rhox. He double-blocks, and I kill the Wurm with Dark Temper + Drag Down, trading with his Rioters. I’d hoped to get more out of the exchange, but if he was blocking at all it was correct to block with both, so c’est la vie. His next play is Obelisk of Bant and that’s it, so I play Naya Hushblade and Cavern Minotaur. Hushblade dies to Spark Spray, while Vengeful Rebirth for him buys back Enlisted Wurm, and he plays Sarkhan Vol. I try to kill Vol with my Rebirth but my best re-buy is my Elf, one loyalty short of actually killing it, and next turn he has Sphinx of the Steel Wind again which gains Haste from Sarkhan Vol and it’s game over, man, game over.

After staying up to the beastly hour of 7AM, which I suspect my esteemed editor will laugh at since that is his daily job over on his side of the pond but still on at midnight on the East Coast, I finish in 40th place overall; my last opponent, who had much the same tiebreakers as I did going into the last round, made it to 21st and no higher. I was out with my second loss, or at least I was based on when my second loss was, and finishing above the top tenth percentile in the tournament is fine but not what I stayed up ten hours to do. I’ve looked through the replays of my two losses and it just doesn’t have the same verisimilitude; I can’t think my way through the problems as I face them, decide honestly if I should have kept or mulliganed, or chosen a different line of play, or accepted the 33% chance of outright failure with my best spell instead of waiting a turn. I lose the hint of realism that let my intuition engage, sensing possible tells or tricks, and all I can really settle on is the fact that if this tournament started at 9am rather than 9pm I’d probably be in the Top 8 instead of on the outside looking in.

Could have, should have, would have. What is is that I had a solid chance and didn’t convert, but at least had a positive experience and a good adventure along the way. If I could go back in time and change anything, it would be to change my willingness to stick with the Jund deck instead of preparing the post-sideboard Esper deck as more of an option in my mind, as that deck would have been able to duck instead of get punched in the face when I mashed up against opponents who had cards more specifically pointed at me, like multiple ways to kill a Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I’d have liked to be more aware of the sideboard-deck’s potential rather than discovering it moreso in hindsight and retrospect, as I’d have rather tried to face Lavalanche with the Esper build as well, giving me two out of three matches lost where in retrospect I wish I’d been more willing to zig instead of zag, even if I sideboard out ZOMGBroodmateDragon.

How this relates to the coming Limited season, instead of merely the one past? Well, we’ve got to see the cards more clearly before we can follow up… so join us next week, same Hack time, same Hack channel.

Sean McKeown
s_mckeown @ hotmail.com

Magical Hack – One Last Stab at Shards Limited

Creatures (48)

Lands (3)

Spells (32)