No seriously, it’s been six Grand Prixes and one Pro Tour…
Grand Prix Kansas City: I’m X-1 and I receive a nice game loss by flipping two lands with Charbelcher in a game I couldn’t lose. I end up a stellar 65th.
Grand Prix Chicago: I forget to discard a card during upkeep for Gutwrencher Oni and get the game loss in game 3 in yet another match I couldn’t lose – when our team was X-0 – and we proceed to not make Day 2.
Grand Prix Boston: I play Goblins when everyone else is playing Life. First Grand Prix I flew for, so obviously 0-2, I guess.
Grand Prix Detroit: X-1-1 Day 1 to finally make Day 2… good shape to 0-6 Day 2, I guess.
Pro Tour Atlanta: My first Pro Tour. I’m X-1 Day 1 after playing all our rounds. Our team however, doesn’t make Day 2. Must be nice.
Grand Prix Salt Lake City: From one bye, I start 3-0… and proceeded to go 0-2-1. I mean okay, I probably deserved it this time, seeing as I played against Julien, Gadiel, and this was the first time I was playing Gifts.
Grand Prix Richmond: Best record yet, X-1 on Day 1. Again, I proceed to 2-X Day 2 with decent decks, through a sea of misplays.
Grand Prix Madison: Thanks, Faddy Josh!
Yeah, it was nice to be on the opposite end of things.
Hi, I’m Takanobu Sato. I’m Japanese, and I want to marry StarWarsKid, Rich Hoaen, and Josh Day. Man, they are awesome!
Although I’m 100% Japanese, the truth is I’m probably one of the most Americanized Japanese people alive, so I’m not sure if you can even consider me Japanese. I’m bilingual, but I’ve lived here since second grade, and every single Japanese person I’ve met says I’m more American than Japanese.
I get mistaken for uncle*, so being Japanese isn’t too bad, and being Americanized also has the benefit of charming random Japanese chicks. Not a bad trade-off, I’d say…
Onto the actual tournament, and a little bit info about my teammates.
Although neither Tim Bulger or Brian Ziegler have any true accomplishments in Magic… They are both such masters. Both of them just haven’t played in many Grand Prixes or Pro Tours. For example, Brian Ziegler mulliganed to four on the play in the Heartbeat mirror – against Alex Libermann in round 9 – and still ended up winning the game and match. As for Tbulge, he is probably one of the greatest players that I know. I can write a whole article about the awesome Tbulge, but I’ll just list a few examples:
- He can learn/master decks with little or no preparation (e.g.: he made finals of a Pro Tour Qualifier playing CAL for the first time).
- He can look at someone else’s board position and their hand and will think of the best play faster then they can even start thinking about the right play (e.g.: At Grand Prix Madison he would look at my hand and the board and tell me the right play, when I had no idea what was going on).
- He has great reads, on people thanks to the fact that he is superb at poker.
- Finally, not only does he see a couple of turns ahead in the game, but from the first turn to the last turn he sees exactly what he must do in order to win almost every time. Great players make great plays, and play consistently too, but I think this is the major difference between what makes a great player and a good player… and Tbulge definitely has the potential to be truly “great” (e.g.: He will make a play that seems incorrect at the time, but by the end of the game (or three turns later) it ends up being the correct play, or leads into a great play).
Now that I’ve bored you with how awesome my teammates are, time to actually talk about this format, as well as the tournament itself. These are the decks we played:
Creatures (9)
Lands (22)
Spells (29)
Creatures (25)
- 4 Tallowisp
- 4 Thief of Hope
- 3 Kami of Ancient Law
- 3 Descendant of Kiyomaro
- 4 Dark Confidant
- 4 Ghost Council of Orzhova
- 3 Plagued Rusalka
Lands (23)
Spells (12)
Creatures (27)
- 4 Kird Ape
- 3 Frenzied Goblin
- 4 Burning-Tree Shaman
- 4 Dryad Sophisticate
- 4 Giant Solifuge
- 4 Scab-Clan Mauler
- 4 Scorched Rusalka
Lands (23)
Spells (10)
Although we were confident with our decks, we didn’t even start thinking about what to play until one week before the tournament. I was in Japan for two weeks for Spring Break, Brian was busy with school, and Tbulge was busy losing/winning at poker. So when I get back from Japan on the 19th, rather then actually testing I realized it would probably be faster if I just asked a bunch of people I knew what they thought about the format. I think Gadiel posted this idea on his Grand Prix Richmond article, but sometimes testing is overrated and I think this Grand Prix was one of those cases. When things are defined, it’s easier to analyze the format and figure out matchups, then choose the decks from there.
Either way, here are the thoughts of some of the folks I talked to…
(The order of the decks don’t necessary mean that they should be in those seats)
Gerry Thompson: Originally thought RG/Owl/BW or X. Then realized that RG doesn’t beat anything, figured out that Owl doesn’t beat BW, so changed his mind to Gifts/UR Tron/X (ended up being BW).
Result: 17th Place
Kenji Tsumura: He thought RG/Owl/BW, but felt someone should probably play Heartbeat instead of Owl. He also said he wasn’t sure about what version of BW to run, or whether to run BW at all, since according to him, he wasn’t getting good win percentage with BW). One piece of advice he gave is that we should play four Paladin en-Vec in our BW deck.
Result: Went DI on sake.
John Pelcak: Originally thought RG/Owl/BW too, but ended up ditching Owl because of how bad it was, as well as the fact that StarWarsKid has been having success with Heartbeat on Magic Online. Ended up Zoo/Heartbeat/BW. Cak also changed from RG to Zoo, because word was going around at the Grand Prix that RG doesn’t beat anything.
Result: StarWarsKid can’t beat Tbulge, and I can’t ever beat Sonne.
Tim Aten: Originally thought RG/UR Control (No Tron, with Niv-Mizzet)/BW, and ended up sticking to the plan (Ghost Dad for BW).
Result: T_T
Our Team: At first, we were going to go Zoo/Owl/BW. Then after analyzing what everyone said, I realized Owl and Tron were complete trash. Owl can’t ever beat RG or Zoo, and if Owl can’t beat BW either, then the only decks it can beat are Heartbeat, Tron, and Gifts. Since Tron and Gifts are becoming unpopular and I didn’t think Heartbeat was going to be heavily played, I was sure Owl would be a bad gamble. As for UR Tron, I didn’t think it beat anything at all. I know it lost to first turn Kird Ape, and it didn’t have any staggering advantage over BW, Heartbeat, or Gifts. Although it probably does beat Gifts, I didn’t really care, since as I said before, I didn’t think anyone was going to play Gifts.
Before I realized how bad Owl was, I was going to have it set up so it was Heartbeat/Owl/X (Gifts, or some version of Aggro). Then I realized Remand was too important for both Owl and Heartbeat, so I got rid of that idea. I also wanted to have someone play Gifts, but I knew all the Gifts lists from the Pro Tour were really bad, and major changes had to be made in order for Gifts to be good. I was thinking of ideas like cutting Greater Good and adding the Hana Kami combo, or making a build of Gifts similar to that of block Gifts. I nixed that plan pretty early, as I didn’t think I had enough time, and didn’t think I was competent enough to actually come up with a good list by the Grand Prix.
So that left us with Heartbeat/some version of BW/either RG or Zoo. Everyone said Heartbeat was good, and it didn’t seem to lose to anything in particular, so we decided to play Heartbeat for sure. We chose to have Brian Ziegler play Heartbeat, since he had past experience with combo decks like Desire, he liked the Heartbeat deck, and he also thinks about each play carefully. Then I gave Tbulge B/W, since I wanted to play Zoo and Tbulge didn’t really care what he played. I decided to give Tbulge Ghost Dad, since it was doing well on MTGO and it didn’t use up Jitte that was in the board for my Zoo deck. I really wanted to play Zoo, because I thought I had a decent list and I didn’t lose a match in a Grand Prix Trail three weeks prior to the event.
Here was the Zoo deck I was intending to play
4 Frenzied Goblin
4 Savannah Lion
4 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Kird Ape
4 Watchwolf
4 Shock
4 Volcanic Hammer
3 Flames of the Blood Hand
3 Moldervine Cloak
2 Bathe in Light
20 Land (1 being Forest)
I don’t remember the manabase, as it wasn’t right to begin with and needed to be fixed. The sideboard at the time had some Kami of Ancient Laws, Tin Street Hooligans, and Umezawa’s Jittes. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to go with which combination of Hierarch, Wumpus, Glare, or Vitu-Ghazi. Everyone kept claiming how inconsistent this deck was, but I almost never had mana problems during the time I played the deck so I thought it was fine (I guess I was lucky).
After hearing everyone’s opinion, I realized that almost everyone is playing RG instead of Zoo… Tbulge also started to tell me how much better RG is compared to Zoo, Cak was playing RG instead of Zoo, all the pros kept saying Zoo was inconsistent, but the locals who play Standard a lot said RG doesn’t beat anything. I’m not sure which one is the right choice, even to this day, but ended up playing RG. Because with Zoo, I would have had to change the manabase, figure out the correct build, and figure out a good sideboard. But if I played RG, I could just copy Heezy Street and change the sideboard a little bit and I’d be done. I was actually going to choose at the site but I realized I’d rather be lazy, go with RG, and money draft, rather than trying to figure out a good build of Zoo to see if Zoo is better than RG.
However, the money draft idea ended up being really bad… I end up winning one Draft with Chambers and Rodman – against Cedric – real quick. Then I draft with Tbulge and Cak – against Cedric again – and end up blowing a crucial match with a ridiculous deck and losing the Draft. Afterwards I feel completely demoralized, and had a nice attitude of wanting to drop from the Grand Prix before it even started. Then I realized I haven’t slept in two days, so I decided to forget about the sorrow and go to sleep.
I end up sleeping really well before a tournament for the first time in awhile. The bed was really comfortable, and I actually didn’t feel tired at all when I woke up so I wasn’t feeling too depressed. I still had work to do when I woke up, as I was still trying to figure out the sideboard for my deck. I knew I would be playing Heezy Street with the exact maindeck as Herberholz, but with some changes in the sideboard. My sideboard looked like this – at first.
4 Hunted Wumpus
2 Tin Street Hooligan
2 Naturalize
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Flames of the Blood Hand
I wanted to add something against control decks as I felt I already had enough cards against the aggro decks. After talking to Tim Aten, he informed me that RG is already good against control so I just upped the Tin Street Hooligan and Naturalize count to three. Then everyone kept telling me how awful RG is, and that it can’t possibly beat BW. I ended up adding two Orcish Artillery to possibly make the BW matchup winnable. Finally, I had to cut one more card, and cut a Hunted Wumpus since it was only good against the mirror and Zoo.
Those were my thought processes before the tournament, and how our team came up with our decks. Tim Bulger copied the exact Ghost Dad list from Ben Goodman, and Brian Ziegler decided to cut a Kodama’s Reach from the main to have one Savage Twister.
Now, I could write a round for round report about how my matches with RG went, but I personally didn’t take any notes – and a tournament report of RG is probably the most boring thing ever – so I’ll just talk about my thoughts on the format as well as some interesting facts about the tournament.
During the entire tournament we only 3-0ed three times (rounds 1, 2, and 12. Yeah, we had no byes)
I didn’t play against Zoo or RG during the entire tournament.
Our only loss was against Maher, Efro, Hoaen, and supposedly that also happened to be the one match Brian punted (we scooped to Goodman’s team in the last round, because we were a lock for top 4)
Brian Ziegler was truly clutch, and went X-3 during the entire tournament and winning many game 3s when it was all up to him.
One thing I realized after the tournament is how important the B seat player can be in this format. B seat players should always be someone who plays fast, and can interpret board positions quickly, as he will be asked for advice the most, and at times he must overlook his teammates in order to help out. We were fortunate enough that Tbulge plays not only fast, but also can interpret the game much faster than both Brian and myself. For example there were only ten minutes left in the round in the Heartbeat mirror for Brian Ziegler, and if it wasn’t for Tbulge helping him out, I don’t think we would have finished the match in time. If you don’t have a player of this caliber there really isn’t much you can do, but at least make sure the B seat player is playing an easy deck so he can finish his match as fast as possible and help out the other players out if necessary.
Looking back, I’m not sure if going 2-1 throughout the tournament means we chose correct decks… or if we simply got lucky. I think we partly got lucky, but we also chose two great decks. I also think that in this format, even if you chose the three correct decks, you will not 3-0 very often. Even if you choose three decks with good matchups against the format, it’s still highly likely that you’ll play against one bad matchup or have one of the players lose a close matchup. So in a way, this format really is skill intensive, because the form of the player playing the close matchups will determine how well your team does overall (hopefully outplaying the opponent). For our team, Brian and Tbulge each only lost about one close matchup throughout the tournament, and I believe that is a major reason why our team was so successful.
As for the decks we chose, Heartbeat simply doesn’t lose if the player is competent enough, but the important thing is that the Heartbeat player must be very good. As good a deck as Heartbeat is, it’s very hard to play and you might as well play something else if you doubt your competency. The deck probably has a 50/50 matchup against everything, or something along those lines. But when the player playing the deck is good enough he can turn 50/50 matchups into favorable matchups. For us, the player playing the deck was very good, so it was almost an auto-win against everything, as long as we got decent draws. If I were to play in the Grand Prix again, I would definitely have one of my players play this deck.
B/W was also a solid choice, and I think it’s still debatable which version is best. I personally think Sonne’s version is the best one, or at least any version with Umezawa’s Jitte. The deck’s only bad matchup is Tron, and almost no one plays that deck anymore. I think Heartbeat is about 50/50, but when your deck can almost always beat Zoo or R/G it’s pretty nice. I think the difference between Ghost Dad and other BW decks is the fact that Shining Shoal makes the Tron/Wildfire matchup better, but it makes the mirror unwinnable in game 1 if they have Jitte main. Then again, non-Ghost Dad BW can run Paladin en-Vec too, so I’m sure the Sonne version of BW will be better for the upcoming Pro Tour Qualifiers.
As for the RG deck that I played… It quite simply sucks. I would definitely not play this deck ever again. I’m not sure whether Zoo or R/G is better, because I personally think they both suck. B/W and Heartbeat will be the most popular decks in the format, and RG/Zoo both have awful matchups against it so I don’t see how playing a deck where you have a 2/3 chance of playing a bad matchup will be good… There really isn’t much you can do against either of the decks. B/W is practically unwinnable with Descendents of Kiyomaro, Umezawa’s Jittes, and Paladin en-Vecs. Heartbeat is too resilient to hate out, as double Cranial Extraction by BW doesn’t even win the match sometimes, so I don’t see what kind of hate RG or Zoo would be able to bring in to make it a better matchup. Even if you do find a solution for Heartbeat, they always have the nice transformational sideboard to screw up your “tech.”
If you’re lucky enough (like me) to play against decks like URzaTron, bad versions of Beach House, or Owl through most of the tournament, then I guess RG will be a good choice, but I don’t recommend it.
Finally, I don’t think there really are any solid answers or best choice for the mirror or Zoo. Zoo actually should have a huge advantage against you after board, as long as they draw their lands, since they bring in Loxodon Hierarch; Glare of Subdual; Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree; and possibly even Umezawa’s Jitte.
As a choice, then, wouldn’t Zoo be better then RG? I don’t necessary think so, and I don’t think it matters since they both suck. Zoo is pretty much a more powerful version of RG that has a really inconsistent manabase. RG is a slower, weaker version of Zoo that has a good manabase. But since both decks suck against the same decks, they are both unplayable.
So what deck would I play? I think your only option is to play another control deck. I think Gifts would be the best control deck, but seeing as it’s impossible to separate Sakura-Tribe Elders, Kodama’s Reach, and Sensei’s Divining Top through Heartbeat, I think your only options are URW Control (Kamiel Cornelissen), UR Magnivore (Nikolas Nygaard), UR Control without Tron (Niv-Mizzet), or Beach House. If I had to choose one, I think I would go with UR Magnivore or URW Control. To be honest, I don’t know the matchup for UR control without Tron, and I just don’t think Beach House is good enough to beat any of the decks in the current format, especially with the addition of Heartbeat.
I like UR Magnivore, as if you go first and have a good draw, it’s hard to lose against almost any matchup since you’re pretty much LD control. Then again, I don’t have enough faith to believe that an UR deck can beat Kird Apes or other aggro decks consistently. The deck also can win through disruption, but that doesn’t mean it can win against disruption consistently.
I think the URW deck is the optimal third deck for the format. However, I think the best version is the transformation sideboard version that I saw one of my opponents play during the Swiss (Kyle Mechler from Iowa). His version had Enduring Ideal in the board, along with Ivory Mask and Form of the Dragon, and with people running less enchantment destruction, I believe this is a good sideboard direction.
I personally believe URW is the best third deck, but you can make a case for all the other decks mentioned above. I’m sure there’s a version of Beach House that beats everything, UR Magnivore is a solid deck, and – if you prefer it to everything else – UR Control without Tron is still has a lot of potential. If you’re feeling lucky, playing Zoo or R/G might even be a solid choice.
In conclusion if I were to play Team Standard again, I would go Heartbeat/BW/X (Most likely URW Control) in that order.
I wish all of you the best of luck in this format. I hope you guys enjoyed the read, and thanks for reading this far. Hope to see you in Charleston!
Soredewa, mata itsuka, saigo ni props to slops wo
Props
Tim Aten: Everything. I really couldn’t have done this without you in multiple levels. Can’t ever thank you enough.
My teammates: Thanks for the backpack
Kyle and Mark: Saturday was a pretty sick dinner, to say the least.
Gerry Thompson: Cards, we didn’t 0-5, all the advice throughout the years
Faddy Josh: Thanks for lending us cards braski.
Josh Day: HUHUHUHU
Tbulge’s Mom: Through hard nights.
Slops
You know, if we knew you were going to be that nice, I guess it was a good thing we played and you beat us B seat.
Takanobu Sato
Maka2184 on Aim
*For some reason people think that I look like Shuhei Nakamura.