It takes a”special” player to be at 4-0 with a solidly-tested and built rogue deck, and then throw away the next two matches while being up a game in each. Working your ass off for two months, only to be done in by your own poor decision-making skills, is not a pleasant thing to have happen – but it happened to me. This is my story…
My goal that day was a winning record. I knew that I hadn’t playtested enough and would get caught by tricks and sideboards I had not anticipated. I also figured to lose one or two matches to manascrew, since I was running a two-color deck with non-aligned colors and no Birds of Paradise. That about summed up the day: Winning record, lost two matches to my errors, one to mana screw. But along the way, I learned some lessons about Rob Dougherty’s Elvish Succession, some changes in the metagame that have weakened it, and some tricks on playing it properly.
The headline says it all! Meet Ron Spears… artist of Akroma (Angel of Wrath), Phage the Untouchable, Entomb, Astral Slide, Naturalize and many more of your favorite cards… at the following upcoming events…
Friday, May 30 – Sunday, June 1 @ Grand Prix Pittsburgh!
I have slowly come to the realization that I will, in all likeliness, never become the next big thing on the Pro Tour. Yes, there are a few”old timers” on the Pro Tour, such as the inimitable Mike Pustilnik, but I have never been able to reach that”critical mass” point where I had the momentum to carry my skills, such as they are, into lucrative employment as a professional Magic player. For me and all the other Bennie Smiths out there, the two tournaments we really look forward to are States and Regionals. A win at States or a Top 8 at Regionals would be the pinnacle of my competitive Magic career, Pro Tour or no Pro Tour.
When a beginner sees creatures, especially weenies, he usually labels a deck”aggro.” When he sees control elements, especially counterspells, he usually labels it”control.” Aggro-control decks, however, have creatures and counterspells. The problem with misidentifying an archetype, as usual, is consequently not knowing how to play against it, much less sideboard.
The Regionals Tournament reports have been coming fast, and I’m still completely buried. (Alan Meaney’s thirty-page report didn’t help matters, taking up an amazing two and a half hours to edit, though it was about as good as tourney reports get.) As of this point, I still have twenty-six tourney reports to go – and as has been noted before, tourney reports are the hardest single Magic report to edit. (HINT: The next person who sends in any damn article that doesn’t have all of the card names capitalized is going to need a proctologist to remove my sneaker.)
As a result, I’ll try to catch up this weekend, but the reports pour in. I will ask, cheerfully, that unless a) you finished in the Top 32 or b) were running some sort of notably interesting rogue deck, you please refrain from sending in any reports for the time being. It will save me time and effort. Thank you.
Also, thanks to everyone who offered to pinch-hit for me; alas, the time it would take to train you to do it to my retentive standards would take more time than it would to get out from under this flurry of reports. And, God willing, this should only happen twice a year. Message ends.
For this series, I’m going to try something a little different: I’m going to leave the deck strategy in the next article and instead get right to the report. Once I’ve gone through all the rounds, then I’ll post a strategy article specifically for Mirari’s Wake – a suddenly very important deck. My feeling is that for a deck that’s as complicated as this one, if we get the experience under your belt now (at least vicariously), the strategy article for the deck will make that much more sense and we’ll be able to get down to the nitty gritty a lot faster.
Then step up to the plate and prove it! On Saturday, May 17th, Level III Judge/StarCityGames.com Rules Guru Sheldon Menery will be attending the Richmond, Virginia Scourge Prerelease!
His mission? To test and certify as many qualified judges as he can! Judge certification candidates should be well-versed in Magic’s Comprehensive Rules, the Magic Floor Rules, the DCI Universal Tournament Rules, and the DCI Penalty Guidelines.
Interested in testing with Sheldon? For more information… well… ask the judge!
I went undefeated. 8-0-2, all the way to Nationals. If there had been a top 8 faceoff, Elves would probably have taken the championship, considering there were four Blue/Green decks in it. The Elves reign supreme – somehow. All I can say is that many Angels suffered and many Birds got big. In the end, even Silvos had a thing or two to say. Regardless, I have single-handedly increased the value of Seeker of Skybreak in the past week.
I had to play against the only competent person left in contention at the Ohio Regionals. The winner would be first after the Swiss and thus first overall, as the top 8 doesn’t get played out anymore; the loser would get essentially nothing….
One more round and I would have qualified for Nationals for the third consecutive year. One more round and I would have been first place in the last two Regionals I’d played in. One more round and I wouldn’t have to leave the tournament site a loser. One more round and I would still have believed that I was good.
The reports have been flooding in, which is great – but unfortunately, tournament reports are one of the most editing-intensive and time-consuming jobs I have. I worked ten hours yesterday doing nothing but editing, and I’m still about twenty publishable articles in the hole. So if you have sent something in to me and haven’t seen it up yet, or if I’m slow to respond to someone, I apologize; I am, in every aspect, completely swamped.
It will get done. Eventually. I promise. Tomorrow: Nate Heiss’ triumphant report, Tim Aten’s valiant attempt, and the rest of John Stephens’ coverage.
“Hunting Sound” is the pet name for the Hunting Grounds deck I played six months ago, re-applied to the updated U/G/w aggro mold. The deck was extremely aggressive, with almost no board control elements whatsoever. This made the deck somehow comforting to play. You either beat your opponent upside the face , or the deck just didn’t deliver and you’d shrug your shoulders to show your disdain for those overpriced fetchlands that don’t even fix mana 75% of the time.”Flooded Strand,” you’d remark,”Who needs ’em?”
I have a confession to make: I am Adam Prosak and I have an addiction to Wild Mongrel. I also have an unholy love for Quiet Speculation, which was so good to me that it placed me 5th at Grand Prix: Cleveland and won me the Kentucky Open (sorta), so you know I’ve been playing U/G since it began. And though I’m qualified for Nationals on ranking, here’s a complete listing of the U/G build I would play if I were to go to Regionals, the sideboarding strategyes, and what to watch for in each matchup.
I was all prepared to do a big blowout article like I usually do, bringing your ass fully up on all the latest tech… Until I read Scott Johns’ article yesterday and realized he covered everything. So now that you’ve been brought fully up-to-date on what the metagame looks like, I’m going to take a look at how to attack each of the decks Scott covered. If you wanted to go about disrupting their game plan, how exactly would you do it?
Your friends and teammates are best used for reconnaissance. For example, during a Constructed tournament, during the final rounds of Swiss play, your buddies can walk around the top tables and remember unusual maindeck or sideboard cards. During the actual final 8, there might be temptation for your pals to watch your match; instead, send them out to scout the next round’s opponent, again looking for relevant maindeck and sideboard cards. And if you want to know how to stop people from scouting you, well… You’ll have to read the article.
