Wednesday-Thursday, April 18th-19th
I set off today for Yokohama. I can’t say I’m ready for the coming tournament. I don’t have a deck, although I know pretty much what to expect. I haven’t found the 75 cards I want to pilot. In my mind, three decks are going to be played: White Weenie, Blue/Black Control, and Red/Green. All of these have something like fifteen different variants. There are Black/Blue variants beating White Weenie and losing to R/G, and others tuned to beat R/G that lose to White Weenie. All the set-ups are possible.
But I don’t really feel like playing any of these decks, for the simple reason that I haven’t tested each of the matchups enough, and would probably end up with a suboptimal version of any deck I would pick up.
On the flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo, I got to speak with Andre Coimbra from Portugal. We talked about the format. I asked him if he had a good deck, and he answered his deck was pretty amazing, and that he won a couple of tournaments with it. He was feeling quite confident about it. And you should trust someone who feels confident, right? 80-20 against WW, and nearly as much against control, with Red/Green being the worst matchup. I offered him 2% of my winnings for his decklist, and 10% total if I ended up playing it. He showed me his deck. Finkels; Akroma, Angel of Fury; Lightning Angels; Voids. That seemed sexy…
After about fifteen hours of travel to Yokohama, I eventually met my crew in the Royal Park Hotel where we had a room booked. My crew consisted of Geoffrey Siron, Bernardo Da Costa Cabral, and Davy Loeb. I was eager to try out the list I had bought, and the others promised to keep it to themselves. Up on the 63rd floor of the huge Landmark Tower, I played about ten games with the deck, against WW, Control, and Red Green, winning about… no, winning exactly zero games. I decided to forget about that deck and get over the scam I had been victim of, and try to find the right deck to play. (The deck couldn’t have been that bad, as Andre still managed to make Day 2).
We all went to the site, trying to pick up the information we needed to put together the deck. Everyone I had talked to in the beginning played decks mentioned above, tuned their own way. Control metagamed for control, anti-WW went for Red/Green, and so on.
Then there were the ones playing Mono-Red. Among them, Antoine Ruel and Julien Nuijten. The latter had been testing his version since GP: Massachusetts. As I really didn’t want to play any of the three big decks (WW, R/G, or B/U Control), that one seemed to be the deck I was looking for: a deck that beats WW, even though I still wanted to try a few games after sideboarding when they bring in Opal Gargoyles and Honorable Passages. It also had a pretty good chance against control decks, as they have a hard time in the long game dealing with all the burn.
Back at the room, we tried out the matchups. It was doing really well against WW, even with their Red-hating sideboard. It was also doing well against our anti-aggro version of control. I’ve been quite successful with aggro decks lately, and set my mind on playing the Mono-Red deck for the tournament. My crew didn’t seem too convinced, as Geoffrey opted for WW, Bernardo chose to bring back his U/G/r deck he had built weeks ago, while Davy stuck to his Mon-Blue Aggro homebrew deck.
The deck that I was given is the version Gadiel Szleifer, John Pelcak, and Julien played.
23 Mountain
1 Gemstone Caverns
4 Magus of the Scroll
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Blood Knight
4 Sulfur Elemental
2 Wildfire Emissary
4 Fiery Temper
4 Rift Bolt
4 Disintegrate
4 Browbeat
2 Dead / Gone
Sideboard
4 Avalanche Riders
2 Eron the Relentless
4 Serrated Arrows
2 Word of Seizing
1 Dead / Gone
2 Wildfire Emissary
I made a couple of changes to the deck.
Sudden Shocks over Dead / Gone
Actually, I think they gave me the list with Sudden Shocks, and traded them for Dead / Gone.
There are many reasons I like Sudden Shocks more than Dead / Gone. I’ve been asked many times why I wasn’t running Dead / Gone. “Why would I run them?” I asked back, “just for Spectral Force?”
When you think about it, there’s no use of “Gone” against Spectral Force. The only time you would want to bounce a Spectral Force is when you have creatures out and want to sneak some damage in. Unfortunately, your guys are often dead by the time the Force hits the table, or they’re being blocked by Wall of Roots. So in the midgame you simply lose a card to buy a potential turn in which you would do nothing relevant. You opponent, by playing the Force again the next turn and drawing a card in his draw step, actually loses nothing…
Storage lands over Mountains / Gemstone Caverns
At first I threw a Molten Slagheap to the mix, knowing it would not hurt the manabase at all. After talking to Guillaume (Wafo-Tapa), I added two Fungal Reaches. He convinced me that storage lands would win me a couple of games. I decided to run the Reaches instead of a second and third Slagheap, announcing that if the R/G duals lost me a game I would blame him personally.
Three is probably the right number, as more would really hurt the manabase.
Shouldn’t they all be Slagheaps or Reaches, to optimize the Magus of the Scroll? Probably. I would say it’s very likely to be irrelevant.
About Gemstone Caverns: I’m not sure there are many situations where you want to discard a card to play first (basically what Gemstone Cavern does). Playing Avalanche Riders a turn earlier sounds appealing, but this is so unlikely to happen that I would not mess with the manabase for it. And not being able to draw mana from your Caverns if you opponent has one in play is quite awkward.
Greater Gargadons in the Sideboard
The Gargadons are keys in the matchup against control. Being able to sacrifice a Tendrils’ed creature is priceless. Would I want to run them maindeck? Definitely not. They are pretty useless against both WW and Red/Green.
Here’s the deck I ran with:
Creatures (18)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
The one Eron in the sideboard is quite a fine addition against control-with-Damnation decks. This is not a card you want in multiples, so one is the right number.
I now have a deck I believe in, and one that fits my style. About that, I think “my style” kinda evolved during the last couple of months. I wasn’t that aggressive before… Maybe I should have turned to the Dark Side earlier…
Friday, April 20th
PT: Yokohama, Day 1
I slept fine, and feel rested for the day. Strange, as I slept about six hours on the way to Japan. Then, I woke up around 5am, to go to bed around 1am and wake up at 7am. But I’m not going to complain about that.
Round 1: Szleifer, Gadiel. Mirror match. 2-0
Round 2: Kotrla, Jan. White Weenie. 2-0
Round 3:Yamanishi, Mamoru. Wild Pair Slivers. 2-0
Round 4: Pui, Boon Keng. U/B Control. 2-0
Round 5: De Rosa, Antonino. Mono-Red Gargadon. 1-2
Round 6: Page, Benjamin. Red/Green. 0-2
Round 7: Zhou, George. Black/Red Control. 2-0
Round 8: Summersberger, Helmut. Red/Green. 2-1
After one full day of competition with no byes, as usual, I learned a lot about the deck:
White Weenie was the deck I wanted to face every round
Even Opal Gargoyles and Honorable Passages don’t make the match up close. The White Weenie players had to make a decision entering the tournament. Are Soltari Priest worth it? They simply die to a single Sulfur Elemental… but on the other hand, if you enchant them with Griffin Guide on turn 3, you’re likely to win the game. In fact, that’s probably the only way you can lose with Mono-Red against WW. If the WW player decided to not include the Priest, he doesn’t have many ways to kill you. It’s tough to demonstrate that you can race and beat a turn 3 Opal Gargoyle… but you usually do. After sideboard, you can stop all the beaters on the ground thanks to pro-White guys (Blood Knight and Wildfire Emissary), and you can burn the Serra Avengers. At some point you’ll be able to sneak in some damage, and weaken the Gargoyles (if they ever turn into 3/4 flyers) with Serrated Arrows. I don’t know how convincing the demonstration may be, so I guess you’ll need to try yourself.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Serrated Arrows
+2 Wildfire Emissary
-4 Browbeat
-1 Sudden Shock *
-1 Magus of the Scroll *
* You could sideboard something else, depending on the version you’re playing against.
Wall of Roots is by far the card you NEVER want to see
Red/Green is the worst matchup. A Wall of Roots on turn 1 gains your opponents at least a turn, and between five and ten life. In the case you’re playing first, he will have the choice to either block your first attack from a Blood Knight or a Keldon Marauder and therefore gain 2 or 3 life from the block. Then you’ll have the decision to burn it down or not. In the first case, you have lost 2 or 3 points of attack and 2 or 3 points of burn, killing a Wall that may have been totally irrelevant in the game if your opponent has a Call of the Herd on turn 3, or even another Wall. In most cases, killing the Wall is the right play. You don’t want a Spectral Force to show up too early, because as soon as it’s in play it’s likely that your creatures will stop dealing damage soon after.
My match against Benjamin Page was a total blowout. I don’t think I even dealt more than five damage in the two games we played. The match against Helmut Summersberger was a really close one. Thanks to a very lucky last draw, I managed to win a match against the dreaded Red/Green.
Sideboard plan:
Gargadons aren’t exactly good in this matchup, as they have Dead / Gone. They will trade for Spectral Force, which isn’t as good as it sounds, as it will cost them 3GG for the Force and 6-7 permanents for you. The only good thing is that you can sacrifice a fattie you steal with Words of Seizing. But that would mean boarding in at least two or three Gargadons. And you really, really don’t want to draw more than one. Given that you’re only playing two Words of Seizing, and that you don’t really want to draw more either… that doesn’t sound like a good plan. So my guess for this matchup:
+2 Words of Seizing
+3 Avalanche Riders
-2 Wildfire Emissary
-1 Browbeat
-1 Sulfur Elemental
-1 Sudden Shock
You may have a better shot with Avalanche Riders: hit their mana, and hope the Spectral Force stays in the deck.
The control matchup depends a lot on which weapons they have against you, how well they know your deck, and how they play.
The basic sideboard plan against control:
+3 Avalanche Riders
+3 Greater Gargadon
+1 Eron the Relentless
-2 Wildfire Emissary
-2 Sudden Shock
-1 Disintegrate
-2 Magus of the Scroll
When you’re playing against someone who will keep his Teferis, board in the Words of Seizing. How can you know? Good question. If it’s a good player, there’s a good chance he will sideboard them out, in case you’re boarding the Words of Seizing in. If he’s a bad player, there’s a good chance he doesn’t think about Words of Seizing… But then a good player might keep Teferi, as he knows you know he’s a good player, and so on…
The main sideboard decision you’ll have to make, against other matchups – like Mono-Red, or rogue strategies – is whether or not to keep the Browbeats. You’ll have to figure the relevance of the five damage. If you think the game is going to be decided by how much board control you can have, then you should take out the Browbeats. Taking out a couple against Mono-Red is usually fine.
Finishing the day 6-2 was satisfying, especially after pulling out an impossible match against Helmut. I could go to bed and look forward to the next day. Rarely in my career have I felt so confident at a Pro Tour.
Saturday, April 21st
PT: Yokohama, Day 2
I’m the only one in the room waking up for Day 2.
Round 9: Kunzler, Matthias. Red/Green. 0-2
Round 10: Yasutomi, Hiroto. Mono-Red with Green. 2-1
Round 11: Murray, Stephen. B/U/r Control. 2-0
Round 12: Saitou, Tomoharu. Mono-Red with Green. 2-0
Round 13: Nakatani, Haruki. Mirror match. 2-0
Round 14: Fujita, Tsuyoshi. Mono-Blue. 2-0
Round 15: Echeverria Paredes, Jose Luis. B/U Control. 2-0
Round 16: Herberholz, Mark. B/U Control. ID
After losing the first round to Red/Green, I had to 6-0 in order to make Top 8. I don’t know how, but it just happened.
Notable events during day 2:
I receiver my second warning for slow play in the tournament. I know I’m not the fastest player, but I very rarely reach the extra turns. So I give a particular attention to them on my record, and that’s why I don’t really enjoy being awarded some… especially for no valid reason:
The first one I received against Antonino on the first day. I had taken some time, trying to figure a good block, as he was attacking with four or five guys including a Gargadon. I had a couple of Gargadons of my own suspended, and had to play around Words of Seizing, Brute Force, and Fatal Frenzy. It took me a minute to find out the right block, and I made my decision when the judge told me to do so. Two turns later, about five seconds after I drew my second land in a row, the judge gave me a warning for slow play. I waited until the end of the game (that I lost the turn after) to ask him why he gave me the warning. He answered that I had drawn nothing relevant, and that I had to play on. So he basically told my opponent that I had drawn a land. The warning was later downgraded.
The second warning sounds even more stupid. It was round 2 of Day 2, and my opponent and I were sideboarding after game 1. I took about a minute to do so, and started shuffling. My opponent thought for a little longer, sideboarded one card in… and then another one, while I was just shuffling, waiting for him. He was finally done with sideboarding and presented his deck to me. The same judge as the day before stopped by and gave us both a warning for slow play, because we have been sideboarding for six minutes instead of three.
“But it took me one minute to sideboard. I was just shuffling while I was waiting. Why should I get a warning?” I asked.
Apparently, I had to present my deck before the three minutes were over…
I played twice against Mono-Red with Green, and won both matches quite easily.
I made one huge mistake against Tsuyoshi Fujita. Fortunately, he made one of his own immediately afterwards. He was on five life, and I played a Keldon Marauder as a bait to fire a Fiery Temper that would be followed by a Sudden Shock to kill him. He countered with a Dismal Failure, I threw my Fiery Temper with Madness, which resolved, then cast my Sudden Shock for the kill. I had the mana to hard cast both of them in response to the Dismal Failure. He showed me his hand, revealing Teferi and a couple of Willbenders that he didn’t have the mana to cast. I make him realize that he could have countered my Fiery Temper by just casting Teferi… which made me realize that I should have hard cast it to avoid being countered by Teferi…. Nice play.
Usually this is the kind of plays that cost me a game or two in a PT. This time, it didn’t cost me anything… just some thoughts about how bad I would have felt if I had lost that game.
I played the match for the Top 8 against Jose Luis Echeverria Paredes. On the way to the feature match area, he openly told me that he didn’t wish me good luck, and he hoped I would lose. Fair enough. I still wished him good luck, as I always do. He wished me good luck afterwards, of course!
In that match, I mulliganed down to four in the final game, suspending two Gargadons which would face a Teferi later in the game… and I still won. I also played Eron for the first time in the tournament… good times.
In the same game, I did not suspend a Rift Bolt with Teferi in play. I used 2R to cast it during my main phase, unlike the coverage says. [I knew it! – Craig, vindicated.]
I finally made another PT Top 8, eight years after PT: Chicago 1999.
It was announced that I would play against Tomoharu Saito in the quarters the following day. As I said, if I had to choose my matchup, that’s the one I would have chosen. I had beaten him in the swiss, and figured the matchup was in my favor.
After briefly looking over my sideboard plans, I went to get some rest.
Sunday, April 22nd
PT: Yokohama, Day 3
Quarterfinals: Tomoharu Saito. Mono-Red with Green. 1-3
The match appears almost entirely in the video coverage. What I can say about the match? It seems Tomoharu actually had a better shot after sideboarding. Had I been convinced he would board in Utopia Vow, something that I should have expected if I had thought about it longer on Saturday evening, I would have won game 3.
Watching game 3 again is quite painful. Playing around Dead / Gone, I decided to go for the “control the board / kill you with Gargadon” plan. Instead of going all-in on one turn, and putting him in burn range (just needed to draw a burn spell), I decided to wait a turn, not sacrifice lands in order to cast my Gargadon again had it been bounced. My plans got foiled when the Red beast got enchanted by Utopia Vow…
I guess I was a bit over-confident entering the quarter-finals… and I was very disappointed when I lost. But once again, I have nothing to complain about!
What conclusions have I come to about the format?
- Play Red/Green if you expect a lot of Mono-Red decks
- Play Control if you expect a lot of Red/Green Decks
- Play Mono-Red if you expect a lot of Control decks
- DON’T play White Weenie.
- Don’t play Control in a 50-minute round tournament, as mirror matches take far too long.
I don’t think I would change the deck much if I had to play the PT again. I used all my sideboard cards at least once. I guess I would try to find a better sideboard plan against Red/Green. I still don’t have one, but will certainly think about it in the approach to GP: Strasbourg.
Big thanks to everyone who has been cheering for me. Next time I’ll do better!
Raph