Ten months ago on the car ride to the hotel in Kansas City after I had lost to Conley Woods in a 73/75-card mirror match in the Top 8 of the KC Open, I
made a couple promises to myself. The first was that I was not going to be content with this Top 8. The second was that I was going to work harder this
year at Magic than I ever have. The third and last was that I was going to make Level 8 this year.
This last weekend was quite the adventure. Leading up to the Nashville Open, I already had travel plans, so I didn’t bother to talk to anyone else
about going. On Thursday, I was informed that my travel partner couldn’t go, and I was screwed. I do have a car, but she’s got 190k miles, and I’m
always weary to take her on any long trips. I’ve never really had any issues with my little Mazda, but you never know. I asked probably five more
people about going and got the standard, “No, I have to watch paint dry this weekend,” or “Sorry, I have to DJ my neighbor’s kid’s
Bar Mitzvah.”
I really needed to go to this Open. I was 21 points away from Level 8, had a Flare configuration I was happy with, and was very excited to finally jam
Snapcaster Mage in Legacy. Not knowing what I was going to do, I just went to bed Thursday night early, since I had to get up to put my roommate’s kid
on the school bus. I woke up with the notion that I was just going to say “forget it” and drive myself, and that’s exactly what I did.
You have a lot of time to think on a 12-hour drive. The text messages I sent to Gerry were progressively getting more deranged. Eventually I got to the
point where I wanted to be playing U/b/g Tog with a Wish board so I could Snapcaster back my Berserks I was wishing for. Yeah, that deranged. The rest
of the drive was peaceful and uneventful, but my car did great! I got in around 9 and met up with AJ at the hotel. We went over the numbers for our
deck and sideboard and got to bed early after the rest of the group arrived.
My last few Opens have not gone so well. It seems like constantly I was either losing every single one of my win-and-ins or going into the last round
X-2 and losing for Top 16 against opponents who weren’t collecting Open Points. This time, I needed to tighten up.
For the Standard Open, I played a counter-heavy build of Flare. With three Dissipates and three Snapcasters main, along with the standard four Mana
Leaks, I was prepared for a long game. I had a Timely and a Wurmcoil to hedge against Mono Red and more counterspells than my other Flare opponents.
Liliana was still good, but really awkward in multiples (even though you can discard one to her +1, you still didn’t like drawing multiples) and not
very good against some of the aggressive decks, so we bumped her down to two copies.
I was happy with the deck, but felt like it was missing something. It was also weak to the U/W Blade style of decks. With only 2 Lilianas, Geist of
Saint Traft was a problem. It is also difficult to beat Moorland Haunt.
After scooping to an opponent who wouldn’t concede with zero win conditions in his deck (Surgical Extracted him on turn 5 just to prove it) and with
three cards left in his deck to my twenty cards, I was out of contention for additional open points/money, so I decided to drop and try to get some
value trading. The Planeswalker Points are nice and all, but my trade prowess is better than just about anything else, and someone’s gotta pay the
bills.
The current Standard format seems like a pretty tough nut to crack; however, I really like Brian Sondag Wolf Run Ramp deck. Every time we forget that
Primeval Titan is good, he always finds a way to remind us. The ability to get ANY two lands instead of just basics is something that we have been
abusing in multiple formats since his printing. Whether it’s getting Valakuts, Vesuvas, or Inkmoth Nexus + Kessig Wolf Run, you still have to deal with
the 6/6 trampler in addition to what he fetches. I expect to see a lot of this deck moving forward. Time to dust off your Flashfreezes.
Saturday night, I was set on playing either BUG or a U/B brew Gerry had been working on which Bobby Graves Top 8ed with). Snapcaster Mage is completely
insane, and I was excited to finally play him, since for some reason last weekend, my “friends” let me play Hive Mind.
AJ and I had been talking about a U/W Stoneforge Mystic build with Snapcaster. After last weekend, we really wanted to be playing Spell Snare, and it
was difficult for BUG to jam all four. I only had enough cards to build one copy of each deck, and AJ was in love with BUG, so I went with U/W. After
chatting with Gerry and AJ about the deck, the concerns we had were primarily about Mystic just dying all the time. Goyf seemed much better in that
aspect, but Plow and having access to four more one-mana removal spells in the board seemed advantageous. Also, you aren’t playing three colors, so you
get to play simple, easy, Wasteland-proof basics. Here’s the list I played for reference:
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (21)
Before the tourney, I had two open slots (with 23 land), which were Repeals. After asking a few people whose opinion I respected, I changed one of them
into a 24th land, which is definitely correct. With 24 land, you probably want another Jace as well. The Spellstutter Sprites were pretty underwhelming
but might be necessary.
Vendilion Clique is extremely good (like that’s a surprise), and Snapcaster Mage is even better than I imagined he would be. The first time I
flashbacked a Brainstorm in round one, I went around telling everyone I was never looking back. He does some very sick things. He is always at least a
2-for-1. Flashing back a counterspell and trading with a creature. Giving you extra Plows, and Brainstorms with a body attached. There is just so much
he is good at, it’s unreal.
Feast and Famine was the right sword for the tournament. Even though Snapcaster can block, if you are making them Snapcaster in your combat step to
block a sword-wielding creature, you’re still in good shape.
The sideboard was a thing a beauty, except that I didn’t play against Dredge, Reanimator, or any type of Storm combo deck the entire tournament. I
still think those cards are necessary, but maybe not a full-blown seven set.
There are a few changes that I would make that I will go over, but first I want to talk about some of the sick things I did with Snapcaster Mage and
the deck in general over the course of the tournament. I raced a Progenitus with a Batterskull (always fun). I used Snapcaster to give a Swords to
Plowshares flashback in combat and blocked/traded with a Cursecatcher and post-combat Plowed the fresh lord he played that turn. I blanked a Jitte with
Snapcaster + Riptide Laboratory; talk about value! I Snapcastered a counterspell on four to counter a Zenith for three and untapped and Sworded. I even
did the old stand-by of Sword, equip into Jace. Here’s what I would play if at StarCityGames.com Open: Baltimore this weekend:
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
Adding in the fourth Jace and the third Vendilion Clique is necessary. They are both insane in the mirror and against the BUG decks that are popular.
Clique is also good against the combo decks. The one Spellstutter is pretty random, but I think you still want it there in the main deck. It will get
sideboarded out most of the time, but that’s fine. It has less impact in post-boarded games.
Having six basics was awesome, but you really only need five, and having access to a Wasteland for the late game is good. Killing opposing Mutavaults
and Riptide Labs is something you need to have access to.
The second Batterskull was pretty worthless in the sideboard. It’s mainly there for the Merfolk/Zoo matchups, and you really never get to Mystic it
into play. I’d rather have a more versatile piece of equipment. I think either Sword of Fire and Ice or another Jitte would be just fine.
Phantasmal Images are there now for two reasons. The first is to kill Progenitus and Emrakul. The Wrath of God was there for those reasons previously;
however, the Images are also good in the Stoneforge mirrors, letting you Stoneforge when they have it, and you don’t. Copying their Snapcaster is
never bad either.
With my “win” in the Legacy Open, I now have exactly 125 points, which means I’m Level 8. It felt so nice to finally reach a goal I set for
myself at the beginning of this year.
Every tournament, I keep renewing my first promise to myself, and this one is no different. While I may have “accomplished” something in
the StarCityGames.com Open Series, it isn’t enough. It doesn’t make me something that I already wasn’t. I am still learning and working hard to
get better, and that’s never going to stop. I am, however, extremely grateful to have such awesome friends who supported me the whole grind. I’d like
to give a special thanks to my semifinals opponent Matt Hoey, who graciously conceded to me so that Todd could concede the win to me on paper for the
points to level up. I appreciate both of you quite a bit!
Congrats to Todd for officially winning the trophy, beating me in one of the most fun matches of Magic I’ve played in a long time. I plan on grinding
out the rest of the Opens this year and the Invitationals next year, but without the appearance fees, it’s not looking like it’s feasible for me to fly
to all of the Opens next year, but we’ll see.
Props and Slops are pretty durdlish, but I would still like to say thanks to the people who have helped me:
Joe Stierwalt
My Wichita friends (David, Matt P, Josh and people)
And the rest of TtTTTTtT Glub Club (Tim, Julian, Tom, Calcano, Korey, and everyone else)
Keep telling me about how bad I am so that I never stop trying!
Good luck to everyone at Baltimore and keep grinding!
CVM