StarCityGames.com, huh? As my friends and editors tell me, it’s been far too long. Last time I wrote anything that got published, Flame Fusillade hadn’t even been printed yet, never mind been killed by any number of Time Vault Erratas. A lot has happened since then, including near-infinite attempts to break Mana Drain further, and an unsuccessful foray onto the Pro Tour. Writing is definitely something I would like to get back into doing, and picking up the dailies seemed like a perfect opportunity for that. The fun thing about dailies is that you get to write about things that wouldn’t quite fill up a whole article. For instance, you could write, say, a tournament report for an exciting 2-4 showing.
This weekend I got talked into playing some Vintage, even though I clearly can’t afford it. I learned a long time ago that a tournament is not the place you test out your new ideas. Unfortunately I have a tendency to put silly things like “testing” and “writing dailies” off until the last minute. This habit, combined with a total lack of sleep, has had the entertaining-but-unfortunate consequence of me playing some real winners. Because of or in spite of this, there was a deck I’d been meaning to run since I saw it put up results at SCG: Charlotte, Izzet Control. Of course, I had to make the deck more Brass-Man friendly, and showed up with the following pile:
Creatures (4)
Lands (15)
Spells (41)
- 4 Brainstorm
- 4 Mana Drain
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 1 Yawgmoth's Will
- 4 Force of Will
- 4 Accumulated Knowledge
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Time Walk
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Reset
- 3 Intuition
- 1 Cunning Wish
- 2 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Blood Moon
- 2 Misdirection
- 1 Tinker
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Recoup
- 1 Lotus Petal
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
It’s not that far off from the list that finished in Charlotte. I cut the situational answer-type cards for a more robust draw engine, Misdirections, and a Recoup to make Intuitions more of a threat. As a finishing touch, I threw in a Blood Moon, anticipating the field to have problems with it. Even though I cut some cards that played nice with Izzet Guildmage, the combo kill of Reset and Cunning Wish was still functional. In general, I find that Mana Drain-based decks can answer threats more effectively with cards like Tinker or Yawgmoth’s Will than they can with Echoing Truth or Fire/Ice. In this particular case, I may have been wrong.
Round 1 I keep a hand of three pitch counters on the draw. My opponent, who I know to almost always runs Oath, leads with an end of turn Vampiric Tutor, which I assume is either getting an Oath of Druids, Ancestral Recall, or Forbidden Orchard. I let it in, reasoning that I can counter an early Oath and recover first, while applying pressure with spirit tokens. Unfortunately for me, he gets a Bazaar of Baghdad and starts throwing out the threats – for the record, Peter’s new Dragon list is packed with them. My next game I lead out with some broken Tolarian Academy, Mox, Mox, Ancestral Recall, Izzet Guildmage nonsense. I get in around four swings and build up enough mana to Mana Drain something, leave up three to copy Drain if he fights back, and still hardcast a Force of Will. He Intuitions at the end of my turn, which I Drain, and he untaps with the Duress and Animate Dead to win again. Kind of makes me wish the Guildmage were, you know, just about anything else.
Round 2 I get the bye. I told you this wasn’t a full-article report.
In the next, I’m paired up with my friend Dan Gagioch, playing Gifts with Thirst for Knowledge. Game 1 is borderline hilarious. The first relevant spell played all game starts a huge counterwar around turn 4, killing both of our hands. I untap and Tinker out my Darksteel Colossus, but he Brainstorms into his own Tinker to block. Thinking I have the upper hand, I Cunning Wish for Hurkyl’s Recall and swing in, bringing Dan to 1 life. Before I can attack again, Dan gets his Recoup, Brainstorms his Colossus back on top, and Tinkers it out again. The Colossus stalemate lasts maybe three turns, with both of us drawing blanks, until Dan fires off an end of turn Rebuild, untaps and hardcasts his indestructible man. Now the Moxen I’ve been drawing suddenly become useful, as I unload them and cast the fifth Darksteel Colossus to hit play. After that, my memory’s blurry, but I’m pretty sure Dan just drew business before I did. The next game wasn’t anywhere near as interesting. An early Izzet Guildmage makes four copies of Brainstorm over two turns. Dan uses this time to cast spells like Gifts Ungiven and Tinker. The resulting consequences are obvious.
I’m out of contention and I haven’t won a game. Normally I would drop, but I figure if I’m going to pay twenty dollars to playtest, I might as well make the most of it. Round 4 I get pitted against “The Mountain Wins Again”, a local Red/White hate deck. This round is decidedly unexciting. I stall on a land game 1, drawing the Darksteel Colossus the turn before I draw the mana I need to cast the Tinker in my hand. Games 2 and 3 I don’t stall on land, cast Tinker early and that’s it. How fun.
Round 5 is another nail-biter. I get paired up against a player who can make it into Top 8, unlike myself. Easy call on that one. He offers to play for fun, but I’m getting hungry at this point, and after testing some between rounds before, I’ve had my fill of Mana Drain mirrors for the day.
In the final round, relaxing in the comfortable 2-3 bracket, I play against mono-Red burn, where I have my most entertaining win of the day. My opponent leads with Goblin Welder (anti-Colossus tech), and follows with a turn 2 Ahnk of Mishra. I rush out of the gate with the power play of turn 2 Izzet Guildmage, turn 3 Izzet Guildmage, turn 4 Izzet Guildmage. When my bears start swinging in, my opponent has to do what she can to prevent them from going all the way. Pro Tip: Misdirection is very good against Fireblast. Game 2 I play another boring, early Colossus and am about to win… when I’m offered a Myriad Games Mana Cookie for the concession. As I am a morally bankrupt man of unscrupulous character, I accepted and ended the day 2-4.
Despite the abysmal record, I’m not going to run the deck off as complete trash. Its entirely possible that my Brass-Modification ruined the deck entirely, or that I played awful because I was tired, or I just got unlucky. It certainly didn’t feel terrifically strong, however, and I don’t plan on putting any more work into it until results prove me wrong.
Tomorrow you lucky cats get to hear “The Worst Bad Beat Story in the History of the Universe.”
Brass “Andy Probasco” Man
aprobasco at gmail dot com