“It’s a Trap!”
While some of this information is old, some of it is relevant, and other parts of it you might find amusing or enlightening.
Hilary, Paul, and I head down to Concord NH for a Standard PTQ. (Yes, this was a few weeks ago.)
Hilary and I are both playing this-
Creatures (19)
Lands (24)
Spells (17)
Sideboard
We are both sad not to be playing Green, but I could not get the deck in good enough shape before the tournament. If I had gotten my hands on Primeval Titans and Obstinate Baloths in time, I probably would have played Green. Paul is with Turboland, with which he is not confident, but he knows it best having played it hundreds of times. Hilary and I are smashers. Paul is combo guy. He’s a better player than both of us. He’s concentrated, collected, and he knows how to combine Jace with Oracle of Mul Daya for best effect. Watching him play is an education.
I’m not happy playing Red, but there is an old saying: “If you don’t know what to play, just play burn.” And that’s what I’m doing.
The guys from Burlington are also here, and we chat about our chances. Jesus has trimmed his beard and looks less like Jesus now. He wanted to play G/W Ramp with Primeval Titan, but thinks that R/G Valakut is just better. I’ve seen his G/W deck and prefer it, but what do I know?
I finish filling in my deck registration sheet. “Who did you guys put as your deck designer at the top? I’m playing RDW, so I just put ‘Everyone.'”
“I put ‘Jesus,'” Paul says.
“I put that in Maine!”
“Well, he designed everything, right? So he must have designed my deck.”
Hilary chimes in with “I put Richard Garfield.”
“Mark Rosewater would be good too.”
Funniest deck designer names? Tell me in the forums.
Round 1, I play Dan Hartman. He is with Knight of the Reliquary, Lotus Cobra, Noble Hierarch.
I run him over game 1, killing any mana producers he puts out and killing him before he can set anything up. Red does that sometimes.
In game 2, a 6/6 Knight of the Reliquary blocks my Ball Lightning then gets pro Red, and then a Baneslayer Angel hits the board. That’s game for him.
In game 3 I have an awesome draw. But he has Jace and Obstinate Baloth. I get him low and then he starts bouncing Obstinate Baloth every turn. I have a plan to stop that but Mana Leak keeps me from executing that plan. I show him that if I had another land I could have won. He shows me another Mana Leak. Ah, so there was no hope. Good to know.
Why am I not playing Summoning Trap?
I am 0-1, Hilary is 1-0 and Paul is 1-0. No worries, I’ve been in this position before. Win a few and make my way back up to the head tables. Never lose hope.
My second round opponent has Jund with main deck Obstinate Baloth. How can I beat that?
In game 1 he gets a Baloth, and I still steamroll him with Hell’s Thunder and burn. I side in my Dragon’s Claws and know they are the key to victory in this match-up.
My opponent is technically a better player than I am, but his mannerisms are annoying. He passes the turn with a slight flick of his wrist that I often miss. He mumbles his spells. I have to keep asking him if he is done, or what it is he is casting, as everything is subtle and almost hidden.
In game 2 we both get out Dragon’s Claw, but his creatures happen to stick around and mine get buried at the end of turn. I need Red to cast everything, and eventually my nemesis the Raging Ravine kills me while he is above twenty life. In game 3 I draw a bunch of burn, Guide and land. It is time to do math. I swing for 2, Teetering Peaks turn 2 and swing for 4, count up the burn in my hand. Guide swings again and gets Bolted. He plays Bloodbraid into Terminate and swings for 3. I draw another burn spell. Math is hard but I calculate that he is dead when he untaps unless he plays a Baloth or a Claw. He plays a Claw and my heart sinks.
Wait! I used to know what to do in this situation!
“In response to your Claw, I unload almost everything in my hand on your head.”
And now he is low low low on life.
I untap, draw a Hellspark Elemental, swing, Bolt you for 2 for a net loss of 3 more life. He keeps his Bloodbraid back. I Unearth my Hellspark and he tries to gain a life from it and I correct him. He blocks, trample does the last point. He’s not pleased.
As well he should be. He’s a better player with a better deck, but sometimes Red just wins regardless. I am 1-1, Hilary is 1-1, and Paul is 2-0.
An altercation occurs this round. Hilary’s last opponent was anxious to be one of the first 16 to drop so he can get entrance into the first draft for free. After he defeated Hilary, he checks “Drop” on the box for Hilary’s name instead of his. Thirty minutes later, Hilary notices that he is not paired for the next round. When Hilary approaches the Head Judge, he says there is nothing he can do, as the round is already paired.
Hilary storms over to his last opponent and says “I spent two hundred dollars on this deck, a twenty-five dollar entry fee, plus food and gas for today, and you have just taken me out of the tournament because you were so eager to drop. You owe me three hundred dollars.”
The guy was scared. “I… I don’t have three hundred dollars. ”
“Okay. What do you have?”
“I spent everything on my deck and entrance fee.”
“Okay, give me your deck, and give me the cards you just drafted.”
Hilary > Chuck Norris.
While Hilary is quiet and reserved, you do not want to unleash the beast. He has broken a man’s jaw and beaten a man unconscious with a snow-shovel. Honestly, those are the least of his feats in physical combat, but the tales of him beating three men take too long to explain. Please understand that this is 1% of who Hilary is. The rest of him is devoted father, long time good friend, Green mage, faithful husband, conspiracy theorist, gamer, landlord, and super handy-guy.
Rob Dougherty puts his hand on Hilary’s shoulder. “We’ll get it figured out.” And within minutes, Hilary is back in the tournament.
My next opponent is Patrick Crane, who is with Lotus Cobra, Knight of the Reliquary, Baneslayer Angel, Fauna Shaman, etc.
As I have found with the current deck I am working on, Magic is a lot about drawing the right cards.
I play a Mountain, Guide, attack, and the Guide gives him nothing. I pass the turn.
I play another Guide, Teetering Peaks, swing for six, and again he gets nothing off the reveals. I play another Peaks, Bolt your Hierarch, swing for six again. Bolt you at the end of your turn, swing with two Guides, game over.
Game 2 is a little different. Guide, Peaks, Bolt your Fauna Shaman, Bolt you, Bolt you, Searing Blaze you, etc. It’s over on turn 4 both games. We would sign the slips, but they haven’t brought them over yet. I’m not even sure some people are seated yet. We chat for a while and I make my customary apology for killing someone on turn 4. That’s no fun. Since they still haven’t brought slips, I pull out my computer and take down some notes on the game. When they finally bring the slips, he looks at my name.
“Oh, I didn’t know it was you. No Green?”
“Nope. No Green. I couldn’t get it to work in time.”
“I bet you get that a lot.”
“Yup.”
I go watch Paul and Hilary’s matches. Paul is like a magician, flashing cards and shuffling and using Jace with Oracle of Mul Daya to put tons of land into play. Turboland is not an easy deck to play, but he does it like a master. He’s always been a great player, and he knows this deck inside and out.
A judge I don’t know comes up beside me as I watch Paul demolish his opponent. “You’ve succumbed to RDW?”
“Oh, hi. Um, yeah, but only for today. I’ve been working on the Green deck, but I didn’t feel it was ready for prime time yet. I’ll get back to work on it soon.”
“I was looking over the decklists…” (No mistakes this time! Go me!) “I saw your name and couldn’t believe what you were playing.”
“Me neither.”
“Honestly, I’m so disappointed.”
I sigh. “Me too.”
Paul is now 3-0, Hilary 1-2, and I am 2-1.
My next opponent is Paul Owenstein, who is far too nice to me and my multiple mistakes.
He is with his own creation of Knight of the Reliquary, mana ramping, and Primeval Titan into Butcher of Truth.
“Good Game.”
“Good Game.”
My Guides help him ramp up in game 2, and knew I knew I should have sided them out. He soon gets a Gideon and my attack stops. It is time to do some math. The situation seems hopeless and I want to concede, but I see if I can pull this out. I save up burn, and when he uses Gideon to kill my Sparkmage, I unleash Hell’s Thunder and start unloading burn at his head. It is not enough, but I feel good doing it.
“I’m at 11.” And he adjusts his die. The barrage continues. “I’m at 9.” I untap. “I’m at 6… I’m at 4… I’m at 2…”
“And I have no cards left. Good game. I like your deck.”
“Thank you, I’ve been working hard on it.”
I find Paul, and look over his shoulder as he mulligans to five. Despite this, he pulls it out to become 4-0.
Aaron McCaslan from Burlington is also 4-0. Jesus went 1-2 drop with his Red/Green ramp deck, and is re-tooling it for Montreal the next day to be G/W. I think that is wise.
I survey the top tables and I see ramp, Jace-plus-anything-control, and a couple Jund decks. Wait a minute… Is that a Mono Green deck I see? Yes it is.
Hilary drops to 1-3, I drop to 2-2. Paul is 4-0.
Kyle is my next opponent, playing a “mill myself to get many Vengevine and Bloodghast in the bin and attack you for a lot.”
I lose in two quick ones for no reason I can fathom. Vengevine probably hates me for dissing him. My opponent has the look of an original deck designer and I mean that in the kindest possible way. He is easy going, friendly, and talkative as he crushes me. I look to my right and see an identical deck. How odd. I notice the same deck at one of the top tables when I go over to watch Paul’s match. [Sounds like Dredgevine… – Craig.]
Somehow, Paul loses to drop to 4-1
At the top tables are a variety of U/W, one Jund that sinks to the bottom in the next two rounds, one RDW, and one Mono Green. Mono Green is 5-0.
I was mistaken in my review of Primeval Titan. I didn’t think he was that great, but now I see how powerful he is. The Mono Green deck seems like a pretty simple build. Titan, Garruk’s Companion, both good Baloths, Khalni Garden, and the Vastwood for when he gets out the Titan and can give everything he casts +4/+4. You die to the early beats or you die to the late beats. Not sure what he does against U/W Control, but who am I to argue with a guy who is 5-0?
In his last two rounds, he plays Jund and RDW. I don’t see how he can possibly lose to either of those match-ups. And he doesn’t.
Mono Green is 6-0. Mono Green draws into the Top 8.
Paul is playing a kid who reminds me of Ira “Wonderboy” Beaver. Young, good trash-talker, flips his cards through his hands constantly, plays better than I ever will. They both are playing Turboland, but wunderkind has Primeval Titans and Paul does not. I am confident, though. Paul knows how to play counterspells to maximum effect. Despite this, it is all about the draws. Paul is crushed in the first game, crushes in the second, and gets crushed in the third.
“It was only because I got my Titans before you.”
“I don’t have any Titans. I couldn’t get my hands on them before the tourney.”
“What? How are you 5-1 with no Titans?”
Paul shrugs.
Because he’s that good, that’s why.
Falling to 5-2, all of us exhausted, Paul decides to skip the last round. We go get some food and discuss Magic.
I will add our voice in saying Mythics are bad, and here’s why. Based on the cost, you have to commit to one deck. In the past you used to be able to have ten decks put together for play-testing. I had 12 Strip Mines. 12 Mishra’s Factories. 8 Gaea’s Cradle. 12 Hymn to Tourach. Everything card I liked, I had 12 copies so I could make up a variety of decks. Good luck doing that now. If you buy four Jace and four Elspeth and four Gideon, are you going to be experimenting with other decks? Not on your life. Hope you have fun playing that one deck over and over again for the next three years. That said, I have just paid two-hundred dollars for four physical Primeval Titans and then over a hundred and sixty for four virtual Primeval Titans. I play against decks without such expensive cards, and it is sad. They cannot compete unless they spend the money, and in this economy, lots of people are just priced out of the game. I am lucky in the fact that I prefer to play one color.
In other news, August 7th is Matt Wood’s benefit tourney since he qualified in Maine. (I told you this was a few weeks ago.) I tell Hilary and Paul I will be there. I like Matt Woods, and want to see him do well.
Paul responds with “I’ll ride up with you. Hell, I’ll drive and pay your entry fee!”
“Really? Why’s that?”
“Got anything else going on August 7th?”
I think for a minute. Oh yeah, just this little thing called “getting married.” D’oh!
“I guess I won’t be going to the Matt Woods benefit.”
“C’mon, it will be great. Say your vows, duck out, we’ll be there in plenty of time.”
“I don’t think so.”
Our waitress is 23, very cute and very perky. Spain is not a tip-driven society. There are no perky waitresses there. This one is working it. Low cut shirt, asks for our IDs (Hilary and I are 45, and he has grey in his hair and beard; I don’t, because I dye it), flirts with Paul, the whole deal. While this is nice, I’m feeling like a “john” by the end of the meal.
Over dinner, we discuss what we saw today, and can’t imagine how any deck can possibly compete with any mana ramp deck or U/W Control. Green has so much lifegain now, how could RDW or Jund have any chance? Primeval Titan allows you to get so much mana and so many diverse lands, how can you not play him? U/W returns to the age of counterspells. We don’t see the metagame changing much from the decks that made Top 8 today.
(How wrong we were.)
Despite that, I believe it, and desperately want to cast some Eldrazi. All is Dust is one of my favorite cards. And Summoning Trap. Let’s not forget that. I have a blind, irrational hatred for Blue mages. I’m sorry, I know, it’s a weakness. Being able to pre-sideboard against counterspells and actually have the card be integral to the deck will be a lot of fun for me.
I start off with this. “Baloths and Traps”
Creatures (27)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Leatherback Baloth
- 4 Artisan of Kozilek
- 3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 4 Obstinate Baloth
- 4 Primeval Titan
Lands (25)
- 21 Forest
- 4 Eldrazi Temple
Spells (9)
Sideboard
The idea being, of course, to not lose to Jund or RDW with my early fatties and life gain while also providing beats if the opportunity presents itself. Summoning Trap at the end of the turn would hopefully provide me with an Eldrazi, and my opponent would be wrecked. If I get a Titan out, I can just go get my Eldrazi Temples until I can hard-cast even Emrakul if need be. I know you’re looking at the deck and wondering “why do you have so many basic forests, Wakefield?”
Because I really, really like casting a 4/5 on turn 2. And the way the deck plays out, Raging Ravine or non-basic lands really mean nothing to me. If you’re sacrificing six permanents, I don’t need to waste your land, make my guys bigger, or put a 0/1 token into play.
The first two games went better than they had any right to go. Summoning Trap on turn 4 giving me Emrakul both games. My opponent immediately conceded both times.
There have been times when Obstinate Baloth and Leatherback Baloth have done exactly what I wanted, and a second turn 4/5 and a third turn 4/4 that gives me 4 life is too much for some draws or decks to handle.
Despite this, what I really love is casting Summoning Trap, or even hard casting Emrakul, which happens far more often than you think. So I rework the deck a little, and come up with this. “It’s a Trap!”
Creatures (22)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 2 Artisan of Kozilek
- 3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
- 4 Primeval Titan
Lands (25)
Spells (13)
Sideboard
At one point I owned four Eye of Ugin but, they sucked. That is until Primeval Titan came along. See, they don’t produce mana… That’s bad. One of them, summoned with a Titan, is actually a good thing because then you can just use its special ability to go in search of whichever Eldrazi you have enough mana to cast. The eight fatties I swapped out for card drawing allow me to burn through the deck faster and get land on the board so the big plays can happen.
So far, the results have been mixed. Sometimes it makes for a startlingly fast game, and you get right to the cards you need, and other times someone casts Vengevine, Knight of the Reliquary, and one turn before you cast All is Dust they summon a Realm Razer… See, that’s bad.
The deck is evolving, as it has been since I got back into Magic. I really like Artisan of Kozilek, and went searching for things that say “…enters the battlefield…” because he’s cheap to cast and if you, say, destroy three non-creature permanents with a Terastodon from the graveyard, that’s good, right? Or I could be gaining seven life and drawing a card when Pelakka Wurm dies and then bring him back to do it all again. Of course, Obstinate Baloth and Primeval Titan are pretty good to bring back as well.
But really, when you cast Summoning Trap or have Eye of Ugin in your deck, don’t you want as many Eldrazi as are feasible?
Time will tell. The experimentation continues.