You know that feeling you get when you know you’re making a mistake, but you feel helpless to stop yourself?
For example, have you ever been at the bar and known that this drink, the one you have in your hands, is the one that’s going to push you over the limit? And I don’t mean the legal to drive limit – don’t drive drunk, kids. No, I mean the no longer able to speak in coherent sentences limit, the threshold you cross over where you can no longer control the volume of your voice. And despite it all, knowing that you can just not drink this one drink and save yourself lord only knows what embarrassment, you drink it anyway? How about at the casino, when you’re still ahead, just not as far ahead as you were an hour ago, and despite the fact that you can feel yourself slipping into a dangerous state of mind and know you should get out while you’re still ahead, you can’t stop yourself from playing one more hand or dropping one last twenty into the slot machine? That knowledge that you’re doing something wrong, but you just can’t stop yourself from doing it?
That was how I lost two matches at Regionals.
Sadly, I know I’m getting better at Magic because I’m ever more aware of how bad I actually am most of the time. This is certainly a bittersweet position to occupy, mentally. I made a conscious decision after last Extended season (where I continued to play Desire because I figured my best chance of winning was the power level of the deck) to begin playing decks that would give me better results when I played well, such as Painter at GP: Chicago and B/G Elves at Regionals. Unfortunately, relying on a deck that requires you to play well will also expose your mistakes.
For example, at the Philly Open in round one, I had every intention of playing Lim-Dul’s Vault on turn 2 after resolving a first-turn Oath of Druids, and Paul Mastriano had only one Blue mana available during the main phase of my second turn. I had played Thoughtseize and he didn’t have Mana Drain, but on his next turn he’d draw and have the possibility of ripping a Drain off the top. Inexplicably, I passed the turn to him, allowing him to play a second land, and then played Lim-Dul’s Vault at end of turn when he had a chance to Mana Drain it. He didn’t draw a Mana Drain, so the Vault resolved, and I won that game, but that isn’t the point. Patrick Chapin recently said that the player with the better shortcuts wins – and obviously my shortcuts aren’t very good, because my “play this at EOT because it’s an Instant and you can!” shortcut overruled my correct “You need to resolve this spell so you can find Forbidden Orchard, lock up the game, and prevent Paul from potentially Mana Draining it!” shortcut.
See also:
• At Regionals, failing to play Mutavault on turn 2 when I cast Wren’s Run Vanquisher, because apparently I hate having the option of attacking for an extra two. [I won this game]
• Taking a game loss during a Vintage tournament because, despite playing Impulse correctly 10,000 times, the 10,001st time I played it I decided it would be awesome to shuffle my library (prompted by my opponent asking exactly what Impulse did, which may or may not have been a savage mind trick). [Obviously I lost this game]
• At another Vintage tournament, playing a land and a Mox on the first turn, then passing and casting Ancestral Recall during my opponent’s upkeep so that I wouldn’t have to discard – except that 4 + 3 is, in fact, 7. [I won this game]
• At the Alara Reborn pre-release, allowing my opponent to play Bloodbraid Elf and Cascade a Lightning Talons onto it when he had no other creatures in play. [I lost this game, and would have regardless, but it’s still terrible]
At Regionals, I lost the first game of the day because I allowed my opponent to take back an incorrect land drop. Well, technically I didn’t “allow” it, so much as he took it back and I didn’t stop him. That cost me a game, and I lost that match. Later, in round 7 while still alive at X-1, I had three different ways to win game one just with the cards I had available to me. For whatever reason, I was locked into winning a specific way – either drawing a land for a lethal Profane, drawing a Pulse to sweep away the blockers in my way, or drawing a Cloudthresher to reach the same end – and when I didn’t get there, I basically punted with lethal damage set up, having the win on-board (just a Leech activation away…) and not taking it because it wasn’t the win that I had in mind. That is not good playing, ladies and gentlemen.
I realize this is terrific advertising for this here column, but I’m okay with airing all of this because I have no illusions that I’m a great player. I‘m good enough to have won somewhere around $2K in prizes in the last twelve months, so I don‘t mean to suggest that every game has mistakes this glaring. That said, my objective, like many of you out there, is to get my game to the next level (or, at least, headed in a generally positive direction), and I’m pretty sure that the starting point is to take honest stock of my own play abilities. Whenever I hear someone suggest that they didn’t make any mistakes during an entire eight-round tournament (and I heard several people suggest this at Regionals), I feel bad, because frankly you can’t get better until you admit your own faults. It’s become increasingly clear to me that the vast majority of my losses are not due to bad pairings, mana screw, mana flood, or “bad beats” but rather due to misplays, poor deck construction choices and incorrect assignment of role during a match. There are definite benefits to focusing on specific parts of one’s game. Personally, I have dramatically increased the quality of my tournament mulligan decisions through practice and attention during testing, and I’ve also lessened the number of mulligans I need to take by simply shuffling better.
I did plenty of things right for Regionals this year, lest you think this entire article is devoted to self-loathing. I did make a few strong plays, despite the main room having an atmosphere that the smog around Mexico City would find suffocating. My favorite was definitely during the mirror match I played in round five. My opponent played a Garruk, while I was stuck on three lands with my own Garruk, Maelstrom Pulse, Wilt-Leaf Liege, and Chameleon Colossus in my hand. I was slightly ahead on the board, but Garruk’s ability to start spitting out 3/3s would’ve put me hopelessly behind. My opponent activated Garruk and went to reach for a Beast token , so I said “Looks like you’re going to Overrun me out of this one” – and he stopped, and untapped two lands instead, despite having no relevant play. I removed his blocker and killed Garruk. He played a second one, and I blew that one up with Maelstrom Pulse, and went on to win with my own Garruk a few turns later. The extra 3/3 he would’ve had in play would have prevented me from being able to protect my own Garruk.
I also won a pretty tight match in round 6, against a U/W Lark deck. The first game, I took a mulligan to six, and kept a very aggressive hand. I resolved a Thoughtseize and it was obvious from the board and my opponent’s hand that the game was about to slip away, and that his next turn play would be one of his two Reveilarks in hand. When he played the first, I cast Profane Command to drop him to 2, to maximize my chance of winning. This play gave me potential outs in both of my Cloudthreshers, as well as the chance to simply play one more guy than he had. In the end, this is exactly what happened, as despite his better board position, I dropped just one more guy than he had and got in there for the last two points. I’m relatively certain that in the recent past, I would’ve sat on the Profane Command in the hope that I could just “get lucky” and cast it for lethal. In the third game, on the play, I destroyed his second-turn Borderpost with Maelstrom Pulse, and repeated the same play the following turn. This denied him Blue mana for the Sowers and Cryptics in his hand, and let me steal an easy win in a bad match-up.
One of the things I did this year for Regionals that I hadn’t done for Standard for quite a while was to think about why I wanted to play a specific deck. A few weeks ago, I did a “preseason” update on Standard and noted a few Black/Green Elves decks that showed promise. During testing, I was under whelmed by their performance, but the Alara Reborn spoiler offered plenty of potential gas for this style of deck, so I kept testing it. So, why play Black/Green Elves?
Wilt-Leaf Liege: This guy is totally bonkers, taking an already aggressive deck and really kicking it up a notch. The format’s leading deck, B/W Tokens, runs only a small handful of spot removal main-deck, giving this creature a chance to shine.
Maelstrom Pulse: The Pulse was amazing for me all day long. Having a flexible answer is extremely desirable in a tournament like Regionals, where you have no idea what cards you might see.
Wren’s Run Vanquisher and Putrid Leech: No other deck in Standard has a one-two punch like this at the two-drop slot, and the ability to play a first turn Llanowar Elves into a second turn Leech / Vanquisher + Thoughtseize is very appealing.
Profane Command: I hadn’t played with this card since Lorwyn / Shadowmoor Block, and I (along with many others, it seems) simply forgot how insane it is. I would say that this card won me at least half of my games on the day.
That’s a full twenty cards that get me excited, which is certainly enough to at least test a deck. While running G/B Elves against the Standard gauntlet, it quickly became clear that the deck has very few bad match-ups, but also has very few easy match-ups. Quite a few games came down to tight play and, particularly, choosing the right card with Thoughtseize (and playing it at the right time). When playing this deck, it often isn’t right to choose the “best” card, but rather a two- or three-drop or a removal spell so that you can effectively pull irreversibly ahead. This is extremely important against Tokens decks, which have a better late-game but are vulnerable to fast, big creatures for the first two or three turns.
Here’s the list I ran at Regionals:
Creatures (24)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 3 Civic Wayfinder
- 2 Cloudthresher
- 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
- 2 Chameleon Colossus
- 1 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
- 4 Putrid Leech
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
Sideboard
I ended up 6-2 and in 20th place with this list, and was generally pretty pleased with the performance of the deck. The Bant match-up didn’t feel all that great, but that entire round was suspect in that I punted game one, and my opponent kept a one-land hand game two and ripped three consecutive lands off the top. Some additional Instant spot-removal might be worthwhile for that match-up. I also was never happy with the Cloudthreshers, and they probably should’ve been in the sideboard or not in the deck at all, despite the fact that I‘m still a big fan of the card. I sided them out for Garruks every single round except for the round I played against U/W Lark. Given the high density of tokens in the meta-game, I think this makes sense, although the right move might be -1 Cloudthresher and -1 Thoughtseize for +2 Garruk (even swap between main and SB). I also tested with Overrun in the sideboard, and I wished I had access to two of those as well. Provided Bant Aggro remains a fringe deck, I think my updated version for testing is -1 Cloudthresher, -1 Thoughtseize main for +2 Garruk, and -1 Infest, -2 Garruk in the Sideboard for +2 Overrun, +1 Thoughtseize.
I’ll keep the report relatively brief, since 20th place isn’t exactly the most exciting result in the world.
Round 1 – Lose 0-2 vs. Matt with Bant Aggro (0-1, 0-2)
I didn’t have a chance to test against this deck since it “broke” late in the week. In the first game, I took a mulligan to six. My opponent played a Yavimaya Coast instead of Brushland and had no White mana when he went to play Rafiq. I didn’t stop him from swapping his land drop, and I lost. The second game, I mulled to six and he kept his seven. My first-turn Thoughtseize revealed a hand with one land and a Noble Hierarch, along with one two-drop. I took the two-drop as I had Nameless Inversion for his Hierarch. It didn’t really matter as he drew his second, third, and fourth lands in a row off the top. Obviously I was incredulous with myself for letting that takeback occur game one, and this round took all of five minutes (the results slips weren’t even out yet), so I took some time to go out to the car and listen to some tunes and cool off.
Round 2 – Win 2-1 vs. Todd with Black/White Tokens (1-1, 2-3)
Game one, he mulled to five and as I was on the draw, I got ahead quickly and he couldn’t come back. During the second game, I didn’t see any sideboard cards and couldn’t sweep the board quickly enough. In game three, my opponent kept a two-land hand and couldn’t find any more lands before I was far ahead.
Round 3 – Win 2-1 vs. Victor with Black/White Tokens (2-1, 4-4)
I lose a very close game one, but coast in games two and three when I apply early pressure and my opponent stumbles on lands. B/W is a curious deck in that it runs so many lands (most people run 25, with LSV recently suggesting running 26, and I’ve seen people run a Mutavault in the SB to split the difference), yet I see so many people lose games with it because they stumble on their mana. It also seems to take an inordinate amount of mulligans.
Round 4 – Win 2-0 vs. Tom with Green/White Tokens (3-1, 6-4)
The first game, I have to fight my way through four Kitchen Finks, at which point we both start building up our armies. I draw Profane Command and use it to bypass his blockers for the win. The second game, Tom stumbles on lands. I force him to play defensively for a while with two more Kitchen Finks, then finally am able to Profane for the win again. For this match, I had sided out 2 Cloudthresher, Nameless Inversion, and Eyeblight’s Ending, and brought in 2 Garruk and 2 Kitchen Finks.
Round 5 – Win 2-1 vs. Stan with Black/Green Elves (4-1, 8-5)
Our first game was pretty funny, as we were both really mana flooded. Stan made my play around Chameleon Colossus with my Vanquishers, which he couldn’t kill because he had two Eyeblight’s Ending in his hand. Essentially we were both just waiting to draw Profane Command, but before either of us got there I got enough creatures on the board to swing for exactly lethal. The second game, I stumbled on mana and his double Colossus draw was too much for me to beat. In the third game, I was stuck on three lands for a few turns, but I was able to play through it using Maelstrom Pulse and double Kitchen Finks to get rid of two Garruks, and when I hit my fourth land, a Wilt-Leaf Liege turned the game quickly. I used an Infest to sweep away his blockers, then activated Garruk’s ultimate to swing for 35 points (even after the Infest!).
Round 6 – Win 2-1 vs. Ryan with Blue/White Lark (5-1, 10-6)
I did not think this was a good match-up, and I had to mulligan to six the first game. However, my six-card hand was very fast, and I went on offense, using Thoughtseize to take away a Broken Ambitions so I couldn’t be slowed at all. I bashed Ryan to 12 before he tapped out for one of the two Larks in his hand, and then I Profaned to get him to two. Ryan started building up his board, while I did the same, and with my man-lands I was able to swing in for the final 2 points when Ryan’s Mind Stones refused to give him a Cryptic or a Path to Exile. The second game I had to take a mulligan to six again, and I was never really in the game. The third game was a blowout the other way, as I used consecutive Maelstrom Pulses to destroy Ryan’s consecutive Borderposts. This denied Ryan blue mana, and his deck only yielded him three Plains and Mind Stone for mana, and I won easily.
Round 7 – Lose 0-2 vs. Brett Blackman with B/W Tokens (5-2, 10-8)
This was the first time I’ve played Brett, and I really played very poorly. The first game he had to mulligan to five on the play, and I still punted the game, which I discussed above. In game two, he again had to mulligan to six, but used Batwing Brume out of the board to stop what would have been a lethal Profane Command, and attacked back for the win.
Round 8 – Win 2-1 vs. Jared with B/R Aggro (6-2, 12-9)
The first game was close, but Jared drew three Flame Javelins to kill two Wilt-Leaf Lieges and a Chameleon Colossus, and the turn before I would’ve won, he hit his fifth land to Demigod me to death. Game two, I drew all three Profane Commands and used them to burn him and keep bringing back my creatures. The last game I drew two Kitchen Finks, which put me comfortably ahead.
As I expected, this deck didn’t yield too many blowouts, but felt very powerful and rarely did I feel completely out-matched. Really, my losses were mostly on me, rather than on the deck. I never had to mulligan to five, and took only four mulligans all day (although they all took place in the same rounds, one and six). Interestingly, the 12-9 game record was considerably worse than I had in 2007 when I played all eight rounds and went 5-3 matches, but 13-6 in games with a “Mono” Green Aggro deck that splashed into black and white for Dark Confidant main and Persecute and Worship in the sideboard. That deck was somewhat more powerful and considerably more explosive, but also had a few nearly hopeless match-ups.
This build of Elves has a pretty strong match-up against Red, especially once you have access to Finks, because your creatures are just so big. Against Tokens, you’re in a race – the more Vanquishers, man-lands, Lieges, and Leeches you have, the better your chance of winning. Liege is often the key because he lets all of your creatures rumble with Kitchen Finks. Post-sideboard, you have access to a large number of sweepers against token decks, and Garruk’s ultimate is very effective combined with the early pressure this deck can produce.
For the list I ran at Regionals, my sideboard plan against Black/White Tokens and Red Aggro (the two match-ups I expect to see the most) looked like this:
Versus B/W Tokens: -1 Thoughtseize, -1 Cloudthresher, -1 Nameless Inversion, -1 Eyeblight’s Ending, -2 Civic Wayfinder / +4 Infest, +2 Garruk Wildspeaker
Civic Wayfinder isn’t as needed for acceleration once Garruk is in the deck, and also is relatively hopeless on offense. The spot removal is taken out for additional sweepers.
Versus Red: -4 Thoughtseize, -1 Eyeblight’s Ending, -2 Cloud thresher / +3 Kitchen Finks, +2 Garruk Wildspeaker, +2 Terror
Obviously we want to take out anything that causes damage to ourselves (outside of Leech, which is still terrific). Kitchen Finks and Garruk are terrific against Red, and Terror is moderately useful for killing Ram-Gang and Figure of Destiny.
Against Lark, I need to test some more, but Infest actually seems curiously valuable, in that after a Lark reanimates some creatures, you can sweep the board again using Infest to bring things back to parity. Green/White tokens is an interesting match-up that isn’t as difficult as Black/White, in that Thoughtseize gives you information they don’t have, you can Profane Command them far more effectively than B/W Tokens, and you can also Terror Wilt-Leaf Liege.
I would suggest at least testing with this deck to see if it fits your play style, because I think it is good enough to bring to a Standard PTQ. I’d also strongly suggest testing with and against B/R Aggro, as it was very popular at PA Regionals. I loaned my list to a friend, who went 6-2 as well, and two other players from AU Blue Bell went 6-2 with extremely similar lists, and another made the cut to top 8 at 7-1.
Next week we’ll take a look at some interesting decks from Regionals, and recap the Vintage tournament on 5/23. If anyone had success with B/G Elves at Regionals, I’d love to hear about it in the forums…
Matt Elias
[email protected]
Voltron00x on Xbox Live and SGG forums