It’s been a crazy few weeks, my dear readers. I had surgery, which KO’d me for a little bit, but whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. I’ve decided to hold “So You Think You Can Brew?” featuring Yogi Brown and Gary Fingers back til the release of the new set so they get a chance to brew with the rest of the world. For now, I want to catch up a bit, as I’ve played in three events since my last article.

SCG Open Series: Washington, DC – March 16-17

Not much to say about this one unfortunately. I went on a whim because my buddy Trevor Humphries has a friend who lives in Baltimore and could put us up—it turned out that hanging out at Dave Reed’s house with his lovely girlfriend and dogs was the highlight of the trip since I did poorly in both events.

I played U/W/R Flash in the Standard portion, and my lack of preparation caught up with me in round 3 when I was paired against G/B/W Reanimator. I quickly found that I had no plan at all for the deck, and its superior late game completely trumped my game plan of winning an extremely grindy card advantage game with Sphinx’s Revelation. Knowing what your plan is against all the major decks in the format is very important—even more so for a slow, reactive control deck. I went on to lose to B/R Zombies of all things in the following round and had a rough day overall.

In Legacy I played Goblins, although I was not completely thrilled about it. I’ve been playing Goblins for a very long time, with my successes being fairly well documented, but it seemed that combo was on the rise. When played optimally, the only thing that really beats Goblins is good combo decks and Engineered Plague. I played against five combo decks on the day and got turn 2ed more times than I could count. I’ll talk more about the deck a little later.

The only real Magic highlight of the weekend happened in round 2 of the Legacy Open. I’ve been running a few Angel of Despairs in my Goblins sideboard for a few events now. At the last SCG Invitational in Atlanta, I was sitting in my hotel room the night before the event with Max Tietze and Max Brown trying to figure out how to beat the new Show and Tell decks that were getting popular. I said I had seen Oblivion Ring in a few sideboards, but there is no way in hell I would ever want to cast that card, so why not just board in something uncastable? We decided Angel of Despair was the best option, as it would destroy an Omniscience; an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn; or a Griselbrand while also providing a very fast clock.

In the few events I’ve played with the Angels in my board, I have never seen a single copy in about six or seven matches versus Show and Tell decks. Of course, Max Tietze got to Angel someone on camera in Atlanta, but that’s just how he runs.

So I lost round 1 of the Legacy Open in DC in three games to Show and Tell, never seeing an Angel of Despair, and round 2 I played against Mono-Blue Show and Tell / Dream Halls. I lost game 1 and was excited that the window card of my opening hand game 2 was an Angel of Despair:

Ugh…I ended up mulliganing to four, and I won anyway without an Angel in sight. Game 3, my six-card hand seemed pretty good, and I was super excited to finally get to Angel someone:

The game played out as such:

Him: Island, go.

Me: Scalding Tarn, go.

Him: Ancient Tomb, Show and Tell.

“One second” I said.

I wanted him to think I was pondering what card to put into play, but all I was really thinkin’ about was Vegas and the f****n’ Mirage.

We put our cards facedown and flip.

I played it cool and targeted the Omniscience like it was no big deal. In response to the trigger, he cast a free Cunning Wish for Stifle and Stifled the trigger. I was a bit taken aback, but of course that was fine—I Mindbreak Trapped the Stifle. He cast Force of Will on my Mindbreak Trap. Uh oh. He then cast Enter the Infinite for free, drew his deck, cast three Emrakuls, and won (essentially) on turn 2.

Now, I’m pretty much the last person to tell a bad beat story or complain that much in general. However, this story serves two important purposes. One, to entertain, and two, to provide a very important moral: if your bad beat story is not at least as good as this one, please reconsider before telling it to anyone. This has been a public service announcement from StarCityGames.com.

PTQ Theros: Philadelphia, PA – March 30

Up next was a PTQ for Pro Tour Theros in Philadelphia. Despite numerous setbacks—like leaving a half an hour later than intended, a forgotten deck, a speeding ticket, and a non-functional GPS—I still managed to get us there in time because I am awesome. I played U/W/R again, and even though I’d seen the lists from Magic Online which had two Aurelia, the Warleader, I just could not get behind playing Rorix Bladewing in my deck. I brewed up a list that was sort of an updated version of the list I used to win a 5K last December:

U/W/R Flash

Jim Davis

5th Place at Pro Tour Qualifier on 03-31-2013

Standard

Creatures (10)

Lands (25)

Spells (25)

Sideboard

I think I love decks like this too much. The only real win condition is Sphinx’s Revelation—you take complete control of the game and win with whatever you have available later. Restoration Angel is both an excellent defensive card and an avenue for card advantage with Auger of Bolas and Snapcaster Mage. The fact that it will also be your primary win condition when all is said and done is quite the bonus. However, it is the lack of win conditions that can make a deck like this very difficult to play. There are no free wins, and you often are playing from behind.

I was happy with the removal package. Pillar of Flame is extremely important against the super-fast aggro decks like Naya Blitz, as you must be able to play your spells on curve with them. Being able to Pillar on turn 1 or to Pillar while casting another spell like Auger of Bolas or Azorius Charm on turn 3 is extremely crucial when trying to survive their initial assault; once you do so, mopping up is usually elementary. Burning Oil is a nice one because it gives you a bit of card advantage, plays nicely with your Thought Scours, and is able to deal with a Thragtusk all by itself.

I was also not going to repeat my mistake from #SCGDC. The primary reason for Aurelia, the Warleader is to allow you to win fast in the one matchup you really need it: versus Junk Reanimator. My sideboard plan reflected that:

+4 Geist of Saint Traft
+2 Thundermaw Hellkite
+2 Purify the Grave
+2 Negate
+1 Pillar of Flame

-3 Augur of Bolas
-3 Sphinx’s Revelation
-2 Supreme Verdict
-2 Think Twice
-1 Moorland Haunt

I’m a fan of transformational sideboards (I won NY States one year with a Mystical Teachings deck that splashed for four Tarmogoyf in the sideboard) and they can often give you a surprising and unique angle of attack, but in retrospect I do not think this plan is the best way to approach the problem. It worked that day though. I was even able to use the plan to beat another difficult matchup against Four-Color Tokens to make Top 8, but it requires too many cards and there are better solutions.

I made Top 8 of the PTQ, where I was dispatched fairly quickly in two games by an interesting Bant Delver of Secrets deck. The lists from the PTQ aren’t posted yet, but it was similar to this Magic Online Decklist:

Bant Delver

robigna

2nd Place at Magic Online Daily Event on 04-07-2013

Standard

Creatures (15)

Lands (22)

Spells (23)

Sideboard

While this deck is cleverly designed and looks very cool, I don’t think it is very good or well positioned at the moment. However, it is certainly a deck to keep an eye on as the new set comes out because it seems like it’s just a new card or two away from being a contender. Look at new card Advent of the Wurm as a definite possibility for making this deck a bit stronger.

SCG Invitational: Atlanta – April 4-7

Last weekend was the crown jewel of tournaments, the StarCityGames.com Invitational in Atlanta. I can’t say enough good things about the Invitationals, as they really are the best Magic events on the calendar each year and are only rivaled by the Pro Tour itself—do whatever you can to qualify and attend these events!

I again played U/W/R in Standard and Goblins in Legacy. For Standard I gave in and played the Aurelia, the Warleader deck that had won the previous two Magic Online PTQs with a few modifications of my own:

U/W/R Flash

Jim Davis

70th Place at Star City Games Invitational on 04-14-2013

Standard

Creatures (11)

Lands (26)

Spells (23)

Sideboard

The changes I made from the Magic Online decklist were as follows:

– 1 Aurelia, the Warleader
+ 1 Restoration Angel
– 1 Searing Spear
+ 1 Pillar of Flame
– 1 Desolate Lighthouse
+ 1 Cavern of Souls

My disdain for Aurelia should be fairly well documented at this point, so this was an easy swap. Also, as I had said earlier, Pillar of Flame is extremely important against Naya Blitz and important for curve concerns as well. Desolate Lighthouse is just awful, and I figured if I was going to be going big with this Angel plan that Cavern would be a nice hedge versus other blue decks.

The sideboard was what really brought me around on playing the deck again, as the Clone plan is where you want to be versus Junk Reanimator. Clone allows you to maintain parity with their late game while still leveraging your Sphinx’s Revelations and playing the game you want to play. Cloning their Thragtusks is of course good since you can Restoration Angel them just as well as they can, and Cloning an Angel of Serenity is as good as you would expect it to be. You can also Clone a Thragtusk and then later in the game use a Restoration Angel to Blink it in response to an Angel of Serenity trigger. This allows your Clone to come back into play as your own Angel of Serenity and is a very good trump. Cloning Craterhoof Behemoth is just gravy.

I also made a few sideboard swaps, most notably the fourth Pillar of Flame over the third Supreme Verdict and the addition of a singleton Jace, Memory Adept. I’ve already explained the importance of Pillar of Flame, and Jace, Memory Adept is a card that I am very fond of. While Jace was the old plan for dealing with control decks and in this list we were going to be using Cavern of Souls on Angel, the singleton allows me to vary my threats. It serves as a card draw engine, an answer to their Jace, an additional win condition, and acts as a hedge against any sort of random Turbo Fog or Esper deck you might not be able to kill with damage. The Counterflux and extra Cavern of Souls gave me a bit more firepower in the mirror and against Esper Control, both of which I assumed would be popular at the Invitational.

I did not play well or do well in the event, but I wanted to talk about a specific situation I faced. I was playing a long game 1 versus a Jund Aggro deck, which was probably similar to this decklist from Magic Online:

Jund Aggro

Opponent

Test deck on 04-14-2013

Standard

Creatures (31)

Lands (23)

Spells (6)

4 Searing Spear
2 Dreadbore

It is very late in the game, and the board is as follows:

It is our upkeep, and we draw our card for the turn:

What do we do?

…

Ha, gotcha, no answer here. Look for my next article where I will discuss this play/turn in depth, and for now feel free to discuss it in the comments. The article is already written, and I look forward to comparing notes with everyone.

On a final note about the deck, I hated the Aurelia, the Warleader. More than once I found myself trading my cards off one-for-one, dealing with their threats, and we would hit the midgame with just about no cards left. I would slam my last card in hand—Aurelia, the Warleader—and attack, and they would just untap and Dreadbore or Mizzium Mortars it, leaving me with nothing. Had it simply been the fourth Sphinx’s Revelation, I likely would have won those games. This is definitely something to consider for the future.

On Sunday I played Goblins in the Legacy Open:

Goblins

Jim Davis

35th Place at Star City Games Invitational on 04-07-2013

Legacy

Creatures (33)

Lands (23)

Spells (4)

4 Aether Vial

Sideboard

Not many major changes were made to the list aside from adopting Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in the sideboard against combo decks and abandoning Angel of Despair for more Storm hate. Storm had just made Top 8 of the Invitational in the hands of Adam Prosak and seemed to be the most popular combo deck. Mindbreak Trap is also good versus Elves and fine against any Show and Tell deck that wants to use Omniscience since they will usually cast Show and Tell, a Burning Wish, and then their kill card.

I started off well but played poorly in round 6 versus a U/W Stoneforge Mystic deck and then promptly lost round 7 to a Junk player with Engineered Plagues. Max Tietze, however, was able to take the whole thing down with the same list (74/75)—congrats buddy!

Despite doing very poorly, the trip itself was a blast, mostly because everyone in my room was awesome. We had lunch at the Atlanta Thrashers practice facility on Thursday, and afterward Travis Woo walked an hour to the grocery store to buy copious amounts of produce. When he returned, we spent an hour or so discussing what was the better win condition for his ridiculous Fog deck: Omniscience / Enter the Infinite / Borborygmos Enraged or just a single Door to Nothingness.

We had extremely authentic Korean BBQ Friday night, which we had to cook ourselves, and despite ordering the “unlimited meat,” our waitress cut us off and called Michael Hetrick fat. I won $5 off Dan Jordan betting on the Final Four despite having zero interest in college basketball and betting against my home state. And, of course, no trip to the dirty south would be complete without a late night celebratory trip to Waffle House with Brandon Nelson and Max Tietze.

All in all, good times. Did I do the name-dropping thing right? Oh, wait…Gerard Fabiano, for value.

This was obviously a bit different than my first few theory articles, so please let me know what you think in the comments. While I definitely experienced more failure than success at these events, being able to look back and examine your mistakes is both crucial and enlightening. Look for my next article where I discuss the U/W/R vs. Jund Aggro turn in extreme detail.

Thanks for reading,

– Jim Davis

http://www.facebook.com/jimdownside

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