For the U.S., the Regionals Championships are in the books. For me personally, it’s been an exhausting couple of weeks between the Star City double-PTQ weekend and then Regionals the following week. I characterize myself as a “casually competitive” player, who mostly just likes to have fun with Magic, but who likes to step up and compete when PTQs, Regionals, and States comes around. Hitting 3 major events within a week’s time gives me renewed respect for those pros and pro-wanna-be’s that spend a lot of time traveling to PTQs and Grand Prix in search of victory.
This time has been particularly tough because I really don’t like competitive Standard right now, and yet I’ve had to figure out a deck to play in events I really wanted to compete in. I had high hopes for Alara Reborn; the set is chock full of high-quality cards that have certainly made a big splash on the tournament scene. And yet when the cards got shuffled up and played, things really haven’t changed all that much.
I’ve got a lot I’d like to say about the format, but I’ll probably save that for next week. This week I’d like to talk about the deck I chose to run, the changes I made to it, and how the deck and me performed.
In last week’s column I told you I had narrowed my choices to two decks: my G/B Neo-Elf deck, and Tommy Ashton’s Finest Hour deck. I was pretty happy with how the GB deck had shaped up, but I also wanted to see how the Finest Hour deck performed under pressure. After my interview with Tommy, I’d seen that there was some wiggle room in his deck, so I made some changes to it. My first decisive move was to put 4 Cephalid Constables in the sideboard. That card has been amazing for me every since I started playing with 4 Birds and 4 Hierarchs in my various Ancient Ziggurat builds; turn 2 Constable backed with Exalted is often a combo kill against slower decks packing Vivids. Occasionally you will need some counter backup to hedge against their one chance at removal, which is why the second thing I did was make some room for Negates in the maindeck, something that Tommy also recommended.
I’d also been doing some brainstorming on what to do about the W/x token menace. After playing against a good number of those decks at the PTQs over the previous weekend, I’d reached the obvious conclusion that Windbrisk Heights really was the lynchpin for those decks’ success. How do you stop that card? My initial approach that weekend was to load up with mad removal, but you just can’t realistically hope to stop them from eventually being able to put 3 creatures into the red zone. For my BG deck the nearly forgotten Fulminator Mage was a solid choice, and for those who own the ridiculously pricey Pithing Needle that’s another avenue (though G/W will usually be able to answer the Needle eventually).
The card that eventually jumped out to me as a potent solution was 10th Edition’s Windborn Muse, which makes it nearly impossible to attack with 3 guys and have the mana available to activate the Heights – that’s effectively eight mana to pull that off. Even decks that aren’t using Heights are typically using creatures to win, so taxing their mana is still very helpful. In the mirror, Windborn Muse makes it harder to execute the aggressive Play-Blue/Green-Spell-then-Attack routine that is so devastatingly fast. Facing down a Muse makes a Mimic much less scary.
Windborn Muse’s single White mana makes it an easy fit into the Finest Hour’s Bant structure, and the nature of the Finest Hour deck maximizes the Muse’s usefulness. The biggest problem with the Muse is that it’s just another creature in a metagame incredibly poised to kill creatures. However, by the time you cast Muse your opponent will already have been faced with some juicy targets.
Turn 1 Hierarch. If you don’t kill this guy all your opponent’s spells will come out a turn faster, and all his single attackers will be bigger.
Turn 2 Mimic/Infiltrator. The Mimic represents a ton of damage, often accounting for 25-50% of your opponent’s life. The Infiltrator represents inevitability that can’t be chumped. Do you not try and kill these guys?
Turn 3 Rhox War Monk. This robust creature is hell on racing, and backed with Exalted, Rafiq, or god help you, Finest Hour, will pretty much put the game away. You gotta kill this guy, right?
Turn 4 Rafiq of the Many. Makes any creature already on the board ridiculous. Makes himself ridiculous. Can even make Bird of Paradise ridiculous. Can you let this guy live?
By the time it’s time to cast the Muse, your opponent will have more than likely already used his precious couple of creature removal spells, so down comes the Windborn Muse to ruin their Windbrisk day. Whatcha gonna do, punk?
Of course, time is not on your side. Eventually your opponent will draw another creature removal spell and come crashing in, flipping Hideaways and doing a jig on your life total. Or they’ll draw that eighth land and just pay the Muse tax. Windborn Muse is not the ultimate solution.
Lucky for us, the rest of the deck is more than capable of putting the game away in a few short turns. Perfect!
To put these ideas to the test, I decided to run the deck at our local Friday Night Magic. Here’s what I ran:
Creatures (29)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Windborn Muse
- 4 Shorecrasher Mimic
- 4 Jhessian Infiltrator
- 4 Rafiq of the Many
- 4 Rhox War Monk
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 3 Dauntless Escort
Lands (24)
Spells (8)
Sideboard
An aside – you may notice I’m running a 61-card deck. I did this because I’m a bit paranoid about running a deck with only 23 lands where you’ve got some critical four and five-drop spells you have an interest in playing as soon as you can. Granted, you’ve got 8 one-drop mana sources too, but most good players do not suffer a turn 1 Bird or Druid to live if at all possible so I’ve learned over many years not to bank on them living for your hand to be playable.
At the same time, I’d already trimmed some cards from the deck to add the Negates and Muses, and I didn’t really see anything else I could spare. Thus, 61 cards.
Round 1 versus Andrew with Turbo Fog
Like many players, Andrew was intrigued by this Japanese monstrosity launched into Magic’s consciousness the weekend before and decided to give it a whirl. Once he realizes what I’m playing he does not like his chances much, especially once he sees I’ve got additional counterpower in the form of Negates. His Howling Mines allow me to keep up pressure with counterspell backup in both games, though his lack of white mana in the first game didn’t help either. I boarded in Teeg and Constable, and while I didn’t get the turn 2 kill, Teeg was very helpful in choking off his outs.
Win 2-0
Round 2 versus John with Blightning
This first game is brutal, with John drawing a metric truckload of removal for my creatures and I can’t get anything going while he chucks Hellspark Elementals and Boggart Ram-Gangs to my face. Game 2 is a tight one as I get some creatures to stick and we take swipes at each other’s life totals. I’m at 6 and he’s at 2 when I finally take the game. Game 3 I draw my Mark of Asylum and slam it happily down, but he still brings on his aggressive creatures and I quickly find myself at 10 life before my hero Rhox War Monk arrives. John chucks burn at my head and gets me down to 5 but Rafiq joins the party and the War Monk goes double strike exalted bonkers.
Win 2-1
Round 3 versus Anthony with Miracle Grow
My buddy Jay is giving Miracle Grow a try tonight, so when I see Quirion Dryad paired with Borderposts I’m not surprised but I do think it’s a pretty cool idea – the Borderposts just keep on being more and more surprisingly good. Unfortunately for Anthony my creatures grow a whole lot faster than his do with Mimic doing crazy trampling exalted stuff in game 1, and a well-placed Bant Charm getting rid of a large Dryad in game 2 allowing my team to swarm in. One nice thing about this deck is that you don’t have to attack with just one creature all the time; sometimes you just rock in with Infiltrator and two Treetop Villages.
Win 2-0
Round 4 versus Jay with Miracle Grow
Speaking of my buddy Jay… We have a pretty good game 1, with me crashing in with 5/3 trampling Mimic twice before he puts a stop to the shenanigans and begins to smack me back. Rhox War Monk shows up and sticks, making it impossible for Jay to race and he doesn’t draw any outs. Game 2 he has to mulligan, keeps a slow hand and I draw the nuts – Hierarch into Mimic into Rafiq, and Jay just scoops it up.
Win 2-0
Round 5 versus Roger with B/W Tokens
Roger’s undefeated too so we draw and run next door to get a sub.
ID
Top 4 versus John Davis with B/U Mannequin
John’s got a neat spin on B/U control, taking the usual Evoke creature suspects such as Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter, reusing them with Mannequin but also making good use of Soul Manipulation. He gets a rather slow draw and I get the nuts game 1 and just run him over. Game 2 is tighter with he getting more removal and I can’t get enough pressure to win before he gains control. Game 3… well, game 3 is particularly sweet, since I get a turn 2 Constable on the board on the play. John looks at it and laughs; see, John was the guy who I first heard about building a deck around Constable when Noble Hierarch was first spoiled, and while it didn’t work out as a maindeck lynchpin card, I kept it in the back of my mind and started using it in the sideboard. Anyway, John plays a comes-into-play-tapped land, I drop an Exalted dude and swing with the Constable and he scoops it up. Turn 3 kill!
Win 2-1
Finals versus Roger with B/W Tokens
Okay, so the bogeyman of the format B/W tokens stands between me and my ultimate victory. Game 1 he gets a slow start, but so do I, and a lone Noble Hierarch pecks away his life total down to 16 until I finally draw Rafiq and Finest Hour to finish things. Game 2 is a drawn out affair with Windborn Muse holding him back for quite a while, but without drawing anything to punch through his token hordes Roger eventually draws the Terror to unleash hell. Game 3 we both get a pretty good start, only my good start hits harder than his and I race him for the win.
Lemony-fresh victory is mine, and I even crack a Maelstrom Pulse out of my prize packs! I felt a little bad for my GB deck because it was going to have to ride the bench Saturday; how could I not play my Finest Hour deck at Regionals?
Of course, the punishment for doing so well at the FNM is that I don’t get home until after 1am, and when the alarm goes off at 5:45am my entire body feels betrayed. Sleeeeeeeeeppppp! I hit the snooze button twice and finally drag myself to the shower, and when Michael and Jessica show up at 6:40 I am mostly ready to roll. The drive up to Maryland goes pretty smoothly, though my fatigued brain causes me to babble on and on so that we miss our exit (as navigator, my fault entirely). Maryland roads being what they are, it takes an inordinately long time to turn around but we end up at the hotel with about 40 minutes to spare. I’ve got brand new sleeves with me so I swap out the old for the new and soon Round 1 is set to begin. We’ve got just 160 players, a surprisingly low number for Mid-Atlantic Regionals (where I can recall numbers pushing 300 in the past) and yet Dream Wizards seems to have picked just the right size room. Eight rounds to the Top 8 cut. I was really tired despite the two diet Mountain Dews I drank, so the details are a bit fuzzy.
Round 1 versus Matt with Planeswalker Control
Matt drew a ton of Planeswalkers, so I spent most of the game attacking them. He seemed a bit frustrated that he drew so many Planeswalkers rather than some other sorts of cards, but I wear him slowly down. At one point he wipes my board with a Martial Coup for five tokens, but I rip a Windborn Muse who deals the last few points of damage. Game 2 I don’t get much going on, and he slowly establishes control so I scoop in the interest of time. The last game he has to mulligan and has a slow hand, while I get a turn 2 Infiltrator, turn 3 Escort, and those guys and Treetop bring it on home in the extra turns.
Win 2-1
Round 2 versus Doug with Esperlark
Doug makes it tough for me with Scullers and Sowers, but I eventually get a Rhox War Monk to stick with some Exalted backup and he’s soon forced to chump as I crash in with everything. Game 2 he stalls a bit on his mana but counters my creatures so I let my Treetops do their dirty work.
Win 2-0
Round 3 versus Casey with B/W Tokens
I’m pretty stoked to be on an 8 game winning streak with the deck, but lady luck quickly douses my good humor with a no-land hand, mulligan into a one-land hand (with no Birds or Hierarch to even tempt me). I find a playable five card hand on the play and try to make a game of it but Casey’s extra cards give him a good mix of removal and aggression to punch my clock. Game 2 I again have a no land hand, and mulligan to a decent six-card hand, smacking him with a Hierarch, then a 4/4 Treetop, then an Escort and a Mimic join the team. Casey does a good job of conserving his guys to try and make sure he has enough to kill me when the time is right, and when I get him to 4 he makes his move, dropping Ajani, pumping his team and flipping over an Anthem for lethal… except I have a Bant Charm to get rid of one of his guys and instead drop from 18 to 4 and can kill him the next turn. Game 3 I have to mulligan a terribly slow one-land hand (yep, that’s four mulligans in three games against the premier Tier 1 deck) and have a decent keeper, but Casey is on the super-removal play and kills off my early action… which makes my Windborn Muse on turn 4 a lifesaver against his double Windbrisk Heights. Windborn Muse tries to go the distance, but Casey drops 2 Stillmoon Cavaliers, and so I end up having to attack with Exalted-pumped Birds of Paradise for 2 points a pop… until Finest Hour shows up and my Birds go nuts, attacking 3 and then 4. Casey drops a Cloudgoat Ranger and seems a bit reluctant about it, so I’m guessing he’s got a Wrath he doesn’t want to play. I attack with the Birds, he blocks with the Ranger, I sac my Escort to make my team indestructible, and Birds has untapped and attacks again for 4 more. I’m hoping to tempt him to Wrath away my team (including my Muse) because I’ve got a Treetop and with Finest Hour and a clear path that would be game over, but instead he passes his turn and begins to have to chump the Birds with his Cavaliers. I’m at 15 and he’s at 2 when he draws a card, smiles, Terrors my Muse, attacks with his token horde and reveals two Zealous Persecutions under his two Heights and does exactly 15 to me. Considering how close I came to winning the round despite being down four cards over the match made me feel pretty good about my chances.
Lose 1-2
Round 4 versus Tommy with R/B (Blightning?)
As I shuffle up and draw my opening seven my blood runs cold as I’m forced to mulligan again. Now, keep in mind that I do a ton of shuffling at tournaments – I typically riffle shuffle several times, pile shuffle, and then riffle shuffle at least three times before presenting my deck before each game. This streak of mulligans is distressing. Anyway, Tommy burns away my turn 1 Hierarch, smacks me in the head with a Hellspark Elemental, and then goes to work on me with a Goblin Outlander. I realize with horror that nearly everything in my deck is white as I tick down my life totals and eventually eat a Flame Javelin to the face. I board in my Marks of Asylum and Qasali Pathmages and again have to mulligan. This time though my turn 1 creature sticks, followed by a Mark of Asylum, so my Exalted creatures come out to play and I start pounding on him with my Jhessian Infiltrator, eventually playing a Finest Hour to seal the deal. Game 3 Tommy mulligans, and then agonizes over keeping his six cards and decides to go for it. He burns away my Hierarch, but I then drop a Mimic, followed by a Mimic, followed by an Infiltrator while Tommy stalls on two mountains with a fist full of black removal and a Goblin Outlander. I feel fortunate to have been able to put the game away that quickly and squeak out the win.
Win 2-1
Round 5 versus Angelo with U/W Reveillark
This round really pissed me off. I had to mulligan again one-land hands both games and I begin to wonder if somehow adding a land to the deck somehow twisted the odds so that I was less likely to draw lands than if I were running just 23 lands. So, down a card game 1 I try and get something going but Angelo drops 2 Sowers of Temptation to pretty much blow me out of the water. Game 2 I mulligan again, he has 2 Sowers again, but I work ridiculously hard to position myself to try and win if I can just draw a Bant Charm in time… several turns go by, still no Bant Charm and at the end Angelo’s got the Cryptic anyway so there are no outs. Let’s see, two mulligans plus 4 Sowers = down six cards in two games…
Lose 0-2
Round 6 versus Chris with G/W Overrun
I shuffle like crazy before the match. With the second loss I’m pretty much out of Top 8 contention unless something strange happens at the top tables, but I decide to stick it out and try to win some Top 16 prizes. I don’t remember too many details from this match, other than Windborn Muse saved the day in one game, and that I won the match in two games straight. Game 1 my life total was 29 at the end so Rhox War Monk obviously went nuts. Game 2 Chris’s life totals went 20-15-6-5-0 so I must have gotten a pretty sick Mimic draw.
Win 2-0
Round 7 versus Chris with Finest Hour Bant
I shuffle like crazy before the match. Game 1 I have a decent hand, a Birds, a Bant Charm, a War Monk and my two lands are Treetop and Island. I think I have a Windborn Muse too. My opponent plays a turn 1 Hierarch. I draw a Mimic and play my Treetop. My opponent plays an Infiltrator. I draw another Mimic and play it, smashing in. My opponent Bant Charms my Mimic and hits me with Exalted Infiltrator. I draw a Finest Hour and grit my teeth at my two lands and try to decide whether to play my Infiltrator or the Birds. I go for the Infiltrator and smash in with Mimic. My opponent drops War Monk, hits me with Infiltrator. I draw something else I can’t play, and put out my Birds. Chris drops Rafiq and goes nuts with War Monk; I have to chump. Next turn he attacks again, I Bant Charm, he Bants back. I soon die with still just two lands on the board. Game 2 I again only have 2 lands but this time I’ve got three Mimics! Of course, Chris plays turn 1 Hierarch, turn 2 Infiltrator, turn 3 Rafiq, turn 4 Finest Hour, hitting a land drop each turn and pretty much getting the nuts draw. I stall at 2 lands, even drawing two Bant Charms to add insult to injury.
Lose 0-2
After the match I make the mistake of asking how many lands he was running in his deck. “22,” he says. 22 lands and he doesn’t miss a land drop both games. Me, 24 lands and I stall with the 2 lands from my opening hand both games.
I smile bitterly as I check the drop box, while inside I’m on tilt.
In retrospect, I have to say I’m pretty happy with the deck as I ran it; reviewing my losses it seems apparent to me that I was victimized by some pretty horrid luck that, had things gone more normal, I had a good shot of going 7-1. The Windborn Muses did their job, and the Constables, Teegs, and Marks in the sideboard were great. The Qasali Pathmages felt right in the board even though they didn’t prove crucial one way or the other.
If you’re tired of running Windbrisk Heights, I’d highly recommend this deck; Finest Hour is an incredibly powerful card that people still seemed to underestimate; when it hits you typically blow the game open right on the spot, but even if your opponent survives and manages to sweep the board clear, having a Finest Hour on the board makes every creature you draw afterwards (or a Treetop Village) a huge threat. Even Birds goes nuts with Finest Hour.
Before I wrap this up, I wanted to extend a thanks to everyone I met at Regionals who recognized me and said they were fans of my column – I really appreciate the kind words and thank you so much for clicking through and reading You Lika The Juice. I also apologize to my opponents if I got any details from the matches wrong; I was pretty worn out the entire day and have done my best to recreate how everything went. If you remembered any other details please feel free to post them in the forums.
That’s it for now; have a great weekend!
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com