Worlds has come and gone, and I had a blast. As a Niners fan, going to San Francisco had extra value besides the obvious battle in the final Worlds for us average folk. Wizards has done it again, and the announcement of no more Worlds has added fuel to the fire of player disenfranchisement from the world’s most popular trading card game. How many times can Wizards skim the fat from player rewards before we say enough is enough? The answer is infinite, because the game is just too damn fun! I have saddened a few friends and readers when I talk to them live or on Twitter about making my long distance tournament retirement, but I will always play Magic and give you guys my opinion on pressing formats.
Worlds this year was fantastic. I ended 8-4 after Day 2 with Top 8 in mind going into the third day. That is the same exact record I had the last time I was at Worlds, when I achieved 9th place, but this year I had a great feeling about my chances coming in. The bad news was that I had an untested Modern deck and struggled with mistakes revolving around Gifts Ungiven and tricky decisions with damage management, so I fell to a record of 10-6 with two rounds to go. I checked the pairings board and saw I was paired against my buddy David Ochoa, so I conceded to help him on his way up the pro ladder, ending my run at Worlds officially.
I wasn’t too upset though, because there are a few noteworthy experiences that I am dying to tell you guys about.
Shaheen’s Top 3 World 2011 Experiences
#3 — The Last Worlds
The privatization of Pro Tours and the end of Worlds is a travesty to the game of Magic. This loss is not bad news for Pros, midrange fellas like me, or the average FNMer…it is bad for all of us. Worlds had over a thousand people coming and going, playing side events and rubbing elbows with players they have read about on coverage, and that kind of experience is one in a million. Magic falls into the sport category more than a hobby when it comes to the excitement in competition and the celebrity effect players get from high tournament finishes.
I got a chance to talk to a bunch of people, and this topic came up more than once. I had a hard time figuring out exactly why privatizing the Pro Tour and eliminating Worlds helps the players and not just Wizards of the Coast. Knowing this was the last Worlds I would attend, I decided to absorb it more than any other Pro Tour I’ve been to. I played in the side events, team drafted with a few of the best players, met a ton of new people, and made my presence known around the tournament site.
The diverse population of Worlds and the representatives from all these different countries makes Magic a special game. I wore a “Save Worlds” sticker and noticed a ton of other players in the main events and side event area representing their opinion on the elimination of the World Championship.
I truly believe that if we as a population continue to voice our disdain with the way Wizards is attacking and dismantling a system that has already been proven both effective and popular, they will have to halt their march. I personally am writing a lengthy letter that I hope will get read—you too can help keep the Pro Tours public and restore Worlds.
#2 — Anton Jonsson and a father with his kids
I play and I write to be noticed in the world of magicians. There is nothing more satisfying to hear than praise and even criticism about my writing and deckbuilding. In Round 14, I got paired against Anton Jonsson. Of course, I’m nervous when I see my name paired against a Hall of Famer, but I got my game face on and prepared to battle the powerful planeswalker. Armed with the forces of the Urzatron I introduce myself, shake hands, and shuffle up. We then get to talking throughout the entire match and he mentions that he reads my articles.
…Really? You read my articles?
Anton proceeds to tell me that he enjoys the articles and gives me a few examples to prove that he isn’t just buttering me up in order to create bad play on my side of the battlefield. I do end up losing the match, but his acknowledgment of my writing and the compliments that followed made my Worlds and justified what I do here at StarCityGames.com. Other pros have made nice comments, and I get a one-liner flame from Adam Chambers here and there when I publish my secrets to Limited victory, but an overseas Hall of Famer was a nice add to the “who reads this stuff” column.
The other short story of Worlds that made my top 3 involved a father with his kids. While waiting in line to answer a few judge questions for some sweet foils, the man in front of me gives an epic “Expensive Sorcery Master” shout-out, and I turn and laugh a bit. He tells me he’s a fan, and his 11 year-old son also reads my work and plays very competitively in any tournament he can enter.
These guys made me feel appreciated in the same way that Anton did during the Worlds main event. The moral of the story is, thanks for reading and commenting, either here or in-person. As long as you guys still enjoy my work, I will keep writing.
#1 Bump, Bump Bump it up!
Bump in the Night is the most underrated card in Innistrad Limited. The card is fantastic and has led me to an unlimited supply of packs on Magic Online while helping me achieve similar success in the real world. Does this mean I force Bump decks all the time? No way, but the card is powerful and I will give a more detailed explanation why.
In Limited, you fall short sometimes in the aggressive decks. That is the reality behind any aggressive forty-card deck you build, and the reward for attempting this strategy is you can often simply crush your opponent with a few well-timed early drops. Sadly, some starts leave your opponent at five life, and they stabilize.
Have no fear, aggressive Limited player: Bump in the Night is here to save the day!
Bump gives aggressive decks incredible reach, with almost a third of the opponent’s life gone in the Bump of an eye. Bump in the Night is not Lava Spike—it is much, much better, especially in this format. Before I went on my Bump crusade, I was able to take a decent card and wheel the mini-fireball, but now the secret is out and I’ve been forced to take them slightly higher to guarantee my aggressive deck has the reach to finish off opponents. More times than not, I get into a situation where I suicide my creatures into theirs, get a damage or two in here and there, then Bump then out of the game.
This strategy has won me games where I am staring down a Bloodline Keeper or Geist-Honored Monk with a ton of bomb backup. People simply don’t play around it, and they will gladly let their life drop low as long as their blocks are optimal and you lose cards while they don’t. This is because players, me included, are trained to play a certain way that yields the best combat results in Limited, but you can use that to your advantage when you are holding a Bump or two in your hand.
What if my deck isn’t aggressive at all…is Bump still good?
Hell yeah it is! I went 5-1 at Worlds in Innistrad Limited and 3-0 with a Bump control deck. Please listen to Rich Hagon and Brian David-Marshall Day 2 Wrap Up from the Worlds tournament website. In the first minute, he mentions my Limited deck and how I traveled around the tournament site preaching the power of Bump prior to and after my 3-0 (6-0 in games) victory in the main event. My Grixis Limited deck had five Bump in the Night!
FIVE BUMP IN THE NIGHTS???
You heard me correctly, my friends. Here is the Limited list for your viewing pleasure. Of course I saved it!
Creatures (12)
- 1 Battleground Geist
- 1 Stitcher's Apprentice
- 2 Vampire Interloper
- 1 Morkrut Banshee
- 1 Falkenrath Noble
- 1 Skaab Goliath
- 1 Abattoir Ghoul
- 1 Armored Skaab
- 2 Selhoff Occultist
- 1 Delver of Secrets
Lands (16)
Spells (12)
There are a few things I want to point out about the list. The first is that it has no rares, and that no rares in a 3-0 deck is unusual for a 4-3-2-2, let alone for a 6-0 in games at Worlds. The victories were definitely not from extremely awesome play skill, but from having a plan when drafting and having a plan each game.
Another thing I want to point out about the deck is that it is graveyard-based. An opening hand with no Bumps was almost unbeatable, as I would start out with a Vampire Interloper or random dork to get a few hits in. Geistflame is obviously insane, and that helped keep early creatures at bay in order for me to get a few points of damage in. Once my inferior creatures did their deed, I would produce card advantage with Alchemy—I wish I had a few Think Twice to go with them.
My finals opponent couldn’t help but laugh when he saw a Forbidden Alchemy result in 3 Bump in the Nights landing in the graveyard. When I untapped, I bumped him from my hand and flashed back one out of the graveyard. He did a few things, and his deck was much better than mine—he dropped a Sturmgeist and used Sever the Bloodline on my Zombie tokens…then he got Bumped again and again. My games in the previous rounds ended similarly, and rarely did I kill my opponent with combat damage. I know many will doubt my logic and think my experiences were a thing of chance, but I stand by the Bump until Innistrad draft is no more. I do warn you guys though—once you Bump, it’s hard to pass them and try a different type of deck.
I do feel that I am a better at Limited nowadays than Constructed. Whenever Kenji tags me on twitter or we talk online, he calls me Master San referring to my Limited play. He’s a funny guy and I think he is slightly sarcastic when he says that, but I do feel that my play with a forty-card deck is as good as it’s going to get. That being said, let’s shift into Standard.
Here is the list I played for the Standard portion of Worlds this year.
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (25)
Spells (21)
The deck performed well in Standard, even though I finished 3-3 after Day 1. I played against G/W Tokens four times and I’ve never been one to make excuses for losses, but I will defend them for a change. Going second in Magic sucks, period. You are behind and it makes certain hands not keepable, which resulted in two of my three losses to those G/W Tokens decks.
On the draw, I saw a turn 2 Mirran Crusader seven times, a play made more painful due to my losing the die roll in all six rounds on the first day. Staring at Mana Leak and seeing that pro: black Crusader land creates a sad emotion that is hard to kick. The games where I went first, I smashed the Tokens deck—even against those turn 2 Mirran Crusader starts, I was able to almost gain a hold in the game, but finished short twice.
My official results in Standard were 2-2 vs. GW, 0-1 against Tezzeret Aggro, and 1-0 against U/B Control. I felt that winning the die roll or making a few changes would result in an easy 4-0 sweep of the G/W Tokens decks. The only changes I have made since are cutting two Tezzeret’s Gambits for two Ponder, two Jace, Memory Adept for two Mimic Vat, and a Flashfreeze for one Despise.
Tezzeret’s Gambit was terrible, and my logic behind it turned out to be flawed. I was so scared of being on the draw against aggressive decks with Ratchet Bomb, and I wanted to build card advantage against control—I thought Gambit was the solution. It turned out to be an expensive sorcery that not even I would give the go-ahead to play. Ponder made the cut over Tezzeret’s Gambit for a couple reasons. The main reason is that it helps you hit land drops early in the game. Land drops are important for the deck, but I think twenty-six is too many, so I’m going to stick with the twenty-five plan. Ponder is also decent in the late game, but in both scenarios I don’t want multiples. Two has been a real nice number in most matchups.
Mimic Vat has been cut and added a few times, but it’s here to stay now. The popularity of Snapcaster-based decks has given me enough motivation to dedicate a few sideboard slots to the powerful reanimation artifact. Not only does it protect your creatures, but it gives your opponent the spooks before he or she plays a creature. At any point it can be a blowout, and it creates a permanent problem for them. I don’t think it is much better than Jace, Memory Adept, but it costs two less which is the reason it replaced the powerful planeswalker in the sideboard.
Despise is fantastic against G/W, U/W Humans, and especially Wolf Run Ramp. Even a miss gives enough information to improve your plays throughout the game. I do miss Inquisition a great deal though…
 I recently built this entire deck on MODO (borrowing a couple Lilianas from Larry Swasey, who also writes for SCG) and have played a ton of games in the two-man queue. This is such an awesome way to test against real decks and great players. So far, I have played over ten pros and 90% of the decks are real, competitive Standard builds. The record for Tezzeret in this queue is astonishingly high and I couldn’t be more confident going into the StarCityGames.com Invitational coming up in Charlotte. The hardest matchup I have run into is Wolf Run Ramp, but after boarding it isn’t too shabby. Let’s go over some of the matchups quickly!
Wolf Run Ramp:
Board out the artifacts! After game 1 you know they are going to bring in the Grudges, so we take out Batterskull and Ratchet Bomb. Game 2 is all about Despise, countermagic, and slamming a win condition. Cards like Mimic Vat and Batterskull are pretty good against the deck but their survivability is zilch…take ’em out!
The reason why this deck is tough to beat is because of the random power level it has. Some games they beat themselves with a ton of ramp into their one Titan or Zenith, we stop it, and the game ends. Other games, however, they have five Titans in their hand after hitting their sixth mana source and we have no shot. It truly comes down to how we manage our limited answers against their unknown number of threats. For this matchup and that reason, I have raised the amount of Despises in the sideboard to three. That, coupled with Liliana, gives us the ability to drop their access to ramp or the threats themselves. Either way, that is a win. Play this matchup tight and carefully or you’ll end up on the losing side.
GW Tokens:
The matchup is still fantastic, but I suggest winning the die roll for extra support. I refuse to buy into the Gut Shot plan or various other narrow answers to mana producers. Even if they turn 2 Mirran Crusader, you have ways to stabilize. It usually involves a Black Sun’s Zenith, Solemn Simulacrum chumps, and/or a Ratchet Bomb for three with other support. Those are answers for being on the draw scenarios game 1, but in game 2 you have Despise and that’s the farthest this mage is going to go on one-mana answers.
The deck has a great deal of must-answer threats, ranging from Hero of Bladehold to their army of planeswalkers. Game 1 tends to be 40-50% because of the lack of hand knowledge, but with Despise and another Wrath effect, the game gets much better. This deck tends to be a popular choice and if it would make you feel more comfortable then I am not against a fourth Ratchet Bomb in the board. Playing the matchup a little loose and taking a little extra damage here and there to gain card advantage with mass removal is the key to this matchup.
Red Deck:
I beat the crap out of this deck over and over and over online and in real life. There is no Goblin Guide, and Shrine doesn’t beat us by itself anymore. I lose a game or two to super-aggressive starts, but maindeck Batterskull, ramped Titan or Sphinx, well-timed Black Sun’s Zenith, Ratchet Bomb, a couple spot removal spells, or simply being on the play results in a victory. G/W Tokens can be tough, Wolf Run Ramp is tough, but this deck is not tough. Rest in peace Goblin Guide, and the red deck you rode in on!
Control Mirror/Snapcaster Shenanigans:
This matchup has been decent for me, but I’d call it 60/40 in our favor. The Ali Aintrazi Solar Flare deck is the toughest of the variants because of the many Unburial Rites, but the versions that don’t run five or six devastating big guys and all that reanimation are much easier. Play the matchup slow, hitting land drops, and playing things with three mana open is the goal.
If you are struggling with mana then you go to Plan B where you run out Solemns, Batterskulls, Lilianas, and Tezzerets to be countered while focusing on a game plan to resolve one of the win conditions. This general plan is how I play the matchups, and it has worked out very well as I usually stick one of my bombs while they are cantripping their little hearts out. After boarding Vat, Despise, and Spellbomb in, you can keep them in line even better. This matchup has a huge focus on aggressive play when the land is thin, safer play with a ton of land, and not getting beat by Mana Leak.
I can obviously spend forever on each matchup, but these are more general tips to help you pilot Tezzeret Control. The deck can be tricky to play, but once you get the hang of it the deck will flow nicely. I didn’t want to talk about Modern in this article because my performance wasn’t the best with Tron, and a ton of changes need to be made and then tested. I hope you all enjoyed the article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and gained a little knowledge on Tezzeret Control.
I also want to mention how important it is for all of us to speak out and question decisions made by Wizards. “The customer is always right” doesn’t apply and is merely a figure of speech, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t be right some of the time. Wizards is way in the wrong here and I hope we as a community can rally together and help save Worlds, as well as make it known that we are with them every step of the way when huge changes are made. They need to realize that their main product purchaser may be FNMers, but they care about the Pro Tour just like a Kibler or a Nelson.
I can’t end the article without one more soapbox shout-out.
Play Bump in the Night in Limited!!!
Thanks for reading guys, and see you all next time.
Shaheen
@shaheenmtg — Twitter