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Only Human

Tom “The Boss” Ross, despite what his #SCGINVI records would indicate, is actually human. He has birthdays and everything. He recently celebrated a special Magic anniversary that reminded him of why he does what he does, and why he just can’t put those “poorly positioned” Humans decks back on the shelf!

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The clock has just hit midnight. It’s now Thursday. In the middle of the finishing touches on my article to be published Friday, a memory came to mind. I vividly remember exactly where I was at this moment fifteen years ago.

Lately it’s hard to remember what cities I’ve been to on weekends over the last month.

I was in a New Orleans hotel with my Invasion Block Constructed deck laid out on the floor. I was playing Grixis Control with a Crosis, the Purger and a Disrupt in my deck. I had no good way to beat the R/G Blurred Mongoose decks. I spent all night awake. Sometime around 6 AM, it hit me that Plague Spitter was the best answer.

I started the tournament without getting a wink of sleep. Twenty-ounce Coca-Colas kept me going throughout the day. I had a youthful stamina that I could never recreate now.

I played that R/G Blurred Mongoose deck, nicknamed Rocket Shoes, in the first round. Those Plague Spitters got some use, all right. Not only did they kill some Blurred Mongooses, they killed both me and my opponent when we were at one life in Game 3. Back then there was no Game 4 played if a game was drawn through the game rules. I started the tournament 0-0-1.

The exact same scenario came up in Round 2 with my Plague Spitter. I was now 0-0-2 in my first PTQ. What a lousy way to spend my 18th birthday.

The tournament was eight rounds. Chances were slim to Top 8. I mostly wanted to find a corner and fall asleep. Just one more round… if I lost, my choice was easy. If not, I’d reevaluate.

I won a few more, including hitting a Harrow out of the Five-Color Domain deck for maximum value. I had that scenario flashing through my head around 4am the night before. It was good to get confirmation that a card choice I struggled over actually worked.

I ended up winning the tournament. Fortunately, that PTQ in New Orleans was for the upcoming Pro Tour in New Orleans later in 2001. Chances are very high that I wouldn’t have gone had the Pro Tour been literally anywhere else.

I spent my $250 travel voucher quickly and ended up making it to and from the Pro Tour on just $100. I’d dropped at 1-4 with my Five-Color Slivers deck in Extended, only beating Craig Wescoe. Kai Budde won. A man named Eric Taylor ate his own hat.

It never crossed my mind that I’d still be playing this game fifteen years later.

Last weekend was good for competitors from Roanoke, VA. I made Top 8 of the Invitational. Brad Nelson and Michael Majors went a step further to Top 4. Brian Braun-Duin avoided seventeenth and finished fifteenth. Ross Merriam made Top 4 of the “secret” Modern Open.

Invitationals are no time to mess around.

In the past I’ve gotten caught up in trying to break the formats for Invitationals. After all, it’s tough playing sixteen rounds against people that know exactly what I play in both formats. In truth, this only really affects mulliganing decisions for the first game, a negligible advantage.

But because Invitationals are sixteen rounds across two formats, the variance that you’re worried about will smooth itself out. So what if someone beats you because of a more knowledgeable mulligan? It might come up, might not.

In trying to outsmart my opponents I only outsmarted myself.

Todd Anderson won the #SCGNY Classic with U/R Thermo-Alchemist. I didn’t really have a build I loved of Humans. I’ve heard rumors of the demise of Humans and had started to believe them myself. I bought Todd’s entire deck before I left for New Jersey.

I would’ve played U/R Thermo-Alchemist had the Invitational been a week prior. On the drive to New Jersey I started having second thoughts. I hadn’t played any tournament matches with the deck. It wasn’t exactly my style of deck. It was Todd’s style.

I had to go with my heart.

I’ve done well playing what I know. W/R Humans got me into the Players’ Championship race, bringing me up from around 30th place to roughly fourth. Even if Mono-White Humans isn’t the best-positioned it’s ever been, I know that I wouldn’t make many mistakes and lose because of them. Better to play a poor choice at 100% than a better one at 50%. At least that’s the conclusion I came to after crunching hypothetical gorilla math numbers in my head.

I was also heavily considering playing W/R Humans at #SCGINVI. This is the list I had if I was going that route.

W/R Humans
Tom Ross
Test deck on 08-26-2016
Standard
Magic Arena

Creatures (31)

Lands (18)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

Magic Card Back


What I did play:

Mono-White Humans
Tom Ross
7th Place at Star City Games Invitational on 08-19-2016
Standard
Magic Arena

Creatures (31)

Lands (18)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

Magic Card Back


The decision to go back to eighteen Plains at the cost of a transformational sideboard was one I internally debated about for hours the morning of #SCGINVI. I didn’t settle on Mono-White Humans fully until twenty minutes before the start of Round 5.

Here’s some reasoning of card choices.

I didn’t want Battlefield Forge for a number of small reasons.

1. There are fewer decks I want Reckless Bushwhacker against. G/R Ramp, Mono-Blue Prison, and B/W Control are all but extinct. B/W Angels is tougher to whack against given all of their good blockers.

2. Thalia, Heretic Cathar makes them enter tapped. This comes up, since I want to wait on playing Battlefield Forge as my last land to conserve pain damage and to hide information.

3. I didn’t want to take unnecessary damage at all. With U/R Thermo-Alchemist on the rise, I expected to be put into more race scenarios.

4. Emrakul, the Promised End can force me to take pain damage. Yep, it’s a small reason, but one I think about when building a list. It’s the small edges that count.

A copy of Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit made her way into my deck largely as a concession to Liliana, the Last Hope. She also helped size against Kozilek’s Return, Languish, burn spells from U/R Thermo-Alchemist, and of course creature combat. I’d never play more than one Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. I was furious the first time the legend rule for Anafenza prohibited my progress. Kytheon, Hero of Akros trades more in combat and is thus acceptable to play multiples of.

Anointer of Champions was good as usual, particularly in a field of Bant Company. I was close to putting the fourth copy in the sideboard over the third Gryff’s Boon. The Boon isn’t as good against Bant Company now that they have flyers like Selfless Spirit and Spell Queller. It’s also poor when you get caught by a Tragic Arrogance when you have Always Watching on the battlefield.

Stitcher’s Graft was about as good as Gryff’s Boon while being better in different spots. A big edge of Mono-White Humans (and the reason I like the deck so much) is how well you can choose to size your creatures. Anointer of Champions makes blocks difficult. The order in which you cast Thalia’s Lieutenant and your Humans lets you go tall or wide appropriately.

It was great with Always Watching and sub-par without. The alternate untap with Gideon, Battle-Forged didn’t come up in the tournament but did in practice, where it was solid.

As for Tandem Tactics, I never drew it the times I sideboarded it in. I also greatly associated the card with Triton Tactics and thought it untapped the creatures. I wanted a little more to go with Stitcher’s Graft. Now, with full knowledge that it doesn’t work how I like, I probably wouldn’t play it. Tandem Tactics is still fine in the U/R Thermo-Alchemist matchup and has some utility against Kozilek’s Return, Languish, and a transforming Archangel Avacyn. In total, unlikely to be worth the sideboard slot.

People initially knew that Hallowed Moonlight could be a thing out of the sideboard of Mono-White Humans. Ever since the W/R build became the default, there hasn’t been room for Hallowed Moonlight and had largely been forgotten. I hit a few Collected Companies from unsuspecting opponents. The final kicker that made me want Hallowed Moonlight was against B/U Zombies. I’d always thought Zombies was strong and felt like that weekend in New Jersey could be the right time for it. Hallowed Moonlight gets Haunted Dead and its Spirit, Prized Amalgam, and Relentless Dead from the graveyard.

Repel the Abominable was good enough, given the rise of Kozilek’s Return and U/R Thermo-Alchemist. I’d never play more than two, however.

Depending on how I finished at #SCGNY determined how I would proceed with Magic during Season Three. I knew I wanted to lock up my invite. I needed a Top 32 finish to mathematically lock myself against the worst-case scenarios. My preparation and mentality was that I could do no worse than Top 32 and that every win got me closer to that goal and gave me more leniency against ugly variance or unfavorable matchups.

In the end I overshot my modest, but realistic goal and made the Top 8. I knew if I won that I would get an invite to the Pro Tour and be the leader for Player of the Year. Without a pressing need to play Grand Prix or PPTQs for an invite, I’d pursue padding that lead.

If I had barely squeaked into a Season Two invite, I’d probably have given up on being the SCG Tour® Player of the Year and focused more on Grand Prix and PPTQs. Ultimately I played about twenty minutes of Magic on Sunday, as I was dispatched 3-0 by the eventual winner of the tournament Liam Lonergan and his Elves deck.

With a Top 8 exit, I’m left somewhere in the middle as far as points and my pursuit decisions go.

Strangely enough, I felt like winning in #SCGNY was my best chance to qualify for the Pro Tour. I’ve still never attended an RPTQ and have only gone X-2 or better once in a Grand Prix since winning two Invitationals two years ago. I wish winning an Open, Top 8ing an Invitational, or winning the Season Two points race gave an invite to an RPTQ. It’s hard for me to justify taking a weekend off from the SCG Tour® to play in a PPTQ.

But whatever. As long as I keep up solid play I’ll get back on eventually.

For those who came here looking for Modern Dredge advice, sorry, I’ve got nothing new. The Dredge deck I played was me running back the same maindeck I had from #SCGNY with minor sideboard differences.

If you want a good list, just play whatever list Ross Merriam plays.