GenCon is always a hard weekend to evaluate. It isn’t just a tournament, like a Grand Prix or a PTQ. Admittedly, most tournaments are about the experience and the tournament both, for all but the most hardcore of pros. In that regard, GenCon offers an experience that’s rather difficult to match. Unlike most Grand Prix tournaments, which are vaguely in the geographic area they’re named for, GenCon is right in the heart of Indianapolis, with plenty of great places to eat, drink, and hang out. The card gaming room never closes, and the collection of dealers is unmatched. There’s probably no better place to trade, buy, and sell hard-to-find items, and get your Magic fix.
In the weeks leading up to GenCon, I played almost no Magic. Last year, I did a decent amount of testing for Vintage and Legacy Champs, but made poor deck choices. For Block Champs, I played Esper Aggro, which was a very fun and powerful deck but ultimately one that wasn’t able to beat prepared Cascade Control players. In Legacy Champs, I played a Painter deck that was vulnerable to Zoo and Canadian Thresh, two decks that happened to be popular at the time. For Vintage Champs, I didn’t yet own a set of power and chose to play Dredge, which was fine; my surface level failure there was some bad luck in game 2 of the first round followed by a poor match-up. More importantly, I chose a version of Dredge (Fatestitcher) that was exceptionally good against Mana Drain decks, but was a bad choice for last year’s Champs, where Workshops and other Wasteland (read: budget) decks were quite popular.
For GenCon this year, I tried to put considerably more time into determining the best decks for each of the Champs tournaments. When I try to measure this year’s GenCon, that piece was relatively successful, although unfortunately, with no chance to play-test I didn’t actually follow my own advice. I’ve been starting down something of a perfect storm of late in terms of personal and professional life annihilating my Magic time, and I went almost three full weeks before GenCon without touching a Magic card, with predictable results.
Block Champs
Headed into Block Champs, I suspected that the two favorite decks would be Comet Storm and Monument Green. The Comet Storm deck performed well at the Pro Tour and won the tournament, and continued to win on MTGO in subsequent Zen events. It was sure to be a popular choice, as it is a deck that rewards player skill and format experience. Any deck with that amount of lands, card draw, and with four Jace is going to be a deck that is consistent and loaded with powerful spells.
The Monument Green deck also performed well at the Pro Tour and has done reasonably well on MTGO events, although the format definitely adopted a similar love of Cunning Sparkmage and Basilisk Collar that we see in Standard when it becomes overly reliant on X/1 mana-producing creatures. In addition, Zvi wrote an article for this website all about playing the deck, including theory and sideboard strategy. That information is extremely valuable when choosing a deck for a format one hasn’t played before. It was one of the selling points for me.
The other deck I strongly considered, and figured would be popular, was Devastating Red. As the price of Kargan Dragonlord has dropped, this has become one of the cheapest decks in Standard and Block; additionally, this deck is almost functionally identical to its Standard equivalent, losing only four Bolts from the main and some sideboard options.
Ultimately, I built Devastating Red and Monument Green. A few games with the Green deck sold me on it. It was relatively straightforward to play, consistent, and powerful. I loaned my Red deck to Craig Berry, and included Forked Bolts in the main to help battle opposing Green decks (as well leaving those Kitesails in the sideboard). In the Green deck, I figured the mirror was a likely match-up so I included 2 Avenger of Zendikar in the 75 and an extra Naturalize, in place the Preservers or Lodestone Golems I saw from the Pro Tour and MTGO.
I think both plans were pretty reasonable, but my Block Champs tournament was pretty short. I lost the opening round to a Blue/Black midrange Vampires deck with a ton of removal post-board, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Abyssal Persecutor, and Vampire Hexmage. I think pre-board was heavily in my favor but games 2 and 3 were extremely difficult to win. I then beat the mirror and Mono-Red before losing badly to the mirror in round 4. I think I could have won game 2 had a played Monument out a turn sooner, provided my opponent didn’t have Naturalize, but I decided to wait one more turn, and my opponent had the Ascension to blow me out. Craig Berry, playing my Red deck, was in contention for Top 8 before losing the win-and-in round against GenCon Champion of the Universe 2010, Owen Turtenwald, who I believe was also on Red.
All in all, not a bad job of trying to understand a format I hadn’t played just based on results, but in hindsight I might’ve played the Red deck instead simply because of familiarity. That said, the Green deck ultimately won the tournament.
What’s next for Block? Irrelevancy. While I’ll discuss the future of the other Champs formats, this is basically the end of Zen Block outside of MTGO. With no real need to analyze the format, we’ll move on.
Wait, look, a soapbox!
I just want to take one more opportunity to appeal to the powers that be to bring back Block Constructed as a PTQ format. Block Constructed fulfills a number of interesting roles. It gives cards that otherwise would see limited or no play in Constructed tournaments to have a moment to shine. A few examples would be River Kelpie, Glaze Fiend, Beastmaster Ascension, Comet Storm, Furystoke Giant, Mirrorweave, Stillmoon Cavalier, and Puppeteer Clique. These are all very cool cards, many of which were on the border of playability in Standard but generally either were sideboard cards or just quite not good enough to be top-tier.
Playing Block Constructed is a great way to really learn and experience a block, creating a lasting memorial for it and hopefully some nostalgia. These are things that tie people to playing Magic.
I talked to a lot of people about card values on the weekend, and it should be obvious that there are a lot of folks unhappy with the fact that most rares are worth less than a dollar while some Mythics hold all the value. It makes trading for the cards people want, like Primeval Titan, Grave Titan, Jace, Gideon, Elspeth, and Vengevine quite difficult, as people generally don’t want to swap those cards unless they’re getting similar value Mythics in return. Thankfully, the enemy fetches are balancing things to an extent, but without something similar in new Mirrodin, things could get ugly.
Still, I’m not convinced that Mythics alone are the cause of this problem. The lack of a Block Constructed season may also play a role. If you think back to Lorwyn Block Constructed, the most valuable cards were those that also saw play in Standard: Mutavault, Bitterblossom, Thoughtseize, Cryptic Command, and so on. However, there were a number of cards with significant value that came specifically from Block, including Mirrorweave being a $10 card, Stillmoon Cavalier pushing $15, and Puppeteer Clique at $5, among other cards with value from Block (like Harrowed Burial and Archon of Justice). Without a Block Constructed season, a number of rares and uncommon that would otherwise see Constructed play are instead relegated to the dollar box for all eternity. Those cards have value that can be leveraged and would probably result in a higher percentage of playable and relevant rares than what we’re seeing now.
Of course, there are plenty of other reason for the change in card prices (demand, availability, cross-format card design, inflation, and on and on). There are also potential drawbacks to Block seasons, in that the cards most relevant in Block and Standard see huge price escalation when the formats overlap (such as we saw with Jitte, Tarmogoyf, and Mutavault), and it is possible that fetches would be much more expensive than they are now if they were required for another format.
Block also serves as a good entry point into Constructed for new players, or players investigating the leap from casual into competitive. Beyond learning the basic rules of the game, players have to soak in and absorb cards and common interactions between them, and Block provides an opportunity for people to do so with a more reasonable time investment.
I know the current 3 Pro Tour plus Worlds set-up , with Draft inserted into all the Pro Tours, means that we’re likely to be locked into the Standard / Extended / Sealed PTQ rotation for the foreseeable future. It could very well be the best set-up for the game, based on how popular Magic is right now, although I think it is incorrect to assume that everything Wizards does is automatically right simply because the game is doing well. Regardless, I hold out hope that someday we’ll see another Block PTQ season, or even better, the return of some sort of team format (by which I do not mean 2HG).
Vintage Champs
The Top 8 I expected for Vintage Champs was: 3 MUD, 1 Dredge, 3 Drain, 1 Tendrils. On the Mana Drain, I said that if enough people played MUD, it would likely flood the Top 8 as it is a high-risk, high-reward type of deck that can easily smash through a field if people are winning die rolls and drawing hot.
The actual Top 8 ended up being: 3 MUD, 2 Drain, 2 Tendrils, 1 Dark Times.
I was right on MUD, although one of the three was NYSE Espresso Stax and not Aggro MUD. Big congrats to Vinnie Forino for representing NYSE.
I expected one Fish deck to make Top 8, but it doesn’t surprise me to see Dark Times there instead. I’ve written about this deck a number of times, and the reality is that the current format does not have many answers for Marit Lage. Repeal, Echoing Truth, and the like have largely receded from our tournament landscape, and Marit Lage cannot be defeated by Duplicant; with resistance to Oath and Time Vault and a clock that can be explosive at times, Dark Times is a real deck. Multiple opponents lost to Ryan Glackin on the second turn of the game in his march to the Top 8. This was his first time playing the deck. Congrats also to Ryan for his steadily improving Vintage results and for representing Blue Bell.
Seeing no Oath in this Top 8 didn’t really surprise me. As I had hinted last week, the tide in Oath versus Tezzeret has tilted back in favor of Tezzeret. The use of Thoughtseize, Trygon Predator, and Nature’s Claim gives Tezzeret immediate answers to Oath, and the use of so many Jace and Dark Confidant means that Tezz has the superior draw capability and consistency — no mulligans from having creatures in hand.
I knew all of this coming in, but I wasn’t sure how many people would adopt this Tezzeret list, or how bad the match-up was. Without any ability to test, I ran Oath of Druids and hoped for the best. Oath still has more capability for broken opening turns, and the match-up isn’t a blow-out, but I did lose my second round to this style of Tezz deck before getting knocked out by Worker / Staff combo. If I had time to test in the lead-up to Vintage Champs I would’ve run this style of Tezzeret. Looking to the future, Oath is going to have to adapt again. Terastodon Oath has had a good run and the deck is still perfectly capable of winning tournaments; it has explosive capabilities that I think Trygon Tezz lacks, but it can be a very high-variance deck compared to most other big blue decks.
As far as the exact list that was in the finals, I’m not convinced it cannot be further optimized. Keep in mind the quality of the players when trying to decide if that version of the deck is definitive.
There are plenty of ways Oath can adjust, and will need to adjust. A return to Thoughtseize might be necessary, as it can preemptively deal with Bob, Jace, Trygon, and Nature’s Claim. In fact, Spell Pierce, which has become so popular in most Oath lists, is now creating problems for Oath pilots who helplessly watch Lodestone Golem, Dark Confidant, Trygon Predator, and Duplicant resolve. An option for Oath that I’ve been considering even more strongly after talking to Andy Probasco would be one more invested in Show and Tell as a main-deck or sideboard plan, and possibly one that uses Ancient Tomb for acceleration and to push spells through against MUD. Regardless, these decks need to be mindful of Jace and the problem and the fact that Jace can easily handle most Show and Tell targets. Although I’m not sure his reasons were correct at the time, Stephen Menendian may have been far ahead of the curve when he played Lightning Bolt in Tezzeret some time ago, as that card answers many of the problem cards we’re trying to beat. Bolt might actually make sense in Oath.
It might also be that other decks react to Trygon Tezz and force it to change to be less hostile to Oath; there were multiple players with Oath in the Top 16 or playing for Top 8.
Aggro versions of MUD were relatively popular at Champs and I see no reason that won’t continue, although the use of maindeck Trygon Predator out of Tezz decks may require some adjustments in future MUD lists. Triskelion, which answers Dark Confidant and opposing Lodestone Golems, and potentially can stop Jace, is a reasonable answer to Trygon Predator as well.
Dredge did not place the Top 8 of this event, although at least one Dredge player (Mark Hornung) was playing for Top 8. I actually did not see as much Dredge in the main event as I expected. If I had my way, I would’ve flooded this tournament with strong players rocking Dredge to force the archetype through to the win. Maybe next year. There was a 24-person tournament on midnight on Saturday, and Mark split the finals of that event, blowing through a who’s who of Vintage on the way. His finals opponent was playing Two-Card Monte, interestingly enough.
Finally, the Tendrils decks, which were unfortunately paired in the Top 8; Storm has had a slow but steady resurgence of late, with Tendrils and Tezzeret decks wedging their way back into a format that had become highly focused on Dredge, MUD, Fish, and Oath. What we’d seen in many metagames was that Dredge, MUD, and Fish attacked Tezzeret, but were vulnerable to Terastodon Oath. As those decks have adjusted to try to beat Oath, Tezzeret and Tendrils are pushing their way back in. For the long-time or “traditional” Vintage player this should be welcome news, as these decks are more reminiscent of Vintage decks of previous metagames.
On the horizon are a number of large Vintage events: the Grudge match Lotus tournament in Hadley, an NYSE, a Blue Bell Gameday, and a TMD Open are all happening in August and September. I have high hopes that the doldrums that many Vintage players have felt the last year or two may start to fade, and if New Mirrodin has as many Vintage playables as the last one, the format is going to get very exciting, very quickly.
Legacy Champs
By the time Saturday rolled around, I decided to play a Storm deck with Dark Confidants, just to have some fun. All I saw in the morning was table after table of Goblins and Zoo, as people were clearly gunning for Merfolk. I had hoped to level those people by playing Storm.
Unfortunately, just as many people were playing Merfolk itself, and why wouldn’t they? Merfolk is still a much more reasonable choice than most people admit. A lot of the decks that want to cheat creatures into play to beat Zoo and bypass Counterbalance are vulnerable to Merfolk decks like Saito’s. Saito used Engineered Plague to fight Goblins (among others), but Goblins has plenty of weapons of its own, and also has resistance to the creature-cheating strategies that are good against Zoo. I wasn’t really surprised to see Goblins in the finals, although seeing it lose to Belcher was surprising (but not impossible, obviously).
I started out playing against Merfolk, losing a close 3-game match. I won game 2 on the second turn of the game, but in game 3 my Dark Confidants turned against me, revealing my only Ad Nauseam and only Tendrils of Agony, leaving me dead.
I defeated Stax round 2, sort of. My opponent got a game loss for deck registration error, so I was up 1-0. Game 2, he opened on Chalice on 1. I played a Dark Confidant, which ate an Oblivion Ring. This was followed with a Chalice on 2 and a Trinisphere, so I scooped. In game 3, I used Duress to remove a Rule of Law to set up a turn 2 win, but my opponent ripped another Rule of Law. I used Krosan Grip to take that one out, but my opponent set up Crucible and Smokestack in the meantime, facing almost certain defeat, my opponent played Armageddon one turn early, leaving himself with just Crucible of Worlds and Smokestack on 1. We started the game over again at this point, and because I played out a Bob, I got ahead and won.
Round 3, I played against a Sneak Attack deck similar to the one from GP: Columbus. In game 1, my opponent had no Force of Will and I killed him on turn 2. He then brought in Trinisphere out of the board, and that created huge problems for me; while I tried to battle through Trinisphere, Sneak Attack itself doesn’t leave you much time when at any moment you’re going to stare down 15 damage and lose your board. Game 2 wasn’t really close because I wasn’t expecting Trinisphere on turn 2. Game 3 was closer. I had a decent read and was strongly considering an end-step Krosan Grip on Sensei’s Divining Top, because I thought my opponent had a Force of Will on the top of his deck. If I did that and drew a mana source, I would win unless he had Daze (or my read was wrong). I didn’t use the Grip, and ended up losing to Force of Will.
As far as where Legacy goes from here, it’s hard to say. The format is extremely open. Survival of the Fittest decks have really impressed me, both the flexible style that is trying to grind you out or nail you with Iona, and the Madness style from the Grand Prix. I like what Doug Linn did with the deck, but I still think further refinements are needed. For example, why is this deck not playing Intuition? It gives you another fast and easy way to bin two Vengevines, as well as tutoring for Survival, Force of Will, or any number of other cards. There’s an even better deck in this style that hasn’t been refined yet, I can almost guarantee it. I can’t wait to see this deck get better.
I will say that the likely push/pull on the format for the next few events is going to be people playing Merfolk, designed to fight against Zoo and Goblins and with natural resistance to combo, big creature decks, and Counterbalance, battling against decks that want to beat Merfolk. Right now, it is really hard to predict anything in Legacy because the format feels completely blown open by the removal of Mystical Tutor from the format. I still really like Thopters with main-deck Ensnaring Bridge, as that card is a blowout against Saito Merfolk.
M11 Limited Melee
Probably my most fun tournament at GenCon was an M11 Limited Melee on Saturday night. I played in it for 6 hours and won two packs of M11 for the two players I killed, so it wasn’t really a profitable six hours, but it sure was fun. 46 players signed up and build decks of M11. We had a range of one player each way and attacked to the left. My deck was reasonably strong in that I had Whispersilk Cloak and Baneslayer Angel, plenty of big Green creatures, and Armored Ascension. I splashed Black to have some removal spells. I set up some defenses, including killing my opponent’s one threatening creature with Doom Blade, and then set about attacking, slaughtering the player to my left with an 11/9 flying, trampling creature. Then I ran into Vengeful Archon. That creature is the boss of this format, because not only is a defense against all but the most insane armies, but it lets you slingshot damage across players to team up and buzz-saw through the table.
In the end, there was a huge bottle-neck that started with me and wrapped around about 8 players. We really never moved; instead we watched as a player set up Ajani and powered up a huge air force capable of killing players in one attack, supplemented by an Archon that was slinging damage over to kill two players a turn. Another player also smashed his way through seven or so players to my right, but ran out of steam (and cards in deck) just before he got to me. He had used Jace to fuel a huge army, but ultimately that did him in. Humorously, it did leave the player to my right at 2 life, so he died to my Blood Tithe. That’s how I won my second pack.
The player to my left with Vengeful Archon refused to attack or slingshot damage for around 20 turns, fearing removal spells from the woman to his left. As it turned out, she had no answer to the Archon. We found this out too late; as her pool was weak, when we took her out, the next player did have removal spells to kill the Archon. Had I been able to push things in motion earlier, I probably would have made top 4 where the prizes began. Instead I died in sixth, with him dying in fifth.
GenCon was a lot of fun, albeit a lot less profitable than I had hoped. I didn’t get to talk to or meet all the folks that I wanted to, but I did have a great time with some old friends and enjoyed the chance to make some new ones, and put faces to names from the internet.
Last year, I didn’t do a good enough job predicting the fields for the Champs tournaments. This year, I didn’t have time to test the decks I thought were correct. Hopefully next year I can put the two together and have a more profitable trip. Even if I can’t, I still look forward to next year, because in the end, this was a fantastic vacation and was exactly what I needed.
Matt Elias
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