PTQ 20th with BW Tokens, and WMCQ Tournament Report!

I woke up. It was dark, with the horizon just starting to gleam with the light of Saturday. The bed was warm, but I had miles to go before I could sleep again – literally. I got up, got dressed, gassed up the car and grabbed some food for the road.

Maryland, here we come.

Last weekend was the final qualifier in the USA for the World Magic Cup. Designed as a replacement for Nationals, the World Magic Cup is a team event with four players representing each country. Three of our champions had already been chosen: LSV, Brian Kibler, and Alex Binek. The fourth would be decided by morning. Frankly, I hoped that it would be me.

The drive was shorter than I anticipated, and upon arriving, I caught up with some of the other players. My list had changed subtly on the suggestion of Marshall, cutting a land and an Angel of Jubilation for a maindeck Timely Reinforcements. This more approximated the curve that a lot of MTGO Tokens results were using, and given the prevalence of Delver in the metagame at the moment, we figured that the Timely Reinforcements would play a good role in game 1.

Here’s the list for the WCMQ:

Don’t use this list. There’s going to be a better one later. I promise.

After catching up with some friends (Shoutout to Mark, who I’d played against in the Philly PTQ), we sat down for the players meeting – 186 players, which meant 8 rounds of Magic, followed by a Top 8. The World Magic Cup Qualifiers had been poorly attended all across the country, since the payout was just so small in comparison to some of the other events. Furthermore, there was almost no publicity at all. Frankly, it just seemed like a glorified PTQ with cash prizes instead of packs. After talking to the Tournament Organizer (who was spectacular all weekend. Seriously, someone should give this woman a prize for being so organized. I’ve never had rounds run that smoothly) and some other people, it became evident that they were expecting something in the way of twice as many people as actually arrived. I’m sure that was disappointing for her. Here’s hoping that Wizards does something to promote the events more like a GP and less like a GPT.

REL Competitive meant that all the general fudgeyness with Lapsing triggers was in effect. I should really do an article about the differences between Regular and Competitive REL some time, because it’s something that newer players to competition screw up pretty often, and I’ve watched enough judge calls that boiled down to “He didn’t make an angel, so I win!”

Regardless, the first round began right on time, and we were off to the presses.

Round 1: Ron with UW Delver

Ron seemed like an appropriate start to the tournament. We sat down and exchanged some pleasantries before drawing our opening seven. Sadly, with no lands, I was forced down to six, while he kept seven. We traded blows for a bit, eventually skewing the advantage towards him as he cast and equipped a Sword of War and Peace to start chunking my HP. I get Vault of the Archangel online a turn too late and he manages to kill me with War and Peace triggers just before I’m able to stabilize off of a Finest Hour Gather the Townsfolk. We move to game two.

I’m going to be pretty honest here, this wasn’t really a game. I drew three consecutive no-land-hands before drawing 4 that also had no lands, but a pair of one drops. Interestingly enough, this match came down to a single turn – with him on three and me on the same. I needed to draw one of seven remaining anthems to kill him. I didn’t, getting a land instead, but he gave me a second opening to draw one of a pair of Oblivion Rings to remove his Gideon and kill him anyway. Sadly, Lingering Souls can’t block something equipped with Sword of War and Peace, and I fell.

0-1   (0-2 in games)

Round 2 – Timothy with RG Aggro

Tim was using a newer RG brew that incorporated Bonfire of the Damned. I don’t know if you’ve ever played against a deck with 1-2 miracles in it, but let me tell you something, it’s terrifying. To know that with any draw step, you could just get blown out of the game is really nerve-wracking. It puts a lot of stress on an aggressive deck to be able to end the game quickly.

In game one, he got a Sword in play on the second turn after I mulliganed to five. Something with the deck just felt off, and I couldn’t draw a good opening hand no matter how much I shuffled, pile shuffled, and reshuffled. Maybe it was just unlucky, but I seemed completely incapable of finding a second land. I lost the first game in short order, despite holding on for a while due to Vault of the Archangel and beating him down to nine through him gaining 4-5 per turn off Sword.

Game two finally found me keeping a seven card hand, and I crushed him despite casting a pair of Bonfire of the Damned – one miracle, and one hardcast. I got a pair of anthems and just ran him over with tokens.

The third game saw him resolve a Turn 2 Sword as well, which killed me in short order. I texted Marshall, informing him what happened and he responded by saying that Gut Shots may not be a terrible sideboard idea against RG in the future. I’m inclined to agree.

0-2   (1-4 in games)

And just like that, I was out of the running. The rest of the day got significantly better, with the highlights being below:

Round 3 – Pedro with UW Midrange

2-0, I win with a Finest Hour Gather the Townsfolk that I orchestrated beautifully.

Round 4 – Peter with Almost Mono-Black Control

2-0 The deck was interesting, skewing very hard towards black control with just a splash of blue for Snapcaster Mage. Unfortunately, black spot removal is notoriously bad against Lingering Souls, and I ran him over.

Round 5 – Joe with Zombie Pod

2-0 I’ve got to give props to any deck that runs Gloom Surgeon. He probably would have won a game if he didn’t exile every Geralf Messenger in his deck. I suppose that happens sometimes  when you’re exiling your topdecks away.

Round 6 – Randy with Solar Flare

0-2 There isn’t a lot you can do to someone who plays T2 Ratchet Bomb, T3 Ratchet Bomb, and T5 Sun Titan off a Pristine Talisman. A similar line of play happened twice. I feel like I need a better way to answer Sun Titans in the future.

Round 7 -  Brendan on ???

2-0 I’d stopped taking notes at this point. I was getting hungry and tired, but I draw well both games and I roll him over in two quick games before dropping to enter the last draft of the day.

Final Record: 4-3 (9-6 in games)

Bonus Round – Draft!

I end up drafting an awesome UG Soulbond Deck with a pair of Druids’s Familiar and Mist Ravens. Unfortunately, the games go extremely long and his Yew Spirit ends up being too much for me to handle in both games. I do get an Entreat the Angels in my second pack though.

I head out from the tournament site, get Chipotle. (God, those burritos are gigantic, and their Guacamole is spectacular. Seriously, get Chipotle. It’s awesome.) I check into the hotel and barely get to turn on A Game of Thrones before I pass out until morning.

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I wake up in an ice cold room, beneath sheets that keep me warm despite. This is actually my favorite way to sleep, for some reason, but I fight out of the bed and head back down to the tournament center for the PTQ that they’re holding. I’m one of the first people there, and so I’ve got time to make some changes to the deck. The maindeck Timely Reinforcements was useless all day, so I take it out, and the Doomed Traveler turns back into a land. I’m holding the Angel of Jubilation, ready to put the miser’s copy back into my deck when I spot the Entreat the Angels I’d pulled in the draft the day before. Marshall had long been a proponant of adding the card, but I felt it was too expensive to cast reliably. I decided to give it a shot, and it paid huge dividends.

 Here’s what I register:

Somewhere in this, I get a text from Pop.

“Joe won the WCMQ?”

Joe was a guy from my first shop, back in New York (Shout out to Comic Book Depot, one of the best stores in NY. Keep putting those results up guys.) He’s a great player, but up until now, didn’t have a great finish to his name. I’d left just as he made Top 8. I had no idea that he’d won the whole thing.

Congrats to Joe Pennachio on the win. You deserve it man.

Then I got ready, because the room was packed for the Pro Tour Qualifier. 216 players gives us another 8 round day. This one went a little bit better for me.

Round 1 – Max with Jund Pod

My mana issues appear to have disappeared overnight, and I roll out in game one. He seems to be playing Mono-Green something that didn’t actually cast any reasonable number of spells in the first game. While sideboarding, we’re talking and he mentions that he had plenty of cards, but none of the right colors. He gives away that his deck contains black, and I balk on adding in Celestial Purges, figuring that he’s trying to trick me. Turns out that he’s not, and he’s on Jund Pod – with Glissa/Ratchet Bomb.

That combo is pretty brutal for me, and I lose the second game.

Game three, I Nihil Spellbomb his Ratchet Bomb away, and get out five (!) anthems. An end of turn Midnight Haunting blows him out for 10 damage from nowhere. Feels good to be able to put 10 vigilant P/T on the field for 3 mana.

1-0 (2-1 in games)

Round 2 – Paul with RG Aggro

Paul is an older gentleman, who came to the PTQ on Father’s Day with his son. They love playing together and competing together. Paul ended up 5-3 on the day, missing prize in his last round, but he was smiling the whole time. He’s one of those opponents that you remember for the rest of the day.

I win game one despite him casting a Wolfir Silverheart and a Sword of War and Peace. Go for the Throat provides the huge blowout and Hero of Bladehold takes him from 16 to 3 with the help of a few one drops and an anthem.

Game two, we both Mull to five, before he finds a reasonable hand. I didn’t until four. Keeping a slow draw, he curves out with Birds into Wolvir Avenger into Thrun into Sword of War and Peace. I didn’t have a prayer here.

Game three he gets a turn two sword and crushes me with it. I really need an answer to that thing. It hoses the deck more than anything else in the format.

1-1 (3-3 in games)

Round 3 – Mark with Esper Delver

Mark and I have a great time before the match, chatting and goofing off. He’s playing fairly aggressively with his Vapor Snags, and so he’s run out of them by the time that I drop my Hero of Bladehold, which takes him down in short order.

Game two we both drop to six, and it’s not close. He tries to buy time with a Feeling of Dread to tap down my team, but can’t find his answer.

2-1 (5-3 in games)

Round 4 – Rebecca with GW Aggro

I present my deck and before she’s able to touch it, the judge jumps in.

“Don’t touch that deck, ma’am! I’m here to perform a mandatory and extremely important deck check on you both!”

Understand that the Bolding and Italics are not exaggerations here. He actually talked like a superhero. Sometimes I love judges. We pass the time by playing a game called Petals on a Rose, which I am apparently horrible at. The deck check comes back fine, and we play two quick games involving me praying that she never peals the Revenge of the Hunted that she has to kill me at a bunch of different places. I manage to hardcast Entreat the Angels for the first time, getting a pair of Angels that win the round.

3-1 (7-3 in games)

Round 5 – Mike with Naya Run Ramp

I dislike the ramp matchup. My deck isn’t quite fast enough to beat their good hands, and it doesn’t have the answers to prolong the game and get them into a bad position. The Naya matchup is much worse than the conventional one because Day of Judgment sidesteps my usual sideboard plan.

Normally, I can just get enough Anthems and Angel of Jubilation into play, and be bigger than his Slagstorms can kill. Day of Judgment has no such restrictions though, and it usually poses a big problem. Add Elesh Norn to the mix, and the deck is more or less a nightmare.

In game one, he ramps quickly, but then fails to land a threat. Despite three Day of Judgments, I’m able to keep putting threats on the table and put him away with a Miracle Entreat for 5.

The second and third games both go similarly, with him casting Primeval Titan and then Poisoning me out Post-DoJ, or just casting a t5 Elesh Norn after a t4 Titan. There is not terribly much I can do about that, despite getting him low in both games. The deck just needs a little more speed or a little more disruption to handle the addition of white to the deck.

3-2 (8-5 in games)

As an aside, after this match, I’ve become more and more convinced that my currentl SB plan only really works against conventional Wolf Run, and that a better answer might be to side in appetite for brains or despise to remove their primary threats on turn 3-4.

Round 6 – Pedro with UW Midrange

I get matched against Pedro again, and he takes a long, drawn out game one where I can’t quite answer the amount of card advantage he musters with Blade Splicer, Snapcaster Mage, and Restoration Angel.

Game two, he takes a swing from my Hero of Bladehold, putting him to one. He casts a Tamiyo, tapping down the Hero and starts to take control while I draw blanks. He misplays though, casting a Gideon and taunting with him, so that he can Ultimate Tamiyo. Hero of Bladehold swings, and the tokens come into play – unaffected by Gideon’s Taunt. They poke him and kill him after the judge he called informs him that – sadly, yes, that works.

The final game was leaning in his favor until I Miracled an Entreat the Angels. Playing around mana leak, I put out a pair of 5/5 flying vigilant angels that killed 3 Gideon and a Tamiyo before they crashed into him for the victory. He flashed the mana leak that he’d been holding the whole game, unable to get value out of it.

4-2 (9-6 in games)

Round 7 – Will with Wolf Run Ramp

Now here’s the ramp matchup that I prepared for. I get a couple of quick creatures out and force him to Slagstorm my guys away. Lingering Souls into a couple of anthems puts him away in the first game.

In game two, I cast T2 anthem, T3 anthem, t4 Midnight Haunting, t5 Miracle Entreat the Angels for 2. He doesn’t come back from that.

5-2 (11-6 in games)

Round 8 – David with RG Aggro

David was tired. That’s all there was too this match. He kept a horrible seven card hand in which he ended up casting a Strangleroot Geist and a Huntmaster of the Fells, with no other action in six turns. I curved out and killed him.

In the second game, I orchestrate a T3 Timely Reinforcements for full value after chump blocking his Geist with my Champion of the Parish. A second anthem (adding to the Honor that I cast on turn 2) puts the game well out of his reach. Vault seals the deal, though him missing a Huntmaster transformation trigger certainly didn’t help his case. He scoops  and I finish the tournament with an extremely nice...

Final Record: 6-2 (13-6 in games)

Place: 20th of 216

Current Seasonal Planeswalker Point Total: 527 (aiming for 750 before the end of August)

I took a look at the standing sheet. 6-2 comprised of 12th to 24th place, with around 6% Opponent’s Match Win separating the highest from the lowest. I could very easily have Top 16’d if my opponents had done better in their final round (all my former opponents lost in their last matches). I walked out with 9 packs, and the knowledge that the deck preformed more than admirably. I think that changing the sideboard to account for a t2 sword play, and being able to answer more than one type of Elesh Norn would make this deck a solid contender at any PTQ.

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With the lack of bans in Standard, it’ll be interesting to watch how the format develops in the coming weeks. As for myself – I’ve got this weekend off from tournaments, as I’ll be visiting the girlfriend during her summer break from school. The following weekend is GP Atlanta, and I hope to get some testing done and build a deck before I actually have to get on the flight next Friday.

Expect a report from that tournament – it’ll be my first GP, and I have reasonable hopes of doing well. I’ll tell you what I’m playing next Thursday, and why I think that it’s a well positioned deck for the tournament. This coming Tuesday, we’ll return to our deckbuilding series, with a discussion of Mulligans.

Until then, keep slinging spells the best way you know how.

-Andrew

The Sound of Wings

Innistrad is not a kind world.

Once, the Cathars, holy knights in the service of Avacyn the Archangel, roamed the countryside, giving blessings to the faithful, strengthening wards, and holding back the darkness. Now, it is all they can do to draw breath. The wards diminish, children are stolen from their beds,  and the shadows encroach upon all they held dear. Even mighty Avacyn, Archangel of Hope, and her countless winged flights of angels have fled or worse.

For those who live on Innistrad, the twilight world has gotten yet darker.

“Run, Stephen!” screamed his partner. The voice was a high frantic cry, brought of desperation. “Run!!”

Stephen was already gone, sprinting through the underbrush at breakneck speed. His heart pounded in his chest, moving as quickly as his thoughts. They had been out too far. Two villagers murdered in the last fortnight, and the previous night, a child missing. How could they have done anything else? Stephan had led the pair into the woods – searching for the young boy. His companion was a cathar in training, fresh from the Elgauld grounds. His name was Enval.

Screams pierced the dusk and Stephen checked his thoughts:  His name had been Enval. The snarls and howls of the pack left no doubt in his mind that Enval’s remains would never be recovered. So young.

Avacyn save us. He whispered the prayer as he darted between two bushes and onto a well-worn path. Avacyn save me! They had passed the border post nearly an hour earlier – into the Kessig Wilds. Neither of them had given any thought to turning back – there was a child to save! How could they have done anything else!

Enval’s screams died off, and moments later, the pack caught up to him. It was subtle at first: a flicker in the brush, visible only through the corner of his eye. Then an idle growl from his left. Stephen’s muscles burned, threatening to give way, but fear kept them moving, and a small miracle kept his footing sure as he careened through the forest.

Anything but the wolves, he prayed. Oh Avacyn, I don’t want to be killed. He remembered the descriptions of werewolf attacks that he’d learned about – how to recognize the signs of someone killed by one of the Cursed, how to know if you were dealing with Krallenhorde or Monodren.  How to tell if someone had been turned. Which parts of the body were safe to bury when the desiccated corpses were found.

Not like that. Not like this. He felt frenzied tears rushing down his face as the pack closed in around him.

Innistrad is not a kind world.

Then, he heard it. A single strong beat – like a bird’s wings but deeper, stronger. He’d heard tell of the sound before – during his training. They said that in years past, when Angels flew into battle alongside man, that the thrum of their wings provided a natural drumbeat for marching. There! There it was again, the deep, rumbling sound of enormous wings flapping against the cooling night air.

The wolves seemed to balk for an instant, and Stephen kept on the path as quickly as he could. In the woods, there was a chance that the holy being couldn’t even see him. He needed to make for the field – once he was in the open, the angel would surely see him. He might be able to go home – he might be able to live to see another day!

That kernel of hope took hold in Stephen’s chest as he ran. The wolves tightened their noose, but even as they did, he realized that they wouldn’t be able to stop him before the tree line. The wings beat louder now, closer. His savior, no doubt, flying just overhead. The wolves’ howls echoed, high-pitched, over the basso beat of the wings, an unholy symphony. The meaning was unmistakable: Follow him. Kill the man.

He burst from the trees and onto the open plains. The wolves were only half a dozen steps behind him.

“Avacyn!” he screamed with a breath he didn’t realize that he’d been holding. Every one of his limbs felt like molten steel. The wing beats grew closer and closer. He ran, and he listened, and he hoped. Eyes closed with panic, he tripped over an errant stone.

And then he felt the wind from the creature as it landed, heavy upon the ground. He heard the wolves all around him, frenzied with their kill.

And then, silence.

Stephan looked up at the source of the wing beats and felt every ounce of composure he’d cultivated over his life melt away. He felt the dread terror in his veins bleed away to icy resignation. Even the werewolves around him stared in fear, falling to their knees as they realized, as Stephan did, that Angels were not the only beings on Innistrad that flew.

The dragon’s wings unfurled majestically, dozens of feet wide. Its skin seemed to be made of some infernal metal, and its eyes burnt with shadow and flame. It opened its mouth and let out a roar that shook the whole plain. Like an earthquake made manifest, he felt the shock deep in his bones, rumbling there. Stephen closed his eyes against what he knew was his end. He felt the heat rise as the dragon called on ancient magics. Its mouth snapped open and a torrent of flame poured out, engulfing the wolves and Stephen alike.

The only mercy afforded him was that he only felt the flames for a few searing moments before his life was scorched from his flesh. The dragon roared in triumph.

Innistrad is not a kind place.

Top 4 at SCG Invitational Qualifier with Junk Tokens

Thus far, in my quest for Magic related fame and glory, I’ve gone to quite a few tournaments. Most have been in comic shops, or community rooms. I’ve played in convention centers and even a Wendy’s. (Delaware States '11 had overflowed its store’s fire limit, and so the top tables were played in a nearby Wendy’s with a separate judge, who was luckily nearby.) As I walked into the real estate brokerage, however, I had to admit, this was a first.

And not an unpleasant one either! Cyborg One, from Doylestown PA, puts on a great show. Knowing that they had a major Warhammer Event at the shop, they made sure that everyone was rerouted to an office park, where the father of a shop’s regular allowed them use of the space. Aside from being able to stretch out and have sufficient room to play, they also provided some exceedingly comfortable chairs and a well-heated and lit space.

I paid the entry fee and meandered around for a while. It was my first Invitational Qualifier – and the next invitational was only a two hour drive away – in Baltimore.  I didn’t feel confident in my ability to win, but I had promised myself something the night prior when testing – I would manage to get Top 8.

The room filled up.  I spent some time trading for Modern cards, still trying to build Maverick before the PTQ season is over. While I’m unsure if it’ll be done in time, it is a deck that I’m interested in having built for later seasons. I get to have a nice conversation with a guy who’s also playing Tokens, while I look at his binder – but we’ll come back to him later. With a few minutes left before the round, I wrote out my deck list.

Here’s what I played:

Round 1: Andrew– Mono Green Aggro

First round was called and I went to sit down. My opponent was a pink-cheeked blonde haired kid who looked fairly confident. I made a little small talk with him and asked if he’d done any bigger tournaments like this before. He admitted that he hadn’t, and I tried to put him at ease by telling him it was my first IQ as well. I wished him luck and we started.

I start off pretty quickly by landing a bunch of Human tokens, powered up by intangible virtue. That ground to a halt when Thrun hit the field, and we moved into a stall as he played a pair of Dungrove Elders. He couldn’t tap out, but I couldn’t swing in without dying. I make a misplay involving Thrun. He taps out to equip a Sword of War and Peace, and I use Beast Within before combat, not taking the Troll out with a double-block from my tokens.  It ended up not mattering though, as I land both of my Hero of Bladehold and swing for exact after some complicated math.

Game two was another mathematical nightmare, involving a series of chump blocks to keep an 8/8 Sworded Dungrove Elder at bay while I attacked in the air. Clutch play of the game was using a Beast Within on my own land to make a blocker on the final turn, before I swung for 8 damage in the skies.

1-0 (2-0 on games)

Round 2: Kevin– R/B Aggro

My second round opponent struck me as a pretty awesome guy, chatting freely and generally seeming happy to be in the 1-0 bracket. We talk about Standard for a bit before beginning. He’s on RB Aggro.  Blade Splicer on turn 2 stops his Stromkirk Noble, and I start to make a few creatures in the air when he taps out for Olivia.

I look down at my hand, and the closest thing I have to an answer is a Gavony Township. I hold my breath and start doing math on his increasingly dangerous Shrine against my unhappily small army of tokens. Luckily, Olivia needs two mana per ping, and Gavony Township increases my whole team by one per turn. I eventually (with the help of an intangible virtue) outpace her and swing in for lethal, forcing Olivia to chump to keep him alive.

The second game, I’ll admit, was sloppy on my part. I kept a one land hand against a red deck, relying on my pair of mana dorks to bail me out. Unfortunately, they’re both bolted, and I stumble on lands. Luckily, I draw what I need in the right order while he durdles around without much pressure and close out a game that was way too close for comfort. I really need to stop being cocky about my mulliganing. It’s the weakest part of my play by far.

2-0 (4-0 on games)

Round 3:  Tim - U/B Zombies

Tim seems like a giant teddy bear. He’s the most friendly guy in the world, despite his huge and muscular stature. I find out that he’s actually moved to Philly very recently, and was looking for a store. I recommended Redcap’s Corner, and he seemed to like what I had to say. Maybe I’ll see him there in future weeks.

The first game was much closer than it seemed, despite ending on turn 5. He beats me down to 10 while I hit him for a few points in the air. I land a Hero of Bladehold just before he drops an Obliterator of his own. Luckily, Sorin bails me out, providing the anthem that I need to swing for exactly lethal, despite the Obliterator.

Second game, I land an accelerated Blade Splicer into Sorin. A couple of blocks later, Sorin goes ultimate, stealing a Geralf’s messenger, a captain, and a Phantasmal Image. He scooped immediately after that.

3-0 (6-0 on games)

Round 4 & 5: Draw into Top 8.

At this point, I realize that I’m probably in pretty good shape in the five round tournament, and look for someone else in the 3-0 bracket. I find the other tokens guy, and he informs me that he’s pretty sure that 3-0 is a lock if we double-draw. We check out the math, and he’s right. There are four of us at 9 points, and two draws locks us in. We all shake hands, and go out for Burger King before the top 8.

While there, one of the other guys laughed and said “This must be what it feels like to be a Pro at a GP. Get three byes, win four matches, draw the next two rounds. Congrats on day two.”  I had to admit, that sounded like a pretty good deal.

When we get back, the top 8 meet and agree to split the prize pool – 9 packs each, or $36 in credit, plus our pins. That left the $250 travel stipend and the Invite for first place. I was pretty happy with having made it this far, especially with the double-draw in, but I didn’t feel like I was through yet. We sat down to play it out.

3-0-2 (6-0 on games)

Top 8: Matt with Burning Vengeance Reanimator

Matt was one of the other 3-0 players who drew in, so I was a little leery going into the match. I don’t have a lot of experience at the top of a tournament bracket.  Luckily, he was playing a relatively strange archetype, which managed to be the talk of the shop, so I knew going in that he was playing some Burning Vengeance deck with Unburial Rites. Not something I’d tested against, that’s for sure.

Unfortunately for Matt, he never gets to build up any pressure. In game one, Sorin sits on the board and made two emblems to go with an intangible virtue as my Gathered Townsfolk went the distance. Game two wasn’t closer, with a turn 3 Hero of Bladehold that he couldn’t answer. I felt bad, since his deck hadn’t really done anything in either game except play a bunch of filtering and not a lot of answers.

Despite the easy Top 8 round, I started having some doubts here. I know it sounds cliché, but I didn’t like my odds against any of the others. There was the other tokens player – with a WB list that probably stomped me in the mirror. He had Vault, which trumps my Gavony Township in a race, and twice as many anthem effects. In addition, there was a RG player, and a Delver player.

4-0-2 (8-0 on games!)

Top 4: Joe with RG Aggro

Unfortunately, I played like crap the entire set here. Not only did I peg him on the wrong deck, but I kept an even more marginal hand. After the turn 1 Copperline Gorge, I figured him for Wolf’s Run, and I never revised that even after having seen a Strangleroot Geist. I hadn’t tested the Wolf’s Run matchup before, and it was something that worried me, despite the fact that I had a strong sideboard plan against them. I kept a marginal hand in game one, involving three anthems, two lands (Plains and Swamp), and a pair of Blade Splicers. No green sources and no playable creatures means the hand is not keepable, but I choked and kept it.  I never saw the third land until he already had a Huntmaster flipped.

Game two went better despite my mulligan to 6, with me keeping up for a while until he played a sword that I didn’t have an answer for. A 2/3 Bird of Paradise beat me by itself, supported by a healthy allotment of wolves and geists on the ground. Had I been able to answer the Sword, I think I could have won this one pretty handily, but alas.

4-1-2 (8-2 on games)

Aftermath

While a Top 4 finish is hardly bad my first time out, I couldn’t help but have a bad taste in my mouth. I felt like I had thrown the game away. This feeling subsided somewhat when I took my credit and managed to pick up a pair of Vengevines, a Fauna Shaman, as well as a Hero of Bladehold (so I can return one of those to Marshall, at least.)

I watched my friend playing Tokens win the finals handily, though the matches were much closer than they should have been. In game two, he had the option to trade his Elsepth for the opposing Batterskull, and decided to gain life instead, losing Elspeth the following turn to a trampling Batterskull. In the end, though, an increasingly large contingent of anthems bore the tokens deck out and scored the victory and the blue envelope.

We helped the store owners close the place down, complementing them on a well run event. They’re hoping to run two qualifiers per set release from now on, and I can safely say that I’ll be attending the majority of those. Once they move into their larger store in the next few months, they promised to look into a Super IQ – which gives out awesome playmats as prizes in addition to the rest.

I can't say enough good things about the Cyborg One crew, except to say that I'll be attending all their future events without question. Stand up guys all around, and a great experience.

The winning tokens player and I got to talking, and he mentioned that he needed to walk nearly three miles to the train station, take a train back to his place, then take another hour and a half worth of busses to his girlfriend’s place. I offered him a ride, since it was more or less on the way, and I didn’t really know how to get back to Philly from where we were. Seemed dumb to have to travel for 3-4 hours just to get 40 minutes away. He accepted.

You always hear that the best part of Magic is the people, but I’d never really believed it till now. Everyone I’d ever hung out with at a tournament had been people that I went to the site with. It took about an hour and a half to get back to Philly, and Vishra rode with me the majority of the way. We discussed the deck, and I got a nice ego boost when he mentioned that he’d read my blog from the link on MTGSalvation.

Shoutout to you Vishra, and best of luck in Baltimore! I’ll be watching for you on stream!

Until next time everyone,
Andrew

1st at Magic Game Day: Dark Ascension

As you may have heard in my last post, Magic Game Day was this past weekend, and I was out to win the top prize – the Thraban Heretic playmat. I had a deck that I was confident with, and had enough play with it that I knew I could do well. After passing up the last minute idea of driving to GP Baltimore (waking up at 5am to drive there seemed like a bad idea after I laid down to go to bed at 2am), I figured I wanted a full day of Magic nonetheless, and set out to find Game Day events.

This was the deck I planned on playing. I’d made some minor changes since the GPT, figuring that extra removal in the board would be more useful than Stony Silence, and deciding to shift more towards midnight haunting over Gather the Townsfolk, which had been unimpressive thusfar.

I checked Redcap’s Corner first, my current primary store, which always has killer events with remarkably good prize payout. Unlike a lot of places, they pay out the entire entry fee in store credit. A $5  eight man standard pays out 40 dollars in credit, usually concentrated to the top 2 (25 and 15, usually). I wanted to play there because it’s my normal shop, and I’m trying to become more and more of a regular there. The competition is stiff – everyone, for the most part, having a firm grasp of the rules, and tier 1 decks are the rule, rather than the exception. Unfortunately, their game day started at 5pm. I’d woken up around 10, and didn’t want to wait 7 hours to play magic.

My search continued, and I found a quaint little shop in NJ, where I traveled about 20 minutes (it would have been less, had I not gotten lost in the bowels of NJ, where there are two Haddon Avenues, which intersect, in Collingswood Township – next to Haddon Township. Who designed this place?!) I played three rounds out there before deciding to drop and head on over to Redcap’s. The rounds went as follows.

Top Deck Games

Round 1: RG Aggro (2-0)

This deck was actually pretty interesting. He was playing a 1-drop aggro deck focusing on Torch Fiend and Young Wolf. He came out the gate pretty quickly, but I figured I could stabilize around 10 life and then crush him back with vigilant tokens. Then he cast Instigator Gang off of an Infernal Plunge, and without a spell to cast on my own turn, I was facing down a dangerous squad of wolves that were threatening lethal in short order.

As always, my deck bailed me out, with a gather the townsfolk off the top to pair with the one I had in my hand. Four mana later, I had an army of 2/2 vigilant creatures, and a gavony township on the field, threatening a pump the following turn. I stabilize on 4 life and manage to claw my way back in to take down game one.

Game two, I keep a hand with a dork and two blade splicers, backed up with intangible virtue. He was never in it, and I put the game away.

Round 2: Frites (1-2)

I’d seen this guy laying out his deck before the match, so I knew he was on some multicolored ranimator plan. After the turn 1 faithless looting, he mentioned that he’d seen the list from the Pro Tour and just copied it. Great. Like I mentioned last time, I knew that Reanimator plans were going to be a weak point for me. Elesh Norn stops the deck cold – and when he tosses her into the yard on t5, I know I’m in trouble. My draw wasn’t quite aggressive enough, and he stabilizes on 6 life to kill me.

Game two goes my way though. An aggressive dork into intangible virtue, then hero and gavony, provided the t5 kill that I needed to race him out.

Unfortunately, game three saw him pitch Elesh Norn and Unburial Rites on t1 to a faithless looting. By turn 4, the Grand Cenobite was sitting on the field and ended any game plan I’d hoped to have.

Round 3: Wannabe Wolf-Run (2-0)

My opponent for this round was newer at the game than most, and had won his second round mostly by having the nut draw. He was on a Wolf Run Variant – and I use the term variant to be kind. No Slagstorms, only two Green Sun’s Zeniths, and a pair of Primeval Titans just made his deck completely inconsistent and unable to mount any defense. I took him down without issue in two games that were never close.

After the third round, it was after 4pm, and I realized I wouldn’t be able to stay if I wanted to catch the Redcap tournament. I dropped, wishing everyone luck, and got to Redcap just in time for pairings.

Redcap's Corner

Round 1: UW Control? (2-0)

I’m going to be honest – I don’t know what this guy was playing. All I know is that he cast 4 ponders over two games, shuffling all of them, and a pair of spellskites that died to Blade Splicers without any real issue. Round was over before match slips were out, and I got to watch a pretty awesome match between Mono Red and UW Humans that was going on next to me. Both players seemed to have a really great handle on their decks. Humans ended up edging out the victory through an unanswered Sword in game 3

Round 2: Anthem Spirits (2-1)

Creature mirrors usually go to the deck with more anthems, and this guy had twelve of them. Four captains, four phantasmal image, plus a playset of honor of the pure made him have some absurd draws possible. He blows me out of the water by resolving T2 Honor, T3, 4, and 5 Captains, and I just couldn’t keep up with the Hexproof Flyers.

I board in all my Naturalizes and cross my fingers. Luckily, I get there. My flyers are able to overcome his after I blow him out by Naturalizing his Honor of the Pure after blockers and killing two Captains off. After the game, he admitted to only having been playing for three or four months, so he was still having trouble playing around things. Honestly though, he played extraordinarily well for someone who had only started with Innistrad.

Game three was tough, with me throwing chump blockers in the air to hold the line against his increasingly powerful air force. All the while, Blade Splicers, keeping pace with his Lords, got in for devastating hit after devastating hit, eventually forcing him to chump with a Lord, which died and put him behind in the race. He never recovered, and I took a narrow victory the turn before he would have killed me. After the game, he pointed out that he’d been locked off of Black mana, and couldn’t have flashbacked either of the lingering souls in his yard. Had he seen a single black source in any of the last four turns, I’d have died on the spot. Talk about close matches.

Round 3: UW Haunted Humans (2-1)

This matchup is a mental nightmare. All three of our games went to complicated board stalls that involved phantasmal imaged Hero of Bladeholds and Gavony Triggers, Equipped Geists of St. Traft, Vigilant Golems pounding through, Ratchet Bombs, and Planeswalkers going ultimate. All three rounds were nightmares of board state, and I actually stopped taking notes so that I wouldn’t inadvertently miss anything. The last game came down to me on two life, and swinging to kill him from 6 to end the match in my favor.

Round 4: Tempered Steel (0-2)

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t expect to see this deck around anymore. I’ve always hated it, and I’ve never been able to play well against it. I don’t know if it’s just been bad luck, but it seems like every time I go against it, since the Caw-Blade days, it’s ended on turn 4 with multiple Tempered Steel in play.

Without going too much into detail, he lands a t2 Tempered Steel in game 1, to go with his 3 creatures, and crushes me. Game two goes even less well. All said and done, he landed 5 of the eponymous enchantment in two games, and I never saw any removal. Match lasted all of ten minutes.

At this point, we cut to top 4, which consisted of me, the Mono-Red player I’d watched in round 1, Tempered Steel Guy, and the UW Humans deck (which rallied to 3-1 as well). I’m matched against Mono-Red.

Top 4: Red Deck Wins (2-1)

Game one ends up being a lot closer than I wanted it to be. Starting the last turn, he has a Shrine on 6, with me at 11. He galvanic blasts me on upkeep, taking me to 9 and the Shrine to 8 after the upkeep trigger. He looks at the card he draws, then at the five mana he has in play. He tanks for a little while, and then extends the hand. Phew.

Game two goes better for him. I can’t find flyers and he beats me over the head with a Phoenix carrying a Sword. You know the game went poorly when he ended on 29 health.

Round three, on the other hand, goes even worse for him. I curve out perfectly, and find the O-ring for his Phoenix. He gets locked down without his recurring threat and I kill him while still on 10. He’s pretty happy, having been part of the Spirit player’s group, who only started at the Innistrad prerelease. Top four after less than half a year’s play is awesome. Good for him.

Finals vs UW Humans. (2-0)

I’d like to tell a story of an epic rematch here, but to be honest, he was never in it. He mulliganed both games, and I drew pretty well, putting him down in less than fifteen minutes of play, most of which was spent shuffling his deck.  It was a pretty lackluster finals after all the fighting that I had to do to get there, but I suppose that happens sometimes.

For my troubles, I was awarded 30 bucks in store credit, which went to round out my playset of Knights of the Reliquary. (Building GW Aggro for Modern – it’s going to be pretty awesome!) In addition, I got the playmat, which I’ve been staring at dreamily since I got it.

Sometimes, things just work out the way you want them to.

Next weekend, I’ll be skipping FNM to do some extreme testing at Marshall’s house. We’re going to see if we can’t work out a Havengul Lich deck, either combo or control, or whatnot – we haven’t decided yet. I’ll be sure to report results back when I have them. He’s planning on playing in his shop’s belated game day, while I’ll most likely be headed to the Star City Games Qualifier in Doylestown. I’ll be sure to post a new deck list when I’ve got the results from there. Preliminary plan includes finding a way to stop graveyard based strategies from reanimating Elesh Norn in my face, and finding an actual workable sideboard plan against Wolf Run Ramp.

Feel free to ask any questions you've got about the deck, comments, or things you'd like to see in the future.

Till Next Time-

Junk Tokens for Dark Ascension Standard

With every new set, we get new weapons, new tools to work with. With each set, the same patterns – we build up our collections, crack our packs, and trade for what we think is the next best thing. We all know – some of us more accurately than others – that we’re on to something powerful. Many of us will cobble together those decks, keeping a careful eye on the professional scene all the while.

Delver is strong.
Spirits are rising.
Huntmaster of the Fells is on the upswing.
Dungrove Elder is back, with friends.
Sword of War and Peace is where you want to be right now.

One by one, we find our decks. We choose the weapons we’ll do battle with. Some test, others work on pure theory, still more iterate on the decks that came before. The professionals go to war – Grand Prix, Star City Open, Pro Tour. Results pour in.

And then, the event for the rest of us. Game Day.

That would be this weekend, for those of you who don’t know. Magic Game Day: Dark Ascension is this weekend, 25 February 2012, and the prizes are greater than normal. Of course, there’s the usual full-art promos (and a nice one at that!). Foil promos and packs for those who rank highly. This time around, a new prize for the champion: a Playmat.

Now, I’m not a pro. I mean, I wouldn’t mind playing at a higher level than the one that I am currently playing at, but I’ve never played in a main event of a Grand Prix. I’ve never done a Star City Open. I’ve never done anything but side events at the Pro Tour. That said, for once, I think I’ve got a deck that can compete on the highest levels and win. I think that with good play, I could win that playmat.

And I want to do it.

Maybe it’s my inner Spike coming out, but I’ve got the bug. A month ago, when I was just hashing out details and slowly collecting cards, watching the metagame shift in tournament reports, I would never have imagined feeling confident about winning a tournament. Now, a month later, I feel like the only limiting factor on my deck is my ability to play it perfectly. Things have happened in the meantime. A third place finish at a Grand Prix Trial with over 80 players has encouraged me. They way my deck is playing has bolstered that confidence. I look at the other decks in the format and can safely say that there isn’t another deck that I’d rather be playing.

What deck is it that’s got me aiming for the top prize?

  

This deck has some legs. If you’ve been following things since Dark Ascension was spoiled, you’ll have no doubt seen the tokens lists popping up. Sorin and Lingering Souls have electrified players with their easy-to-build archetype that combines raw power with evasive flyers and enough gas to weather the worst that a control deck can bring against them. Nevertheless, despite the initial hype, token decks have notoriously underperformed. It could have been the existence of Ratchet Bomb in multiple sideboards that caused the trouble. Maybe it was people’s reluctance to buy Sorin at his initial price. Perhaps the problem was just that people were looking to the wrong places. Tokens was a turn too slow, and not quite powerful to make the splash that some people hoped for.

This deck is not the Black/White tokens that has lost again and again to Delver and Spirits.

The Core:

The core of the deck is simple, use your powerful token generators, in concert with multiple anthem effects and light permission, to attack with multiple mid-sized creatures around turn 4-6. To this end, we have a large number of token generators (Lingering Souls, Midnight Haunting, Blade Splicer, Gather the Townsfolk) that each put multiple bodies onto the field immediately. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Intangible Virtue (as well as Honor of the Pure in the sideboard) provide those creatures with massive bonuses, making their evasive attacks even harder to stop. Vigilance is key here – the ability to attack without fear of a counter-swing wins games outright. This deck maintains all the power that the normal B/W lists provide and more. Gavony Township makes every creature in the deck into a game ending threat.

The deck has an amazing resilience that allows it to fight through even multiple sweepers, flashing back Lingering Souls with multiple anthems on the field allows the deck to repopulate it’s threats almost immediately while managing to avoid overextending into the next one.

The Twist:

The addition of green provides the BW tokens deck with a number of additional options, all of which are strong enough to warrant it’s addition to the deck. Adding six mana dorks allows us to accelerate on the play into a 3 drop like Blade Splicer that will immediately put more controlling decks on the back foot. They’ll have to use reactive answers, rather than proactive counterspells, and as a result, will be tapped down on your turn more often. Landing a larger threat immediately also provides trouble for the aggro decks of the format, who can find their Zombie or Delver based assault stymied by a 3/3 first strike on the second turn.

While the additional speed is useful, it also provides a number of other benefits. Adding green allows us the use of Gavony Township, which is one of the most influential lands in standard. When battles are being won by granular differences in power and toughness, a repeatable pump effect is invaluable, especially as early as turn four. Even more dangerous, the effect allows your mana dorks to take to the Red Zone and actually make a difference in combat. It is not uncommon to transform a Bird of Paradise, via Gavony Township, Sorin’s Emblem, and a Battle Cry into a credible threat once it’s outlived its use as a mana source.

With the addition of green, we also get access to an easily splash-able Garruk Relentless. With his token generation and spot removal capabilities, alongside his ability to create Deathtouch creatures (buffed by the rest of your effects) and even tutor for your answers in rare circumstances, he is a fearsome threat that can land as early as the third turn.

Weaknesses:

For all its strengths, this deck does still have a few glaring weaknesses. First, the lack of a strong removal package leaves it very vulnerable to a well constructed reanimator deck. A fast Elesh Norn leaves us with only two ‘outs’ in the whole deck, both sorcery speed and vulnerable to removal themselves. I would be unhappy to see my foe with Unburial Rites most of the time. The solution here is to apply pressure early and hard, forcing them to use their mana on answering your threats, rather than letting them go about their business and getting their finisher on the field as fast as possible.

Furthermore, while I haven’t tested the matchup extensively, I suspect that Wolf Run with Huntmaster and Slagstorm is a terrible matchup all around. Post board, their ability to bring in up to 6 sweepers, as well as value creatures that cause persistent problems for any kind of slowly gathering offence makes it a nightmare. As noted before, we have only a few answers to a Titan once resolved – and no permission to stop it from resolving at that. This matchup broadly comes down to a race, usually with tokens trying to throw evasive damage past a resolved titan for the last few points before a Kessig Wolf Run depleted your life faster than a resolved Splinter Twin.

Sideboard:

The sideboard for this deck is very much tailored for the current metagame, and as a result, is extremely prone to shifting suddenly and without notice. The board listed above was primarily prepared for the weekend of the 18th, when I attended a GPT. I expected the metagame to broadly mirror those of the professional circuit, and admittedly, was mostly correct. I plan on making some changes for the upcoming weekend at my local shop, since I expect the metagame there to be slightly lower caliber (sorry guys!) so that a strong, centralized strategy with answers to broad archetypes would have the best chance of doing well, rather than specific bullets for individual decks.

With that said, here's some of the justifications for the pieces that I played last weekend.

The pair of Hero of Bladehold shouldn't surprise anyone. The card is a beast, and only gets stronger with the support offered in this shell. I would have four main deck, except for Vapor Snag's place as the best removal spell in standard.

The solitary Thrun is my nod to the control match up, but it's also useful against Delver style decks where a 4/4 that can't be fooled or tricked is worth it's weight in gold. I'd play a second if I could, and I might make that change in the coming weeks.

Three naturalizes are useful in a number of match ups, from Tempered Steel to Sword Decks, to Pike decks, to Heartless Summoning decks. I wouldn't consider going below three.

Three Stony Silences were put in entirely to respect the power of Ratchet Bomb, however, it also comes in useful against a number of decks that rely on powerful artifacts. Infect, Sword, and Pike decks come directly to mind, but if you have a Wolf Run deck pinned on Ratchet Bombs, it will also turn off their Sphere of the Suns. Best off, it's a proactive answer to it, stopping them before the spell is even cast.

Elsepth Tirel was a relatively late addition to the list, and one I was very unsure of going into the GPT. I found myself not boarding her in for most of my match ups, but come the final round of Swiss, as soon as my opponent landed his turn 1 Diregraf Ghoul, I knew Elsepth would have her chance. I'll spare you the details and tell you that she single-handedly won every game I cast her in. She's absurd. Play her. Learn to love her.

The last four spots go to a quartet of Honor of the Pure. This was originally a plan to help deal with Wolf's Run decks of all flavors, but I found them extremely useful in the Spirits match ups. As those battles tend to favor whomever happens to have more anthem/lord effects, loading up on more seemed a good way to gain an edge in that match up. As of this writing, I haven't gotten to test it against Wolf's Run, but I suspect that match up is probably still pretty bad. Will consider more options against it - possibly bringing Nevermore in, but we'll see.

Conclusion:
I think that Junk Tokens is, at the moment, attacking the metagame in a unique and powerful manner. I'd strongly suggest suiting it up and taking it for a spin, see if you like it. It's certainly the type of deck that I'm loving, and I plan on iterating on it for a good long time.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments below. I'll be answering questions about the deck for the foreseeable future. Expect to see some tournament reports in the coming weeks as I report on the deck's progress.