Reflecting Ruel - Playing to Win: Lessons From Grand Prix: Rotterdam

Hello everyone!

I am pleased to announce that, starting today, I’ve taken up a weekly column slot for StarCityGames.com. I’ll be mostly writing about techniques to improve your playing skills, but I’ll also throw in a few tournament reports along the way. I am going to start my column today by doing a little of both…

Last weekend saw the first Grand Prix tournament highlighting Alara-Conflux Limited play, in Rotterdam. Even though I didn’t do too well (I finished 40th out of 1200), the GP itself was one of the most interesting (from a technical standpoint) in which I’ve ever played. The new format Sealed Deck is intriguing, to say the least…

Here is the card pool I opened:

GP: Rotterdam Cardpool

Olivier Ruel

Test deck on 03-01-2009

Shards of Alara Limited

Creatures (53)

Lands (2)

1 Naya Panorama
1 Savage Lands

Whenever I open a Sealed Deck cardpool, the first things I look at are the rares. Here, I am not disappointed, as my card pool contains two of the most powerful bombs in the format : Banefire and Sharuum the Hegemon. The temptation to play five colors to use them both is great. My fixers are decent if not fantastic (only two fixing lands and two Obelisks), and things are improved by the multiple copies of land-cycling spells.

The pool, however, is a little short of removal, and at first glance I was worried my mana wouldn’t be stable enough. So I tried another approach, and avoided the five-color route.

Take another look at the list of the Red cards I opened. I had most of the burn spells available in the format, which, usually, would be largely pointless. In Constructed, you can play heavy burn because of the aggro creatures plus burn spells synergy, which guarantees you’ll win the game quickly if your opponent doesn’t do something to stop you immediately. In Limited, however, it is normally impossible to play heavy burn (outside the normal removal options, naturally), as the Red player-damage spells usually aren’t numerous enough. Cards like Lava Axe are usually only fillers.

Here, though, things are different. Hell’s Thunder, double Hellspark Elemental, Quenchable Fire, Soul’s Fire, and of course Banefire. Put them all in a solid aggro deck, and they could work very well together. Can a deck based on these cards be efficient in Limited? I believe so, as the decks that I have seen in the format prior to GP: Rotterdam were all really slow.

So, what color should accompany Red? I say “color” and not “colors” because a deck of this type has to be incredibly stable. Its main goal will be to lay down speedy punishment to every inconsistent and greedy before they can start to develop. If my aggro-burn deck encountered mana problems, running it would be pointless.

As a secondary color, Black and Green were the most interesting options, as they have aggressive drops, they share gold cards with Red and, importantly, it means I can make a good use of Savage Lands. Between both, the choice is close, but I opted for Black as I couldn’t see myself running a deck that contains almost no true removal.

Here is the deck I chose to run:

Goblin Mountaineer
Kederekt Parasite
2 Hellspark Elemental
Goblin Deathriders
Goblin Outlander
Vithian Stinger
Thunder-Thrash Elder
Jund Battlemage
Hell’s Thunder
Blood Cultist
Viscera Dragger
2 Canyon Minotaur
Bloodpyre Elemental
Grixis Slavedriver
Bone Saw
Executioner’s Capsule
Onyx Goblet
Drag Down
Soul’s Fire
Lightning Talons
Fiery Fall
Banefire
8 Mountain
7 Swamp
1 Savage Lands

Here’s a card-by-card breakdown of my thoughts on the various elements in the deck. Some of what I say may seem a little obvious, but I think it’s a good idea to vocalize your reasons for every inclusion, no matter how elementary they may seem.

Goblin Mountaineer: He fits the deck really well. He’s pretty bad on its own, but he’s aggressive, he fits the curve, and he’s efficient when combined with Lightning Talons and Bone Saw.
Kederekt Parasite: A one-mana creature that doesn’t even have to attack your opponent to deal him damage.
2 Hellspark Elemental: Just great in this archetype. Double-duty is fantastic.
Goblin Deathriders: In such an aggressive deck, two-drops on turn 2 are crucial.
Goblin Outlander: See above.
Vithian Stinger: He’s both direct damage and removal for their annoying early guys.
Thunder-Thrash Elder: He’s pretty good in a deck with six Unearth creatures.
Jund Battlemage: He’s direct damage, and there’s always the possibility to make tokens once in a while with Savage Lands.
Hell’s Thunder: Probably the second-best card in the deck, after Banefire.
Blood Cultist: He removes the early drops and shoots your dying guys after combat.
Viscera Dragger: Either a Hill Giant or a cantrip Lava Spike.
2 Canyon Minotaur: A few big guys for the top of the curve won’t hurt.
Bloodpyre Elemental: He kills nearly any creature in the format.
Grixis Slavedriver: He’s a bit expensive, but he’s the best way to compensate for mana flooding.
Bone Saw: Fine with tramplers, flyers, landwalkers, and Soul’s Fire.
Executioner’s Capsule: One of the top commons in the format.
Onyx Goblet: The format is so slow that, when played on turn 3, this guarantees you dealing your opponent at least five or six damage.
Drag Down: Not great in a two-color deck, but still a removal spell.
Soul’s Fire: Both a removal spell and a great finisher.
Lightning Talons: Awful half the time, but great half the time. It usually deals at least three damage to your opponent, which is the minimum you’d expect from a burn spell.
Fiery Fall: A little hard to cast, but it’s both a removal spell and a mana fixer.
Banefire: Definitely the deck’s MVP. With any fine draw, drawing it should mean Game Over.
8 Mountain, 7 Swamp, 1 Savage Lands: Sixteen lands are more than enough in this kind of deck.

The final big question about the build of this archetype concerns Quenchable Fire. Six damage for four mana would be great, but from what I have seen in my Prerelease, most of the top decks are using all five colors. Therefore, I think cards such as Bone Saw and Onyx Goblet will be likely to deal more damage over time. I planned, however, on cutting one of those cards when boarding against non-Blue mages. However, that was not my number one plan after sideboarding…

During my three byes, I had lot of time to think about the five-color option, and to test it alongside the aggro version. The pure Red/Black version was a little worse than I predicted, but it was still fine, and it had a reasonable chance to take me to Day 2. But in order to go 7-2 and advance to Sunday, I first needed to make sure the five-color build wasn’t simply better.

After two hours of testing, here is the Five-Color built I created:

2 Aven Trailblazer
Matca Rioters
Brackwater Elemental
Paragon of the Amesha
Viscera Dragger
Tower Gargoyle
Bloodpyre Elemental
Meglonoth
Sharuum the Hegemon
Yoked Plowbeast
Kaleidostone
Obelisk of Jund
Obelisk of Esper
Courier’s Capsule
Sanctum Gargoyle
Worldly Counsel
2 Traumatic Visions
Gather Specimens
Executioner’s Capsule
Drag Down
Fiery Fall
Banefire
Naya Panorama
Savage Lands
6 Island
2 Swamp
4 Plains
Forest
2 Mountain

The card-by-card…

2 Aven Trailblazer: When you play five colors, either in Draft or in Sealed, you usually don’t run many creatures. Therefore, the more removal-proof they are, the better they get.
Matca Rioters: Just like the Avens, the Rioters can block just about any guy without being too scared of Red removal spells.
Brackwater Elemental: Very good at holding back their attacks.
Paragon of the Amesha: He’s fragile, but he wins game by himself.
Viscera Dragger: A solid blocker as well as card drawer if needed.
Tower Gargoyle: He’s both a kill card and a great defender.
Bloodpyre Elemental: You can’t play five-color without removal, and the Elemental is one of the few removal spells in this card pool.
Meglonoth: A little worse than Bull Cerodon, but he’s still pretty nice.
Sharuum the Hegemon: One of the best rares (mythics) in the format, and the main reason to consider running this deck.
Yoked Plowbeast: Seven-mana cyclers play an important role in five-color, as they can be card drawers, big defenders, and eventually finishers.
Kaleidostone: A fixer and a combo with Sharuum.
Obelisk of Jund: Great in a five-color deck using very expensive spells.
Obelisk of Esper: Ideal for turn 4 Gargoyle and turn 5 Sharuum.
Courier’s Capsule: One of the key cards of the archetype, even though I am not running Sanctum Gargoyle. Card advantage and Sharuum are more than enough reasons to run it.
Worldly Counsel: This both helps fix the mana and get closer to the bombs.
Gleam of Resistance: Mainly here as a fixer.
2 Traumatic Visions: A fixer of course, but also countermagic, which is great in Sealed as people usually play slow decks with bomb cards.
Gather Specimens: This card is a little too slow for Draft, but it’s pretty good in Sealed, when every game is at least 10 turns long.
Executioner’s Capsule: Always good, and even better with Sharuum.
Drag Down: Amazing in this archetype.
Fiery Fall: Mostly here to kill creatures, as the fixers outnumber the removal spells in the deck.
Banefire: You have a much better chance to draw it and make it count in a slower deck.
6 Island: It’s very important to draw one in your opening hand, to help with Courier’s Capsule, Worldly Counsel, and double Traumatic Visions.

A few cards were close to making it:

Nacatl Hunt-Pride: Vigilance is great in this archetype, and the Green ability makes the card very tempting, but the deck already has lots of late-game power.
Vedalken Outlander: Possible to play on turn 2 considering the mana, but the first three turns are usually committed to fixing your mana. I’d run it if I boarded the entire deck in against an opponent running many Red creatures.
Fire-Field Ogre: Risky to play, as Red and Black are not my dominant colors, but I brought it in once against a deck with almost no removal or flyers.

So, onto the tournament itself. After my three byes, I took the first two matches with my agro Red/Black deck. After two rounds and two wins, I felt like my aggro deck had reached his limits. My opponent’s decks were getting better and better, and playing such an aggressive deck didn’t leave me many options to outplay the guy across the table.

In my first two rounds (four and five of the tournament proper), I’d used my five-color deck exactly once. It was game 3 of round 5, after losing a game to Jund Charm. From then on, I decided I’d run the aggro deck every time I played first, and the control deck whenever I was going second (or when I feel like the Red/Black wouldn’t give me at least a 50% chance to win).

After losing rounds 6 and 7, I found myself with my back against the wall. In round 8, I make one of the worst plays of my entire career. My opponent had Valeron Outlander and Guardians of Akrasia, and he was at twenty life. I was at three, I had no guys on the board, four Blue cards in hand, no Islands, but many lands and Kaleidostone in play, as well as Traumatic Visions. My brain wasn’t very efficient at the time (waking up at 5am didn’t help much, but I can’t be excused for what was about to happen), and it took me about two minutes to figure out the “right” play.

I sacrificed my Kaleidostone, used my Blue mana to cycle Visions into an Island, then cast Tower Gargoyle. Maybe Brackwater Elemental would have been a better call, considering my opponent had lethal damage with a pro-Black guy on the board…

Hadn’t I switched decks to try and outplay my opponent?

I went back to Red/Black (because I was playing badly and going first). I won the final game, and was set to play a decisive match for Day 2 in the final round of the day.

Game 1 of round 9 was, happily, one of the best I’ve played for a while, as far as both my play and the dramatic suspense was concerned. I drew pretty badly but my deck, being what it was, managed to put my opponent on nine life with Onyx Goblet on the board. The problem was that he had several guys on the board, including a Jungle Weaver he had just played.

Having fewer (and smaller) guys than him, I knew I probably couldn’t win that game without two topdecks in two turns, including Banefire. I drew Viscera Dragger. If I played it, it would give me one turn if my opponent didn’t draw a spell, but that just wasn’t good enough. I cycled it and drew a land. I reanimated it and attacked, as my chances were now close to zero if I couldn’t make up any damage. Surprisingly, my opponent decided to take the beats and drop down to six. With one more turn before my opponent killed me, I could now topdeck Hell’s Thunder (if the Weaver attacked) and Banefire for the win.

He attacked, but he kept some defenders back for some unknown reason. He then played Wild Leotau. If I drew a land, he now had exactly lethal damage on the board.

I untapped and drew a Mountain.

I had to try and do something. After he untapped, I asked him how many cards he had in hand. One? Okay, cool. After answering, he went straight to his draw step, and I pointed out he’d forgotten to pay for the upkeep of his Wild Leotau. He still attacked with everyone and wiped my board. I was still dead next turn.

I untapped and drew… Hell’s Thunder!

It is very important, when you see you are going to lose, to find a little light in the darkness, to figure a plan that can turn the tables at the last minute. Mine was “topdeck plus opponent’s misplay.” Most people who saw the match thought I’d won because I was lucky, and of course that is correct, but the main reason I won is that I was able to give myself a 10% chance to win when it seemed like I had almost no way to come back.

I switched decks after game 1, as the match-up seemed really bad for me, and the five-color deck lost game 2 but won game 3.

Here are a few statistics and final thoughts on the day:

Red/Black game count: 6-3 (5-1 going first)
Five-color game count: 3-4 (1-0 going first)
Round count: 4-2 (+3 byes), 64th at the end of Day 2.

These stats aren’t spectacular, but they illustrate the importance of going first, even in a slow format. I understand that some decks feel like they will be better on the draw, but always keep in my that your opponent’s deck is much better on the play, and that it is a good reason to play first most of the time.

Sealed Deck is the only format in which testing your deck in between rounds can be very useful. Show it to friends, and discuss the build. There is no shame in misbuilding a Sealed Deck, as it is almost impossible to build one perfectly. Taking time to rethink your build gives you an advantage; consider it like having a sideboard in Constructed when your opponents don’t.

I could talk to you about my drafts, but they were not very interesting (strategically speaking)… and I will have plenty of time to share my ideas on Alara-Alara-Conflux draft with you starting soon, in the new series of “Drafting with Olivier.”

Until next week!

Olivier Ruel

Reflecting Ruel – Playing to Win: Lessons From Grand Prix: Rotterdam

Creatures (53)

Lands (2)

Spells (29)