Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to talk about how I fared at Regionals, the list I brought, and how the metagame shaped up.
You ready for some rogue goodness? Let’s do this thing.
[The following is a transcript of the show, which you really should check out.]
Sandy, the Martyr
Imagine this scenario: You reach the tournament site mere minutes before the tournament is scheduled to begin. You can’t find your deck, and you’re freaking out. Over the past week or so you’ve been scouring list after list, hoping to find the magical 75 that will put you over the top.
For me, I had decided between two different decks: Feldman’s Suicide Squad and an extremely cool and interesting Martyr of Sands deck that I found on MTGSalvation. The Martyr deck won a 94-person online tournament, and had what I felt were some really fantastic innovations. Left with no choice, I had to skip the Orzhov and went with the following build:
Creatures (5)
Lands (23)
Spells (32)
Notable cards: First up was the Gauntlet of Power. Back in my Predictions article, an article whose very title sets you up for ridicule, I spoke fondly of the Power Glove. And in this deck, it really shines. I loved how the Gauntlet performed throughout the day, and the other big innovation was Chronomantic Escape. Perpetual Fogs in a deck like Martyr are just what the doctor ordered.
The only problem was that we didn’t have most of the cards necessary for the deck. Enter me and my buddies running around like crazy trying to find all of the cards necessary. We grabbed Scrying Sheets, Coldsteel Hearts, the Martyrs themselves, Chronomantic Escapes… everything in the entire deck was present except for a single Tormod’s Crypt and four Porphyry Nodes. I switched them with a Jotun Grunt that might as well have been blank, and four Sunlance, which are, looking back, the worst possible option I possibly could have chosen.
You smell foreshadowing? But we’ll get to that later in the tournament report.
Here’s a tip to people who are comfortable switching decks at the last minute: you can easily figure out most of the day’s metagame by speaking to the dealers and seeing what they don’t have. Or, you can ask them what is selling the most – such as $5 Tormod’s Crypts at my Regionals event – and figure out that, for example, people had a lot of graveyard hate going on. But since my deck didn’t win solely on the back of Martyr but rather on the back of Sacred Mesa, I wasn’t worried.
311 people showed up, the biggest on the East Coast as I understand it, and we settled in for nine rounds of Swiss. Here’s what happened:
Round 1 — Orzhov (Drew)
Turns out I got play against Jason Voorhees. No, seriously, the guy was actually wearing a hockey mask and a hat the entire time. Weird. The judges said he could keep it on as long as his opponent’s were okay with it. I didn’t really care.
He began with a second turn Confidant and it didn’t take long for me to realize how bad Gauntlet of Power was in this matchup. Giving all of his beaters such as Savannah Lions, Knight of the Holy Nimbus, and Ghost Council +1/+1 was not a good idea. I also missed a few plays as this was the first time I had actually shuffled up and played a game with the deck.
For the final two games I took out the Power Glove and got out early Martyr of Sands to bring the beats until Chronomantic Escapes limited him to a single attack every three turns. Sacred Mesa eventually showed up and finished him off.
1-0
Round 2 — Glare Aggro
At first I was deathly afraid he was actually playing Project X. I knew just from looking at the list that if Project X hits infi life, I was infi screwed. Game 1 I had the Gauntlet / Sacred Mesa combo going, but I was greedy and attacked instead of waiting him out. He flipped Thelonite Hermit, tapped my seven tokens, and killed me.
Game 2 Martyr forced him to over-commit and a Wrath of God off the top sealed his fate, with Sacred Mesa + Gauntlet of Power, and me being more careful about activating Martyr, winning game 3.
2-0
Round 3 — Korlash Control (Harry)
I was really, really worried about this matchup. Turns out I was 100% wrong and would be hoping and praying for Korlash Control matches for the rest of the day. They have zero ways of beating you. Persecute is a joke because they can’t stop your Gauntlets of Power and they can’t kill you fast enough. One game I lost five cards to Persecute and still won with ease.
You Gelid Shackles Korlash, which shuts down Regeneration and the Grandeur ability, and they have exactly zero outs to Sacred Mesa. Gauntlet of Power gets you an unstoppable Akroma, and Story Circle is also unstoppable in a deck with no reset buttons or enchantment destruction.
3-0
Round 4 — Gruul
I don’t have his name, but I do have his mistake in my head. Game 3, after getting me down to nine with a Cap’n Tickles staring me down and myself with an empty board, he says “Attack Step?” and I nod. He swings, taking me to five. He’s cursing himself, particularly as I topdeck a needed land and slam down Blazing Archon. He dies shortly after.
It’s only when we’re de-sideboarding does he let me know he had another Cap’n in hand when he said “Attack Step,” which along with the Char that would’ve won the match.
Needless to say, he took it pretty hard. It was like misclicking in real life.
4-0
Round 5 — Korlash Control (Jeffrey)
Great guy, a fan of the show who was unfortunately playing my best matchup. Again with the Persecute for oodles of cards, and again I win with ease anyway.
5-0
Round 6 — W/G Aggro (Charles)
Finally sitting down at Table 1, I was all smiles. There is a definite Winner’s High going on when you do that well at the beginning of a large event. I was happy, joking, and all around enjoying myself.
I also tend to keep absolutely awful hands when I’m doing well, sure I’ll draw out of them. It wasn’t so bad in game 1, when I wasn’t sure what he was playing and got stomped, but in game 2 when I kept a beautiful hand… without a White mana source. I mean, if I got to four mana for that double Fetters I was holding I’d be fine, right?
Here’s his play: Turn 1 Savannah Lions, Turn 2 Watchwolf, Turn 3 Griffin Guide, Turn 4 Griffin Guide.
I didn’t rip the White source off the top. I died. It sucked.
And yes, of course the White source was my next draw.
5-1
Round 7 — Gruul (Matt)
Game 1 he mulls to five, keeps a horrible hand, and I have Story Circles on both Green and Red by Turn 5. He scoops em up. Game 2, he crushes me with a Krosan Grip when I should have played the second Circle of Protection I had just sitting in my hand for no good reason. Lesson learned.
Game 3 I make the absolute most donkey-tastic play I have ever made in a tournament.
Here’s what happens: I get out a Circle of Protection: Red and a Story Circle on Green, and he gets out a bunch of guys. Tons of them, just asking for a huge X-for-1 if I can ever draw my Wrath of God. Turn after turn of no action, just me tapping a bunch of mana for the Circles and hanging on at two life. Finally I draw a Martyr of Sands, slam it down, and pass the turn.
He swings, I block a Llanowar Elf, stack damage, and gain 9 life.
He passes the turn, then both he and I see what happened: There were not one, but two Sulfur Elementals in play. No Gauntlet of Power, nothing that would even boost the Martyr. He missed it, I missed it, and I felt absolutely awful about it. The problem is, by the time we found it the game had gone too far to backtrack.
While he only dealt one more point of damage to me that game, I still felt awful about it. My apologies, Matt. I know I’m awful at the Magics.
6-1
Round 8 — Izzetron (Andrew)
Another fan of the show, another god-awful matchup. Of any possible matchup, the last one I would pick would be this. I’d rather play against Project X.
Game 1 he goes Sulfur Elemental, swing twice, Hellkite EOT, Demonfire.
Game 2 he goes Sulfur Elemental, swing twice, Hellkite EOT, swing and I die.
Boy, those games were fun.
6-2
Round 9 — Go-Sis (Sean)
Sean Mack, a good buddy of mine, also helped me out at the beginning of the day finding the cards I needed. Unfortunately, I opened my big mouth against him later on.
“Korlash Control just can’t beat Sacred Mesa,” I tell him like an idiot.
Game 1 was awful, where he transmutes for Persecute and I find no Scrying Sheets while his Mystical Teachings engine completely destroys me. Game 2 comes down to him transmuting for Nightmare Void, Repealing my Sacred Mesa at end of turn, Nightmare Voiding it, then Extirpating it into oblivion. Nice. Deck.
This left me with two ways to win: Martyr beatdown and Urza’s Factory. Except, of course, he could simply transmute his Tolaria West for his Factory, along with Tormod’s Crypt as need be.
Final Record: 6-3
The audible to this deck was not without forethought, I had been talking about bringing the deck for a couple days before the event. However, with a little more time and at least a few playtesting sessions I would have completely rebuilt the sideboard. Right now it has a lot of dead cards. The Sunlances were just awful, and I know it’s lame to blame a missing card for a loss, but I think we all recognize how awesome Porphyry Nodes would’ve been if I could’ve sided it in for the WG Aggro match in round 6.
So that was my Regionals experience. I had a ton of fun, met a lot of great fans of the show such as Eddie D and the lovely Serra Angel, and can’t wait to start hitting the PTQs. Call me crazy, but I think I might be getting better at this game.
And now it’s time for…
This Week In Magic
This week we’re primarily covering one thing: Gleemax. Now if you haven’t heard, this is Wizards of the Coast’s big idea to get into the MySpace generation.
Because I’ve gotta present both sides of the Gleemax idea, I’m going to do so. We’ll cover the negative side first.
This is new age marketing at its absolute rawest. The MySpace craze is here, and not going away, and with it is the idea that you can get your users to create your content, and subsequently interest, for you. And that’s fine and good. But take a look at this interview with Internal Correspondence by Randy Buehler. In it he says that the other huge Wizards property, Dungeons and Dragons, which you think would fit this sort of social gaming nerd site like a glove, will not be included in Gleemax.
Wha… what? A site built for new games and existing properties won’t include the biggest property of them all? The granddaddy of them all? You want to leave that out? You’ve got separate plans that are different from a one-stop-shopping social gaming network?
My God man, what kind of marketing do you want D&D to get?
Anyway, they say they’re not going to be a gaming news site, and they’re going to produce their own content. He also mentions premium content. I’ll let your imagination run wild with that one. And for some reason, their first podcast from Gamer Zero features a Randy Buehler interview from inside a tin can ((audio snippet)).
As for the pluses, let’s face it, there really is an appeal to be able to see, Google Maps style, where other gamers around you live. Your opinions on games, participation in those ridiculous polls, “friending” your favorite expansions, all of that will give the average new player a better idea of what gamers are around them.
Ever tried to find a new playgroup? It’s not much fun. Now, however, we’ll have a place where you can not only sign up for playgroups, but you can easily find new members in your area should you need them.
But everything I described is no more than a player directory. But since that directory doesn’t exist, we’ll take it in its marketing shell, birthed of Wizards and watch as we uncomfortably try to avoid all of the advertising and grassroots selling that goes on in services like these.
Just you wait – in a few months, you’ll have some stripper-looking hottie wanting to be your friend, claiming she’s all about the D20, ready to DM your next dungeon crawl, and maybe one day level up your character. Oh the spam we’ll experience!
Gleemax will be a gaming nerd’s MySpace, and as such we’ll be forced to subscribe or signup in one way or another. As I type this, the Gleemox was being given away on Magic Online, hundreds of players drooling for this ultimate casual plaything. The onslaught on the senses has begun.
Welcome to Magic Marketing 2.0. Wizards is trying to be bigger than their two brands, and over the next year we’ll see what Gleemax is really made of.
So until next time, this is Evan Erwin, tapping the cards so you don’t have to.
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
dubya dubya dubya dot misterorange dot com
eerwin +at+ gmail +dot+ com
Written in the midst of teaching my child how to ride a bike.
Music: “Icky Thump” via The White Stripes, “Believe” via Bravery, “Circles” via Soul Coughing.
Last minute notes: Congratulations to Scott Rogers for proving me wrong and qualifying with his Project X list. Damn, that ugly baby can win!