Modern PTQ In Melbourne *1st*

Yeah, it turns out the midgame get-ahead-by-inches plan isn’t always successful. Specifically, strongly proactive decks will just beat your face in before you do anything relevant. Affinity was a bad matchup, Storm was a bad matchup, Twin was a bad matchup. Against decks like Jund you were sweet, but with the advent of the mono-green accelerated Tron deck as well… There was too much smashing you up before you cast a spell.

There’s always Delver, and most of the competition expected me to play Delver given I’ve written about it previously. Despite my fondness for Lingering Souls-based value, I’d be the first to admit the deck doesn’t exactly break anything—it has good matchups and tough matchups, like any deck out there. I love it against Jund or Tron, and Storm combo doesn’t scare me in the slightest, but Melira and Affinity are both decks you don’t want to sit across the table from. For a PTQ, I didn’t want something metagamed. I wanted something with a strong proactive plan that could beat random brews all day while still being able to hold its own against any top tier deck.

Dan Unwin handed me the following list on Sunday morning, and I was ready to battle:

Melira Pod

Jeremy Neeman

1st Place at Pro Tour Qualifier on 03-25-2012

Modern

Creatures (30)

• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Orzhov Pontiff
• 1 Reveillark
• 4 Kitchen Finks
• 2 Murderous Redcap
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 1 Ranger of Eos
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 4 Viscera Seer
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 4 Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Lands (22)

• 2 Forest
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 3 Gavony Township

Spells (8)

• 4 Chord of Calling
• 4 Birthing Pod

Sideboard

• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Withered Wretch
• 1 Kataki, War's Wage
• 4 Putrefy
• 1 Harmonic Sliver
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Fulminator Mage
• 1 Tidehollow Sculler
• 2 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Dan has already written an article on this deck, so I’ll let him get into the fine details of the card choices. There are a couple things I want to emphasize that I love about this list in particular:

4 Noble Hierarch – Wall of Roots is sweet with Chord of Calling, but acceleration on turn 1 is really a lot better than on turn 2. Noble Hierarch allows turn 2 Kitchen Finks or Birthing Pod or just Melira + Viscera Seer. Given this format is frequently a race to brokenness, that turn of extra speed counts for so much.

3 Gavony Township – I won far more games by Township-backed beatdown than I did by actually comboing anyone out, and it’s very possible you should just run four. It makes your motley assortment of dorks into substantial threats, and your whole deck is a motley assortment of dorks. People underestimate how often this deck is the beatdown. Your combo is fairly easy to disrupt, and all your creatures are aggressively costed. Sure, Melira into Kitchen Finks is no Wild Nacatl into Tarmogoyf, but when they’re messing around with Surgical Extraction and you’re messing around with Gavony Township, it’ll get there just the same.

No five- or six-drops other than Reveillark – Lists messing around with Yosei, the Morning Star and Sun Titan and Sheoldred, Whispering One and the like are kidding themselves. If you’re activating Birthing Pod and you have Reveillark on the table, you should already have comboed them out. Sure, one game in 40 that Sun Titan might make all the difference, but there were seven other games in there you drew it and it was a brick.

Round 1 vs. Marco with Assault/Loam

Game 1 Marco kept a hand heavy on the disruption but light on the land drops. He managed to take out combo pieces with discard, but he missed his second land drop. I assembled a fearsome attacking force of Noble Hierarch, Kitchen Finks, and Dryad Arbor. You may laugh, but Marco wasn’t laughing when Gavony Township hit the table. A 3/3 Dryad Arbor is no laughing matter, my good sir.

I sided:

-1 Orzhov Pontiff
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Viscera Seer
-1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
-1 Murderous Redcap
+1 Withered Wretch
+2 Obstinate Baloth
+1 Tidehollow Sculler
+1 Harmonic Sliver
+1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Game 2 I mulliganed to five and hit a land glut. Luckily, Marco wasn’t doing a lot—an Inquisition took out my Kitchen Finks. Flame Jab + Life from the Loam kept my little guys off the table, but when I found Chord of Calling a Withered Wretch quickly put an end to all that. Marco took out the Wretch with a Jund Charm and started dredging Life from the Loam and Ghost Quartering me every turn. Fortunately that was just fine from my “I have eight lands perspective, and eventually I found a Birthing Pod which Tutored up the win over a few turns.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Ace with Jund

Game 1 Ace had me on the back foot quickly with Lightning Bolt into Tarmogoyf into Kitchen Finks into Bloodbraid Elf + Tarmogoyf. I hung on with a Kitchen Finks and had Gavony Township to make trading with it a losing proposition. There were a couple crucial turns where he could’ve been a little bit more aggressive and possibly punched through, but once I drew a Birthing Pod I comboed him out in short order.

I sided:

-1 Orzhov Pontiff
-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
-1 Viscera Seer
-1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
-1 Murderous Redcap
-1 Noble Hierarch
-1 Qasali Pridemage
+4 Putrefy
+2 Obstinate Baloth
+1 Wurmcoil Engine
+1 Nekrataal

Game 2 I kept a somewhat loose hand of Birds, Obstinate Baloth, and five lands including Gavony Township and fetches (for Dryad Arbor.) He Inquisitioned me turn 1, but he didn’t have the creature to keep up the pressure. I “curved out” with Birthing Pod into Murderous Redcap, turning it into Wurmcoil Engine in a couple turns. He conceded and showed me a hand full of land and Lightning Bolts (and I thought I was being clever playing around Blightning by holding that Baloth).

2-0

Round 3 vs. Trent with Burn

Game 1 my opener was two Kitchen Finks, Phyrexian Metamorph, and four lands on the draw. A classic “Martin Juza would mulligan but LSV would keep” scenario. As most people who know me would agree, I tend to side with LSV in keeping the loose ones. I was rewarded when he played Mountain, Goblin Guide turn 1. Yeah, this game wasn’t very close at all.

I sided:

+2 Obstinate Baloth
+1 Wurmcoil Engine
-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Orzhov Pontiff
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

Game 2 I got flooded and an early Goblin Guide hit me quite a few times. Eventually I traded for it and Chorded up a Kitchen Finks, putting me up to 10—at this point I had Gavony Township and a couple random mana dudes on the table. I was planning to activate Township and beat him up before he could burn me out. But instead my deck served up consecutive Kitchen Finks and I cast those instead, ending the game a comfortable five points out of burn range.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Jason with Soulfish

I’d seen this deck before. Some very handsome writer featured it in his article last week, in fact.

It’s not a great matchup for the Delver player—Melira is fast, resilient, and can often race you. Also, Geist isn’t very good. Path is also the wrong removal spell. Also you pretty much can’t ever beat a resolved Birthing Pod. Soulfish can win when Melira has a slow draw and you flip an early Delver, but I’d much rather be on the side of the table casting Kitchen Finks.

Game 1 went like this:

Me: Noble Hierarch, go.

Jason: Creeping Tar Pit, go.

Me: Land, Birthing Pod, go.

Jason: Seachrome Coast, double Delver, go.

Me: Two-drop. Pod it into Orzhov Pontiff.

I sided:

-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
-1 Spellskite
+1 Obstinate Baloth
+1 Tidehollow Sculler
+1 Fulminator Mage

Game 2 wasn’t much of a game either—Jason mulliganed to 5, and my hand was very good with turn 2 Kitchen Finks into turn 3 Ranger of Eos through a discard spell. I had Gavony Township as well, and he died without putting up much of a fight.

4-0

Round 5 vs. Andrew with Trap

This is a very silly deck. Either it completely blows you out with a turn 3 Emrakul, or it durdles around and does absolutely nothing. Game 1 my opener was Birds, Viscera Seer, Melira, and four lands, and I couldn’t find the Redcap/Chord/Birthing Pod/Finks before he Emrakuled me on turn 5.

I sided:

-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Spellskite
-1 Phyrexian Metamorph
-1 Qasali Pridemage
-3 Kitchen Finks
+1 Nekrataal
+1 Tidehollow Sculler
+1 Aven Mindcensor
+4 Putrefy

Game 2 I had turn 3 Linvala on the play and Nekrataal for a Lotus Cobra, and suddenly none of his cards did anything.

Game 3 I mulliganed and ended up flooded again, with just a Putrefy for his Fauna Shaman and no other gas. He only had an Arc Trail under his Windbrisk Heights, though, and on turn 5 I Chorded in a Tidehollow Sculler in his draw step, taking Time of Need from a hand that also had Through the Breach. I had a shot at killing him with Gavony Township + mana dudes in three turns, but his top card was an Emrakul. Oh well.

4-1

Round 6 vs. Max with Dredge

Game 1 I had a good hand on the play, but Max had Darkblast, which took out first a Viscera Seer and then a Melira at the cost of a draw step. My turns 3 and 4 were Birthing Pod followed by Murderous Redcap. He dredged Life from the Loam on turn 4 and spent a turn recasting it, allowing me to Pod Redcap into Reveillark, cast Viscera Seer, and sac both my creatures, returning Melira and Redcap and killing him.

Of note was the fact that I could’ve sat on my dudes in play, playing around a second Darkblast. This is often correct because it forces them to sit on their instant speed removal and leave mana up every turn, and you can probably just attack and kill them. Here, though, it seemed loose for two reasons: one, if he has it, he can dredge the second next turn and kill Seer whenever he pleases with the second Blast as backup. Two, even if it did work the way I wanted it to, Darkblast is easy to leave up—most of his spells are cheap and having B up every turn isn’t hard. Unburial Rites on Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (the play I’m most scared of) will still kill me dead.

I sided:

-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Qasali Pridemage
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
-1 Orzhov Pontiff
+1 Withered Wretch
+1 Tidehollow Sculler
+1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
+1 Aven Mindcensor

Game 2 he had a ridiculous draw, returning multiple Vengevines on turn 3 and putting Elesh Norn into play turn 4. I didn’t have either a Withered Wretch or a hope.

Game 3 Max mulliganed to five, and my opener was:

A turn 4 kill with Withered Wretch backup against a mulligan to 5? Don’t mind if I do! It might surprise you that this game was actually very close. Max had Darkblast for Viscera Seer and dredged into Vengevine, casting Gravecrawler + Birds turn 2. He would probably have killed me if he’d ripped the third land the following turn to cast the second Vengevine in his hand.

I had an interesting decision on turn 3 after he swung and passed. I was on six with three mana up with a hand of:

He had some irrelevant junk in his graveyard—a Hedron Crab and three land. I can play Mindcensor, have it Blasted, then tap out next turn for Finks + remove Blast, which I’m unlikely to be punished for (barring Faithless Looting into discard two creatures into Skaab Ruinator or something similarly ridiculous). I can also hold Mindcensor, remove some mostly irrelevant stuff (making Life from the Loam or Ruinator slightly worse), and drop Kitchen Finks with a mana up, which is what I decided to do. This allows him to shrink Finks with Darkblast and beat it with Vengevine, but that’s fine; I stay at a reasonable life total and have Chord next turn for Finks number two. Really I was favored there no matter the play—leaving mana up plays around the absurd graveyard exploitation scenario but is worse against the absurd you-actually-kill-me-with-just-dudes-you-can-cast scenario—so it’s not clear which one is better. Anyway, Finks vs. Vengevines took the day.

5-1

Round 7 vs. Ian with Affinity

ID

5-1-1

The Top 8 was mostly not very interesting, by which I mean I ran extremely good. Must be nice? I played against Tom with the mirror in the quarterfinal, and I had much much better draws than him—in game 1 I had turn 3 Linvala on the play vs. his Noble Hierarch and lack of third land drop.

I sided:

-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Spellskite
-1 Phyrexian Metamorph
+1 Aven Mindcensor
+2 Putrefy

Game 2 I assembled Melira + Seer + Finks turn 3 and scryed Chord of Calling to the top. He tried to Dismember my Melira, so I got Redcap and killed him in response. That was probably an error on his part, given he had double Dismember and could wait to pull the trigger, but it didn’t matter at that point. If he Dismembers again in response to my Chord I get Orzhov Pontiff and wipe his board, and if he waits he certainly loses—I get to draw the perfect card every turn.

The semifinal was against Sam with an Esper Control brew; he had Gifts for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Unburial Rites along with the usual suspects of Path, Liliana, Thirst, and Lingering Souls. Game 1 I resolved an early Pod and buried him in value—he had enough Paths, Lilianas, etc. to stop me comboing, but plan B (turn Kitchen Finks sideways a lot) went without a hitch.

I sided:

+1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
+1 Tidehollow Sculler
-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

(I kept in the Orzhov Pontiff for his Spirit tokens. This would turn out to be not such a great idea…)

Game 2 I think he could’ve gotten me, but he made a few errors—on turn 3 he missed that Kitchen Finks had exalted and threw away two Spirit tokens trying to trade with it. A couple turns later, instead of casting Gifts for the Elesh Norn he cast Bribery on me.

Bribery?

Really?

I actually read the card a couple of times, which generated some laughs from the peanut gallery. I had like four guys in play that died to a Pontiff, so I was expecting to get set back pretty hard, but instead he got Murderous Redcap not realizing that it persisted under my control. An unfortunate rules mistake, but hey, I’ll take it. The following turn I Podded up Tidehollow Sculler, taking out his Gifts and four dudes; with an active Township and an active Pod, it wasn’t too long until the assorted beatdowns got there.

The finals were against Eugene playing the famous Green Tron deck that’s been tearing up the Daily Events on Magic Online as of late. It didn’t seem like a great matchup for me between Mindslaver being insane, infinite life not being good enough, and the Pyroclasms in his board. But like a true PTQ winner, I ran good. Game 1 was a non-event with him mulling to five and missing his second land drop.

I sided:

+1 Fulminator Mage
+1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
+1 Aven Mindcensor
+1 Harmonic Sliver
+1 Tidehollow Sculler
-1 Ethersworn Canonist
-1 Orzhov Pontiff
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
-1 Spellskite
-1 Phyrexian Metamorph

Game 2 he led with Tron piece, Tron piece, Prophetic Prism, while I had Noble Hierarch into Kitchen Finks. His turn 3 was a second Prism followed by the third Tron piece off the top. At this point my hand was:

(plus something irrelevant) so clearly I’m going to swing then Pod; the question is what am I Podding away and what am I Podding into? After some deliberation I decided it was Noble Hierarch into Tidehollow Sculler, which is bad if he has Ancient Grudge, but I scouted his semifinal match (also against Melira) and found that he took them out. It’s also bad if he has for example both Pyroclasm and Karn, but in that situation I’m in a lot of trouble anyway. I might as well hope he has only one relevant spell in hand, take that, and be able to Pod into Fulminator Mage next turn to disrupt his Tron and take the game from there.

His hand was:

so I took Mindslaver, turned Thalia into Fulminator Mage the following turn, and won fairly easily with my Finks + Sculler-based clock.

So that’s it for the report. If I were to play this list again, I would check out Dan Unwin’s free article on it today! I hear it’s full of useful insights, and the writer is almost as handsome as yours truly.

…

Also, I would make two changes to the above list:

1. Swap Ethersworn Canonist and Thalia between main and board.
2. Swap Linvala and Tidehollow Sculler between main and board.

This makes your maindeck better across the board and slightly decreases the utility of your silver bullets. Silver bullets are overrated; you get them far less often than you’d think. I was lucky to never draw Canonist (check it out, I sided it out every single round, often for something more broadly useful like Thalia). Linvala is fantastic in a few narrow matchups, like Twin, Trap, and the mirror, but you Tutor for it a lot less than you’d think—Spellskite is already great against Twin, and your Tutors just go for combo pieces 90% of the time. I also hate Phyrexian Metamorph, but Dan swears by it, so do as you see fit.

That’s it for this week. Until next time,

Jeremy