Let me introduce myself. My name is Steve Kaufmann. You may already know me from such tournaments as the StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Charlotte Swiss coverage and the StarCityGames.com Open Series: Charlotte Top 8 and Top 4 coverage.
Because, honestly, that’s all I’ve done in Magic.
I can’t begin to tell you how good it feels to finally win. To finally not have to play round 9 of an all-day tournament just to hopefully get my money back so I can convince myself I haven’t been wasting the last thirteen years of my life trying to get good at this game feels pretty good. It’s nice to finally do something that makes playing Magic worth it and be in the place of the people I’ve envisioned being in the position of.
I’m not really good at writing reports—hell, I’m not really good at reading reports because they come off formulaic and boring. So I’d like to try to begin my journey into writing with an attempt at something different. I had the realization that piloting Gruul isn’t simple. You’re introduced to many hard combat situations, usually involving multiple Boros Reckoners on each side of the table or when to alpha strike against another aggressive deck. You have to decide when you’re playing to win and when you’re playing not to lose. You have to know when your opponent is feeling like you’re weak and how to bait them into thinking that they’re right.
For example, playing your land after you attack in the early turns, making them feel safe that they’re actually taking damage, albeit in smaller amounts, but isn’t that what aggro decks do?
They add it up!
They take you down!
THEY MAKE YOU MEAT.
Creatures (33)
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
- 4 Hellrider
- 4 Flinthoof Boar
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
- 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
- 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
- 4 Firefist Striker
- 4 Boros Reckoner
- 1 Pyrewild Shaman
Lands (20)
Spells (7)
Sideboard
With that realization, explaining the intricacies involved or little nuances would be even more treacherous for a rookie like myself.
I played in the moment. I played on instinct.
So I go back to the source, the essence of my victory.
Gruul!
I will present the actual report with "cave paintings" and bad Gruul sentences. Like a real Gruul warrior would do. So let’s get started!
Here’s how round 1 went for me.
Here’s how after losing round 1 went:
After the loss, I had time to think and to try to pull myself together. Here’s a picture of that.
ME NO LIKE LOSING, ME NO DERP! ME SMASH CUZ MAKE FUN GOOD TIME! ME SURPRISED ME SPELLING THIS GOOD! MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT!
HERE WHAT HAPPEN AFTER NO WIN!
ME NO LOSE AGAIN! WIN EIGHT IN ROW! NO DRAW! ONLY SMASH! ME BEAT DUMB WOLF! ME CRUSH STUPID ANGEL! ME ASPLODE BEAST OF YOU NOT DIE QUICK ENUFF!
AFTER MANY DEAD! ME AT TOP! GO STEVE! GO ME! GO ME STEVE!
WE PLAY ONE MORE! YOUNG BOY TRY TO SPEAK OF "SHAKE SPEAR!" ME INTRODUCE HIM TO "THROW AXE" AND "STAB MUCH." HE TRY TO ATTACK BUT LIKE TOO MANY BOOK! HIM NEED TV, MUCH FASTER.
Non-Gruul side note: Ben Ragan was a genuine pleasure to play against and probably one of the nicest young men I’ve ever met. He was more mature and level headed than most of the people in that room, and I’m glad we got to play some really fun games.
AFTER MEAT N SLEEP ME WAKE UP TO FIGHT MORE. ME BURN DEAD! ME THEN BURN LIVE MAN TIL HE DEAD. THEY GIVE ME BIG CUP, I LESS THIRSTY.
Sorry I don’t have a more in-depth write up of the games, but I really don’t remember too much. I know I was on camera for the semifinals and finals, so you can watch and dissect any of my plays here if you really want to. I only really remember one of the plays, and it was bad by both parties.
It was game 2 of the finals, and Tyler had just played a Garruk, Primal Hunter and made a Beast while I had a Boros Reckoner out. My brain did the math of playing Hellrider, attacking Garruk with only the Boros Reckoner, using Hellrider’s trigger to deal damage to Garruk, then having the fifth mana open to either kill his token via first strike with Boros Reckoner or kill his Garruk if he didn’t block.
After going through that entire thought process, for reasons I cannot explain to you in this report as I have no clue as to why, I just attacked. I panicked a little bit after but looked back at my hand and saw Ghor-Clan Rampager. Looking back at it helped me keep my confidence in the attack, and I hoped my body language showed the same or maybe I flinched longer than I realized and Tyler might have mistaken it for a bluff. For whatever reason, Tyler blocked instead of letting his Garruk fall to one loyalty and keeping the Beast token, and as soon as he let go of the token, I showed him the Rampager. It turned out better than I expected as I bloodrushed through everything and hit him for three. That’s really the only play I can remember in depth, and it’s nothing to brag about as you can tell.
If you’re wondering more about the deck and the time I spent tuning it and testing it, it was close to none. I hate to be one of those guys that say, "Hey, they handed me this and I won!" but that’s kind of how it happened, which should really speak to the power of R/G Aggro. I had a Gruul state of mind on Friday, and I just wanted to show up to fight and to keep the thinking to a minimum, so I asked my friend Matt Keene if he had it available and any changes he would make from the list he played in Montreal.
He sent me his list on Facebook, and we talked about Firefist Striker (if I can Burning-Tree Emissary into it and have played a one-drop or next turn haste up a Flinthoof Boar, I can get past Boros Reckoner), the idea of trying Pyrewild Shaman (it’s like a Hammer of Bogardan with legs), some of the sideboard options, why he didn’t like Rancor (too much instant speed removal) or Ash Zealot (can’t Burning Tree Emissary into it and that card is the reason you’re playing the deck), and why playing Pillar of Flame in the maindeck is a good idea:
As I said, I showed up to Charlotte to fight and to not think too much. The thinking part didn’t pan out because I thought a dumb aggro deck would let me take the day off but I just kept running into these overly complex combat situations where if I did the math wrong for the next two turns I would flat out lose. I learned a ton about aggressive decks last weekend like knowing when to play to win and knowing when to play not to lose (which are two entirely different things), how important it is to read your opponent, making sure to utilize what you have on board to deal the most damage possible, how to play my removal correctly, and how to mulligan aggressively.
The showing up to fight part did pan out though. I literally had my back against the wall after round 1. I lost against Naya Midrange and fought my way to a win seven times in a row with the goal of drawing into Top 8, only to have to play again due to getting paired down! But I came to fight and fought the entire time, and I finished the Swiss as the top seed after it was done. I kept the momentum going throughout the Top 8, playing against probably the smartest kid in the room, Ben Ragan.
As we played, he started quoting Shakespeare, which really confused me, so I played up the Gruul roots and asked him, "Who’s Shakespeare?" I try to play serious most of the time, but I had to say something to that effect. It’s not every day you get to play against a 14-year-old prodigy who can quote ancient literature from the top of his head while playing an intense game for a large sum of money. Then I ran into Zombies, which was intense, but Matt actually told me the night before, "If Zombies ever has to block, you win." So I put him in positions where he had to block. After that I played against Jund and…well…that’s it, I won.
Some people asked me after I decided on the deck before winning the tournament why R/G? Isn’t Naya Blitz faster? Isn’t’ Jund just more powerful? You’re right on both counts. Jund has the ability to go 3/3 into a 3/3 with hate into a 4/1 haste flying unkillable monster. Naya Blitz has the ability to lay out ten power’s worth of creatures on turn 2, which happened to me during the quarterfinals while I just had a Stromkirk Noble! Here’s where Matt comes back into the picture, as I’d asked him the same question.
He said aggro is more about consistency than being fast or powerful. The most important aspect of playing aggro is making your opponent play your game and at your pace. To do that, your deck has to be reliable and threatening at the same time. You don’t want to play Borderland Ranger in an aggressive deck; it shouldn’t be about fixing your mana. It should be about applying pressure every chance you get to maximize the possibility that your opponents make mistakes and therefore maximize your opportunities to capitalize on them. It made sense, so I stuck with it.
As far as changes to the deck going forward, I think you can safely cut Pyrewild Shaman for a fourth Pillar of Flame in the main. If the metagame stays nearly the same, you can cut Skullcrack from the sideboard for +1 Electrickery, +1 Flames of the Firebrand, +1 Volcanic Strength, and +1 Domri Rade. If you see Esper/Turbo Fog Bant come back in force, then just go back to Skullcrack. If Lingering Souls starts popping up again in Reanimator, maybe take out a Pillar of Flame and a Firefist Striker from the main and add two Legion Loyalist. Basically, just adjust it to what changes the popular decks have made to beat you and try to stay one step ahead.
Well, there is not much else to say. I’m honestly still kind of stunned that I won. I’m proud I finally won something big, and it just means so much to me—it’s redeeming. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this semi-Gruul report of how I won the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Charlotte. GO MEAT!