The Combat Phase – Evil Jamie and Wendy’s Bane

Being the attention whore that I am, I’m very proud that the VHS video of the first Pro Tour has a quote from me on the jacket.

“My friends and I have achieved a new level of play watching this event.”

My play skill sucks these days. I’ve lost more matches to stupid mistakes than I can count, both online or in games at the store. The problem is I continue to play as if I’m just testing. I play like I used to before I went to Pro Tour 1 in New York. It was there that we learned to take our
time, to agonize over every move, because every move is important. It was shortly after that that I wrote the article titled “Technically Perfect Play.”

There’s a Legacy tournament again on Saturday, and I’m determined to play with actual skill and not just throw cards at my opponent and hope they
land on his face. I’m determined to sideboard correctly, mulligan wisely, and slow my play down, so that I’m actually playing with the intent to maximize every card.

On Friday, Wendy and I walk the beast down to
Los Austrias,
one of our favorite restaurants. We get a bottle of the house wine and a platter of steak we’ve had before. For twenty-two Euros we get enough steak to feed Wendy and I with enough left over to give the Dog of Thunder meat poisoning. With the steak comes a large platter of fries topped with
pimentos de pardon
(roasted and salted small green peppers.)

They don’t ask how we want the steak cooked because there’s only one way it should be cooked. Rare and bloody it arrives, steaming and sizzling on the hot, stone plate. Thor looks up at us with a long string of drool approaching his chest fur. Soon, my pretty, the gristle and fatty portions will be yours.

A half an hour later, we’re all sated; even the endless belly of the hound. “I need to stop at Metropolis on the way home; I need some cards
for tomorrow’s tourney.” Metropolis is in the middle of a Standard tournament, and I recognize no one as I walk its wide playrooms. There
seem to be more young kids here than at Evolution, and the decks look less refined. This is a cursory examination and not based on any facts, since I have yet to play here but am anxious to do so. They have a lot of people playing Standard.

Where did the myth start that most of WotC’s sales go to casual players? That if the Pro Tour disappeared it would be just a blip on the radar
of the Magic playing community? Do casual players spend seventy dollars on Jace, or do they need to buy some Mindbreak Traps, Progenitus, and
Gaea’s Revenge for tomorrow’s tournament? No, no they don’t.

If competitive Magic went away, Magic shops around the world would close their doors within six months.

As much as I hate mythics, they’re good for shops and for websites that sell cards.

In the endless debate about mythics, people keep asking, “If mythics are ruining the game, why are there record attendances at FNM, PTQs, and Grand Prix?”

My simple reasoning suggests that this is because of the interactive state of the game right now. There’s a combat phase again. The longer there is a combat phase, and the less a game is decided by your opening draw, the more I enjoy it. I think it’s been a long time since decks like High
Tide or Dragonstorm or Prosbloom, or any other combo deck that killed you regardless of your draw have seen serious play. It’s my belief that this is the reason Magic is surging. It’s also my belief that mythics are horrible for the game.

I sleeve up my cards, and I like the way the deck looks. I think the forum suggestions have made it stronger. I especially like the Woodfall Primus, although he does seem a bit expensive. I’m not sold on Gaea’s Revenge though. A weak backside is a bad thing. I’m also not sold on Progenitus. As it turns out, I didn’t bring Lure of Prey to Madrid with me, so I have none to add to the deck. If I draw Progenitus, I have no way to get it into play; I can only Natural Order for it.

I end up with this version this week, and I’m determined to play it well.

I meant to include Mindbreak Trap but could only find one at both stores and forgot to include the one I found in the side. I remember this fact five minutes after the opening round starts. Hopefully I won’t play Tendrils today.

Today we have a lot of familiar players and a total of twenty. I see one child who’s here with his father, and I don’t think he’s playing in the
torneo.

David isn’t behind the counter today, replaced by someone I’ve never seen, Jose (or was it Juan?) Vincent. I tell him my DCI number and pay my four Euros.

“Jamie Wakefield?”

“Yes, er, sí.”

“The reporter for StarCityGames?”

“Sí.”

Long string of Spanish I don’t understand.

“Lo siento, no entiendo.”

In English he tells me “I’ll tell you later.”

My first round opponent is Jose… I’m going to butcher the last name, so I won’t try. I didn’t have time to type it out after the round ended and just read it into my iPhone recorder. He’s with Wild Nacatl, burn, Figure of Destiny, and dual lands. My deck is pretty good against aggro. I’m looking forward to this matchup.

In the first game I’m a little land light, and he runs me over. The trouble with using creatures for mana is if you’re land light, you can’t block with them. So, he has six damage a turn coming in, and I can choose to block and have no mana, or I can choose to not block and hopefully draw something I can cast that will stop the onslaught. When he says, “Bolt you at the end of your turn,” I think we all know what that means.

I side in some Jittes. I get a perfect draw, play a Cradle, play out some Elves, a Wall of Roots, and a Spike Weaver, and cast a Verdant Force. He plays a Jitte. I Natural Order for a Woodfall Primus and kill it. He scoops.

Game 3 sees me mulligan down to five. It’s not a good five.

I made no mistakes, I played tight, and I just lost to a deck I feel I should beat nine out of ten games.

This is getting frustrating…

My opponent for round 2 is Ivan Gomez Piris. He’s nice, a little shorter, thinner, and younger than me with happy, dancing eyes. He seems to think my Spanish is much better than it is. I smile and nod in what I hope are the right places.

He is with R/B Goblins. The black is to make me sacrifice creatures. My opening draw is two Llanowar Elves, a Noble Hierarch, Progenitus, a Wall of Roots, Overrun, Spike Weaver. If I draw a Forest anytime soon this would be a good draw, but I’m determined to play smart today, and keeping a no-
land hand seems unwise.

My next hand of six is better but only slightly so. I have a Wasteland.

Third time’s the charm, and I get a Forest this time. Ivan plays a Goblin Lackey. I play an Elf that Ivan makes me sacrifice. He starts to steamroll me. I play a Wall of Roots, and that is sacrificed to his dark god as well. More Goblins join the fray. It’s overwhelming.

In game 2 I mulligan down to six, and so does he. My six contains a good start and the accursed Progenitus, so I’ve essentially mulliganed down to
five again. Yes I know, I should have Survival of the Fittest or Fauna Shaman in here, but I don’t have either of those yet. Ivan has the same type
of luck and mulligans down to five and looks very depressed.

I start off with a perfect curve of Forest, Hierarch, Wasteland, Wall of Roots, Cradle, and the beatings start. They continue until morale improves. Mine, not his. I keep drawing the nuts and playing out everything I have.

He’s slumped in his seat, and everything he draws he gives this look like someone has just handed him a fresh pile of dog crap.

And I’m falling for it; the oldest trick in the book.

When I’ve emptied my hand, and he has nothing on his side, I’m giddy. He sits back up, smiles, draws and says, “Perish? Kick you in the junk and… play a Lackey.”

On my side of the board, I now have a Gaea’s Cradle (producing exactly zero mana) and a Forest.

I draw something that’s not land and soon, Goblins are rushing up the hill to poke me with their not so tiny spears.

In my best Jon Stewart voice — “Well played, sir. Well played.”

When I used to be good at this game, I did that same thing all the time. Oh well, a learning process, or maybe, a remembering process.

You know what Legacy needs? Thirty-card sideboards. I really wanted Lifeforce in my side today. As well as Choke, Tsunami, Hailstorm, Seeds of Innocence, Summoning Trap, Naturalize, Trinisphere, Jitte, Ravenous Trap, Mindbreak Trap, etc. And I really wanted four copies of everything.

This is really a challenging format.

My next opponent I call “Wendy’s Bane.” See, I used to have a bare face. Wendy convinced me to try growing a goatee, and I did. I think I look a lot less like a little kid with my goatee; in fact, I look like evil Jamie from the parallel Star Trek universe.

When Marilyn passed away, I decided I was going become a wild man, in looks, at least. I wanted to grow my hair to shoulder length and never shave. I did this for a bit, but beards are scratchy, and when my hair gets too long, I look like Prince Valiant with his long bowl cut. And well, I like looking good for the opposite sex too much to stick with that plan for long.

But last week I played “Wendy’s Bane,” and I thought, “He has the look I’ve always wanted.” And later in the week
I thought, “Why can’t I have that look? Just matching inch-long lines of beard running from ear to chin to complement my goatee; I’d really be evil Jamie then.”

So this week I’m growing a beard that will, at some point in the future, be trimmed down to a well-manicured look. Wendy has responded with, “What are you Grizzly Jamie now? Are you growing a beard? You must not want to get too close to me this week.”

So, I’ve explained the plan. I blame my next opponent that started all this, Jesue Segadoro.

Jesue is with mono-black again. Last week it was all about the discard and Hypnotic Specters and then playing a 7/7 Nyxathid. I loved the idea so
much I went home and bought the cards to build it online. I love black’s sideboard options. For me it has always been seven more creature
elimination spells and eight more discard spells. If they’re playing creatures, you side out your maindeck discard and kill everything they put on the board. If they’re playing combo or counters, you side out some of your elim and empty their hand. So simple.

In the two games that we played, I saw one Duress and a whole hand full of creature elimination. I think he took the Hymns and Stupors out and just decided to kill everything his opponent put on the board.

That plan works pretty well against my deck.

In our second game, I’m doing okay, get a Natural Order, and throw Progenitus on the board. Then I pause and think for a second. “Protection
from everything” doesn’t stop “sacrifice a creature.” I have a Weaver on the board, and that’s it. Consuming Vapors is on
the top of his library, indicating rebound. I go get The Best Fatty Ever Printed instead, who has sacrifice protection. We consult Fererro on which
effect happens first, my token coming into play or me having to sacrifice, and he tells us the token comes in first. (I would’ve thought the opposite.) I
sac the token to Consuming Vapors, and he Doom Blades the Verdant Force. An Abyssal Persecutor joins his Nyxathid, and he kills my Weaver. Soon I’m at negative seventeen, and he plays a Gatekeeper of Malakir, targeting himself.

I shake his hand, say good luck in the rest, and tell J. Vincent I’m dropping. It’s been a disappointing day. It was fun, but winning and
having fun is better than losing and joining team 0-3 drop. I felt like I played better this week, made fewer mistakes, and now I remember not to overcommit against anyone running some kind of Wrath effect.

As I played with the deck, I evaluated each card today and made sure they really deserved a place.

Things I learned — I really don’t like Gaea’s Revenge. Pretty much anything I could Natural Order for is better, even Kalonian Behemoth. The five toughness means Gaea’s Revenge can be chumped by a couple weenies and die.

The only way I could make Progenitus work in the deck would be to change it too much, and then it still dies to Wrath, sacrifice effects, Perish,
etc. It creates more problems than it solves.

I was questioned about the use of Primeval Titans in the deck, and I have to say, I love them. Going and getting more Wastelands or getting a Cradle
is huge. Cradle is key to the deck. It’s also easy to get to six mana a lot of the time, and he comes out faster than the other guys and makes it possible to cast the bigger beats.

Woodfall Primus is expensive but very cool. I loves destroying me some permanents.

Spike Feeders — I didn’t miss them.

Spike Weavers — Definitely.

Verdant Force — Definitely.

Natural Order — Obviously.

Mana Elves — Yeah, can’t get around it.

Overrun — Never played one. Possibly not in this format but has proved its worth so many times in the past. Giving Verdant Force and Kalonian Behemoth trample and +3/+3 is game-winning. Maybe I should side them out for Heartwood Storytellers, leaving all of four spells in my deck. Or maybe add in the Masticores I just found in my box making the deck even more like Mike Turian version that took fifth at 2001 Nationals. I hear
that guy’s pretty smart.

Viridian Zealot — Proved his worth time and time again.

Acidic Slime — Not sure. Woodfall Primus and Zealot handle most of the same things, but this is a nice five-drop when you can’t get mana enough to cast the Primus. It combines well with Wasteland as well.

Where to go from here? I’m not sure. With tournaments nearly every day, I’ll be exploring whichever store is running Legacy or Standard
on a day when I have time to play in it. So far, the people at Evolution couldn’t have been a better group of guys, and the guys behind the counter
match them in friendliness and understanding. I’ll be curious how my experience is at Metropolis when I finally play there.

Secret Force might need some more tuning, and I’m anxious to try a big black discard deck at my next Legacy tournament. I have most of the
cards I need already.

What I really should be doing is reading everything I can get my hands on about Sealed Scars of Mirrodin for the PTQs going on now. Sadly, I’ve always been bad at Sealed but would like to go to another Pro Tour before I die of old age.

Good luck and have fun.
Jamie C. Wakefield

www.JamieWakefield.com