I’ve been playing MTG forever (bought a box of Revised from a store) and am a Level 2 DCI judge (having just passed my ten-year judge anniversary). In the past, I was involved with netrepping, playtesting, and judging for many CCGs including both versions of Rage, Fullmetal Alchemist, and 24—and used to write articles for TopDeck magazine (told you I was old).

Deck Choice

I struggled with what to play at Cincy. I have a pet Allies deck, but it worried me. It had to outrace Valakut, get lucky with sideboard cards versus Splinter Twin, and win a coin toss versus decks with Lightning Bolts. I think it has great other matchups, but pre-Cincy, those were not weaknesses that were acceptable in my opinion. So I went back to my old trusty standby: B/R Vampires.

The core of R/B Vampires is fairly standard: 4 Vampire Lacerator, 4 Bloodghast, 4 Kalastria Highborn, 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir, and 4 Lightning Bolt.

I like playing three Viscera Seers since drawing multiples is subpar. I was concerned about planeswalker control decks, so I played the full set of Vampire Hexmages. I find Pulse Tracker to be too fragile, but I could see playing them in this slot as well. I also considered Vampire Nighthawk (too expensive given the amount of removal I ran) and Phyrexian Obliterator (would have required more lands).

For removal, I started with four Dismembers. I wanted Go for the Throat against everything but Tempered Steel and Wurmcoil Engine. Given the upswing online for Tempered Steel, I sent the fourth to the sideboard. I wanted Arc Trail against Elves, Kuldotha, Tempered Steel, RDW, and the mirror and filled my last three slots.

For lands, I didn’t notice this until I started writing up the report, but I should have split Marsh Flats and Verdant Catacombs just in case. The only meaningful decision here was to play three Lavaclaw Reaches and eight Swamps. I found that too many Lavaclaw Reaches hurt my ability to play turn 2 threats—the deck’s bread and butter turn.

For the sideboard, I started with the fourth Go for the Throat along with three Shatters and three Ratchet Bombs. That gives me decent play against artifact strategies and specific hoser cards like Wurmcoil Engine and Leyline of Sanctity. I expected lots of Red Deck Wins and Fauna Shaman decks (it is Ohio after all), so I included three Surgical Extraction to deal with Bloodghast, Chandra’s Phoenix, Vengevine, and in a fantasy world, Valakut. I wanted additional instant-speed removal in the sideboard. I chose Sorin’s Thirst, though admittedly, it was based entirely on past experience with Vicious Hunger. That left me with two slots. I added a Mimic Vat to recur threats against control (esp. Hexmage) and a Tectonic Edge as a 24th land, a bad anti-Valakut card, and an answer for Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

Notice that there is no discard. That was intentional. Let’s say I play turn 1 Vampire Lacerator, turn 2 Bloodghast. On my third turn, I remove their threat(s) and attack for four. If instead, I turn 1 a Despise, my third turn is remove their threat(s) and attack for two. In the first case, I have a much stronger board position, the same number of cards in hand, and more reactive spells in my hand. Making your opponent discard costs them only a card. Killing their threat costs them a card and the tempo it took to play it. With a deck like B/R Vampires, you win by attrition, incremental card advantage, and small amounts of damage. Let them actually spend the time and mana to cast threats before you deal with them.

Normally, I would be travelling with friends, but I was running alone Saturday.

Round 1:

Justin Pearson (162nd w/12 pts) playing Mono-Black Control [Vault Skirge/Nighthawk/Obliterator]

Game 1: Justin has an early Vault Skirge that keeps the life totals close, especially when a second arrives mid-game. I kill all of his non-Skirge threats, and three Vampires eventually kill him.

SB: +1 Go for the Throat, +3 Shatter -4 Hexmage

Game 2: I ride several Highborns to an early 22-8 advantage, but I cannot deal with his Wurmcoil Engine, which takes the game in short order.

SB: -2 Arc Trail, -1 Viscera Seer, +3 Ratchet Bomb

Game 3: I kill every threat he plays the entire game [this starts a noticeable strategic trend]. I Shatter his Lashwrithe. His Liliana Vess tutors up Wurmcoil Engine, but another Shatter and Ratchet Bomb clean up the game.

Record: 1-0 (2-1)

Opinion: After sideboarding into it, my deck does the Mono-Black Control thing better than Mono-Black Control. Other than his Phyrexian Obliterators, my creatures are arguably superior. I had much more effective point removal.

Round 2:

Autumn McDonald (197th w/9 pts) playing R/B Vampires

Game 1: My creatures are simply bigger. Arc Trail was huge.

SB: -4 Vampire Hexmage +3 Sorin’s Thirst +1 Go for the Throat

Game 2: The added removal keeps Autumn from keeping any creatures in play for any meaningful length of time.

Record: 2-0 (4-1)

Opinion: Autumn was a very nice person to play. She asked me on Sunday to sign something for her, but in my sleep-deprived state, I neglected to find her. My apologies, Autumn.

Round 3:

Joe Anger (250th w/6 pts) playing Valakut

Game 1: Standard plan versus Valakut game 1. Hope they don’t maindeck Pyroclasm or Slagstorm. I don’t see any, so a steady stream of dorks takes down the first game.

SB: -3 Arc Trail, -2 Vampire Hexmage (he did have Khalni Heart Expedition), + 3 Surgical Extraction, +1 Tectonic Edge, +1 Go for the Throat

Game 2: I get the double Bloodghast draw and proceed to beat down. When he draws a sweeper, it’s already 20-8. I have no land to reactivate my graveyard Vampires, so I play Kalastria Highborn and Viscera Seer. Joe casts Green Sun Zenith’s with X = 6, ostensibly for Primeval Titan. If he does that, he is dead if I draw a land, due to the burn in my hand. He changes direction mid-resolution and gets Obstinate Baloth instead going to 12. I kill the Obstinate Baloth at end of turn and draw the land to kill him exactly, but in my haste, I play the land and declare attackers before bolting him back down to nine. So instead of doing exactly enough, he’s at nine and dead on my untap. Seven Valakut triggers later, we are on to game 3.

SB: No change.

Game 3: I start with five cards to his four. Yes, five mulligans. My first hand is six lands and my second none. I kill his early attempts at mana acceleration while beating down with a Hexmage and Bloodghast. Pretty anti-climactic game 3.

Record: 3-0 (6-2)

Opinion: I was very happy to escape this match, especially after punting game 2.

T-shirts

Several people asked me during the course of the event, “What if the cake is a lie?” It didn’t even dawn on me until the second person that they were crossing jokes on my t-shirt. As any long-time gamer should, I have a closet full of t-shirts (mostly black) with various pithy, archaic, or just plain unusual information on them.

I was wearing a shirt with an Eddie Izzard reference: “Cake or Death?”.

[Paraphrased from Dress To Kill]
Jailer: “Cake or Death?”
Prisoner 1: “Cake!”
Jailer: “Cake or Death?”
Prisoner 2: “Well, cake I suppose.”
Jailer: “Cake or Death?”
Prisoner 3: “Cake!”
Jailer: “Sorry, we’re all out of cake.”
Prisoner 3: “So my choice is …or Death?”
Jailer: “We didn’t expect Cake to be so popular.”

Ah. British Humour.

No matter how hard you try, you can’t fit a Companion Cube joke in there.

I do like the understated joke, particularly one that requires cross genre knowledge to be enjoyed. My favorite example is a black t-shirt with only this text:
chown -R us ./base

Round 4 [Feature Match]

Matt Landstrom (39th w/21 pts) playing B/R Vampires [duh]

Game 1: Dueling Vampire Lacerators and later Bloodghasts keep this game close. At 7-7, I draw and play a Kalastria Highborn, which survives long enough to make combat fatal for my opponent.

SB: +3 Sorin’s Thirst, +3 Surgical Extraction -4 Hexmage -1 Arc Trail -1 Seer

Game 2: I start off with a Vampire Lacerator, but Matt is able to stabilize. His Kalastria Highborn starts making my trades difficult when he pairs it with a Bloodghast. I have the Surgical Extraction for the Bloodghast, but Matt plays a fetchland and keeps it there for a while. I’m finally able to force him to use the fetchland to return the Bloodghast and remove it, but by that time I’m losing 5-18. I finish my Bloodghast search and destroy (noting how he sideboarded: Batterskull ZOMG!) and ask him if he has a Lightning Bolt. He shows me a Red Sun’s Zenith, and we are off to game three.

SB: +2 Shatter, -1 Extraction, -1 Seer

Game 3: I have an early Bloodghast, and he has turn 1 Vampire Lacerator. I begin to kill everything he plays including at least one Kalastria Highborn. He is struggling to keep threats in play. He has to pay four life to Dismember my Lavaclaw Reaches, making the score 16-8. We trade Bloodghast swings for several turns. Out of options, Matt taps out for Batterskull, but I have the Shatter for the win.

Record: 4-0 (8-3)

Opinions: It was odd playing Matt with the deck he is most famous for using. The extra sideboard removal, in particular Sorin’s Thirst, were amazing, moving an even game one or even two turns in my favor.

Round 5 [Camera Feature Match]

Adam Umstattd (95th w/15 pts) playing Aggro Junk (deck tech available in the coverage)

Game 1: I see first-turn Llanowar Elves and am thinking Elves, but the next few turns show me that this deck is not what I thought. A second-turn Vampire Lacerator is able to get things moving for me. Neither of us keep threats around for much time. With the score at 19-10 and the board empty other than lands, I play a Bloodghast, which receives a prompt Oblivion Ring. My next turn yields me a Vampire Hexmage. The Hexmage is able to get in there once before Adam casts a second Oblivion Ring. In response to the casting, I sacrifice the Hexmage to remove counters from one of his random lands. The new O-Ring is forced to hit the old O-Ring, freeing the Bloodghast. A few turns later the Bloodghast finishes him off.

SB: Didn’t write this down. Honestly, was a bit on edge from the camera match. I know I sided in three Ratchet Bombs since I had only seen Elves, removal, a few big threats, and Oblivion Rings.

Game 2: I’m stuck on one Swamp with a Vampire Lacerator in play. Adam’s turn-three play is Mirran Crusader. I have Lightning Bolt and Arc Trail, but no sources of red, nor do I draw one. He swings and knocks me down to 14-16. After combat, he casts Oblivion Ring. I tank for a second but decide I have no choice. I pay four and Dismember the Vampire Lacerator, so he has to remove his Mirran Crusader. I’m sure this looked really unusual on the coverage.

I end up getting hit with Haunting Echoes, hitting many of my threats and leaving me with about 20 cards left in my deck (though thankfully my Lightning Bolts are as yet unused). We continue to trade Oblivion Rings for my creatures. So after a long creature massacre, Adam lands a Leyline of Sanctity and has three Oblivion Rings (removing Mirran Crusader, Bloodghast, and Kalastria Highborn). I have two Ratchet Bombs and have them at three and four counters.

When Adam kills my Highborn, I Ratchet Bomb for four so that I can drain him. On his turn, Adam replaces the Leyline of Sanctity. With the score 5-1, I’m basically looking for a Lightning Bolt or enough creatures to overrun through. For a split second, I think I’ve punted since Adam’s Stirring Wildwood could kill me, but I had forgotten to write down my life gain from the deceased Kalastria Highborn. As it was, I was able to push through enough creatures (unkicked Gatekeepers of Malakir) to eke out the last few points.

Record: 5-0 (10-3)

Opinion: He drew a lot of land. I had no business winning game 2, but given the opportunity I’m going to try.

Round 6:

Dave Shiels (1st w/26 pts) playing Tempered Steel

Game 1: I have a Viscera Seer start with Go for the Throat and Gatekeeper of Malakir. He has a Glint Hawk Idol + Tempered Steel start. I’m dead on turn 6.

SB: -3 Go for the Throat, -1 Seer, -1 Bloodghast, -1 Arc Trail, +3 Shatter, +3 Ratchet Bomb

Game 2: I start again with early Viscera Seers and a Kalastria Highborn. Dave’s Spellskite really slows me down. My initial rush pretty much ends around 15-12. We both stack a bunch of creatures around. I’m able to do some fun technical tricks with Vampire Hexmage to negate the counters from Steel Overseer, but he is easily able to weaken me with a Glint Hawk Idol (which I can’t Shatter due to Spellskite) and then swarm me.

Record: 5-1 (10-5)

Opinion: Ouch. My draws were not particularly good either game… for Tempered Steel. They would have been fine against most of the field.

Rock Band:

BTW, my Rock Band’s name is “…or Death?”

Round 7:

Alex Lowe (38th w/21 pts) playing R/B Vampires

Game 1: Alex comes out with a smashing aggressive draw. I am unable to keep up. The only point of damage he took was from his Vampire Lacerator.

SB: Didn’t write this down either. Guessing -4 Vampire Hexmage, -1 Viscera Seer, -1 Arc Trail?, +3 Sorin’s Thirst, +3 Surgical Extraction

Game 2: He has an early Vampire Lacerator and Dismembers my first creature. On his second attack, I Sorin’s Thirst it. A few turns late, his Bloodghast gets Arc Trailed and Surgical Extractioned, leaving the score at 22-16. I have more lands and twice his number of Lavaclaw Reaches, so we spend a few turns attacking into each other. At 18-10, my second Lavaclaw Reaches is killed, but my hasty Bloodghast continues to beatdown. My extra removal lets me comfortably close out this game.

SB: I believe I took out an Extraction for the fourth Go for the Throat.

Game 3: Alex sided in two cards, which I’m guessing are both Dark Tutelages. I’m able to Arc Trail several times for benefit in this game, the first taking a Pulse Tracker and one of two Vampire Lacerators on the second turn. He ends up sticking a Dark Tutelage while attacking with his remaining Vampire Lacerator. I am keeping my life totals high by playing Kalastria Highborns, who die immediately to his removal, but not without life cost. In the mid-game, it’s 16-11 when he takes three from Vampire Lacerator and Dark Tutelage and attacks me to 14-8 and plays Viscera Seer. He plays a Highborn, which I kill (12-10). I trade with the Lacerator (11-9). He reveals another Lacerator and plays it (11-8). I play Highborn. He scrys using Seer and miscalculates. He reveals Hero of Oxid Ridge for four damage and has one Lacerator. (11-3) He plays Skinrender to kill my Highborn (13-1) and will now die to his Lacerator on his upkeep. I had Sorin’s Thirst so the other line of play didn’t work any better.

Record: 6-1 (12-7)

Opinion: Dark Tutelage made the math very interesting. He was getting about as much card advantage off of it as I was in removal efficiency. Alex seemed a bit jumpy, and he mentioned to me afterwards that this was his first big tournament. I don’t remember if I mentioned this at the time, but he did really well for his first big event. Congrats Alex!

Round 8:

Caleb Durward playing… oh wait re-pair.

Round 8b:

Andrew Benanzer (61st w/18 pts) playing Kuldotha Red

Andrew is a friend who I have played against for years. We were really hoping to avoid playing each other until we could draw, but stupid Random Number Generator had other plans.

Game 1: Andrew has several early Goblin Guides, but not much else in play. I stabilize at 10-14 leaving Andrew with an Ornithopter and a Signal Pest. I’m slowly picking off his creatures, while he plays several Contested War Zones. When he drops to 10, I play and swing in with a hasty Bloodghast to take them, and the rest of the game is trivial.

SB: -3 Seer, -2 Lacerator, -1 Go for the Throat, +3 Ratchet Bomb, +3 Sorin’s Thirst

Game 2: Andrew kept a one-Mountain hand with two Memnites and an Ornithopter. I play and use a turn 2 Ratchet Bomb to clear the board. Turn 3 Sorin’s Thirst kills his freshly cast Goblin Guide and leaves the scores at 16-20. He draws a Contested War Zone but doesn’t draw the second Mountain until way too late.

Record: 7-1 (14-7)

Opinion: I like my chances against Kuldotha after sideboard. Andrew’s game 2 was depressing, but I really like his list.

Round 9:

Aaron Wilburn (32nd w/21 pts) playing Splinter Twin with White

Game 1: I steam roll with multiple Vampire Lacerators and a Bloodghast, killing his Deceiver Exarch when it tries to block.

SB: -4 Hexmage, -3 Arc Trail, +1 Surgical Extraction, +1 Go for the Throat, +3 Ratchet Bomb, +2 Shatter.

Game 2: I avoid overextending (due to his color choice) and am attacking with an early Bloodghast and Kalastria Highborn. I play a Ratchet Bomb and leave it at zero counters. I never tap out and coast comfortably and safely into the Top 8.

Record: 8-1 (16-7)

Opinion: B/R Vampires may actually be Splinter Twin’s nightmare matchup. If you have enough removal, you can simply sit there and kill them at leisure.

Round 10:

Jason Hager (2nd w/26 pts) playing Intentional Draw.

Record: 8-1-1

Intermission and calories:

The cut was clean for the Top 8. As requested, I sorted my deck and bolted for food. I had scarfed down two “hot dogs” during the afternoon along with some bottled water. They were actually pretty good and cheap for convention food, but the interesting part was the redhead serving. She was so pale that her freckles almost looked like leopard spots. With the slightly overdone eye makeup, it was an unusual look.

Anyhow, one hot McDonalds Angus Bacon and Cheese meal later, I felt significantly better (outside of my arteries). I also got back in time to hear my name called for the Top 8—nice ego boost.

Quarterfinals:

Kyle Dembinski (#4 seed) playing Tempered Steel

After looking at his decklist, I saw he had only Dispatch maindeck for removal and no mass removal effects of any kind.

Game 1: I get in with an early Viscera Seer while killing all of his creatures. When he runs out, I quickly overwhelm him with threats in three attacks.

SB: -4 Hexmage, -3 Go for the Throat ?, +2 Sorin’s Thirst, +2 Ratchet Bomb, +3 Shatter

Game 2: He mulligans twice and keeps a one-lander and concedes on about turn 6. I had a handful of removal and a couple of dorks, so it didn’t look like it was going to go well, but that’s a horrible way to lose in round 11.

Nap time:

Circadian Rhythms (unranked) playing Low-Blood Sugar

Got as much sleep as I could at the Crowne Plaza before waking up at 5:15 and watching about half of The Sum of All Fears. When I realized the bomb was in Baltimore, I thought about rooting for it…

Got a McDonalds big breakfast and tried to get into the convention center…and failed. Went back to the hotel lobby and ate my mostly unhealthy food—returning to the Convention Center around 7:30. Twenty minutes of Angry Birds and a bathroom trip, and I was ready to go.

Semifinals:

Caleb Durward (#8 seed), playing Equipster

Looking at his deck, I noticed lots of Equipment, but not very many creatures. My game plan was to simply kill everything he played and win by pure attrition. He also had no mass removal and a few counterspells, but I didn’t expect him to keep them in.

Game 1: Caleb’s 12 beats my 11, so he gets things started. The plan is going well. We are trading early creatures. With the score around 17-16, Caleb drops an Etched Champion with metalcraft. I do not have a Gatekeeper of Malakir. He eventually finds a sword and brains me.

New plan: Kill all creatures and hold Gatekeepers for Etched Champions.

SB: -4 Hexmage, -3 Arc Trail, -1?, +3 Ratchet Bomb, +3 Shatter, +2 Sorin’s Thirst

Game 2: The plan proceeds as expected. I am killing everything he plays. One of the judges after the event joked that my favorite phrase was, “In response…” At one point I Shattered a Flayer Husk so it couldn’t equip the pro-black sword. I only note life changes on my score sheets, so I cannot do this game justice. It was tactical and back and forth, though I was never really in danger.

[Moved to camera table]

Game 3: If you can watch this online, I’d suggest it. It was a very strategic game. Caleb got flooded a bit, though some of his lands could attack. At the end, he had a Flayer Husk germ token with a Sword of Feast and Famine, an Inkmoth Nexus, and land. I had a Gatekeeper of Malakir and Lavaclaw Reaches. I played a 2nd Gatekeeper of Malakir which caused Caleb to activate and bin the Nexus. This was necessary because it forced the germ to stay back on defense. I then swung with the team losing the land and making life totals 14(3p)-3. After a few uneventful draws, I grabbed a third Gatekeeper of Malakir and was off to the finals.

Finals:

Tim Pskowski (#6 seed) playing nu-Caw-Blade

Looking at his decklist, I was concerned about Gideon Jura and the two Day of Judgment in the sideboard. He is just as fast as I am creature wise, so I was concerned about having to overextend into Day and getting steamrolled. Game 1 looked fairly easy. His creature count (even if he doesn’t have to draw them) is low.

Game 1: I have two early Vampire Lacerators and a Bloodghast. He Dismembers one, but the other two creatures kill him quickly.

SB: -3 Seer, -1 Hexmage, -1 Arc Trail, +2 Shatter, +2 Surgical Extraction?, +1 Go for the Throat?

This is wrong on several accounts. Extraction isn’t good enough against Squadron Hawk to justify inclusion. In hindsight, I think this should have been -1 Seer, -1 Bloodghast, -1 Hexmage, +2 Shatter, +1 Go for the Throat. Eliminating the Seer-Highborn threat completely removed some of the deck’s reach. Since my opponent went under ten each game, this proved to be a bad idea.

Game 2: My notes show an early Kor Firewalker fighting against a Bloodghast and a Vampire Lacerator. An early Sword of Feast and Famine turns the game around for Tim, giving me three poison and eating away at my hand. Eventually, Tim draws Squadron Hawk and finishes me off in the air.

SB: -1 Extraction, +1 Arc Trail (I think)

Game 3: Throw back a no-land hand going first. Nice way to start the final game of a tournament. Things are looking good for me in the mid-game, 20-10. I’m burning through most of the Squadron Hawks and Blade Splicers when Tim draws Sword of Feast and Famine. I have no Shatter to answer it immediately, and it kills me in two swings. Tim did have two Heroes of Bladehold in his hand, but I had just about taken board control and had removal for both Heroes (and would have been at 14-8 with a Bloodghast in play). But he did draw the vorpal sword, and it went snicker-snack…

Oh well, didn’t quite get there, but wow, what a ride. I’ve done well in large tournaments before, but usually for other CCGs. In the MTG world, this usually ended before the Top 8, but not anymore. Time to look at the schedule for the next Standard Open…

Changes:

I would not change a single card in the maindeck.

The Mimic Vat, Tectonic Edge, and at least one Surgical Extraction did not earn their slots. I’m thinking that two Shatters and two Manic Vandals may be better in the sideboard. I’m also thinking that some form of reset may be a good idea. In the past, Black Sun’s Zenith proved to be too expensive—perhaps Consume the Meek.

In a tournament tomorrow, I’d probably go with 3 Sorin’s Thirst, 3 Shatter, 2 Manic Vandal, 3 Ratchet Bomb, 1 Go for the Throat, 1 Surgical Extraction, 2 Consume the Meek

Bonus Decklist:

This was aforementioned Allies deck that I was debating. It is deceptively fast (fourth-turn kills are not uncommon). It is a bit weak to Twin (the four Stave Offs + Negate), Valakut (Spreading Seas), and Torpor Orb (Crush).