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.

2nd at GPT Los Angeles with BW Tokens

Hey everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve done a tournament report around here, but I have had a pretty significant tournament since then. Two weekends ago, for the last week of INN-DKA Standard before the release of Avacyn Restored, I traveled with my friend Heebs to Ron’s Comic World where they were holding a Grand Prix Trial for GP Los Angeles.

Now, disclaimer, I had no intention of actually going to Los Angeles, but the owner of the shop is a great guy that cares about growing the community and providing the best experience to the players. To that end, he was trying to get 75 people in the store, to help them qualify for running PTQs and other major events. As a prospective grinder-to-be, I’m more than happy to help them out with this. Making the tournament free sure didn’t hurt.

We hit 75 people by the skin of our teeth, and so that’s another Achievement Unlocked for Ron’s. Congratulations to the store for running a quality event – including nearly two cases in prizes. The top 4 walked out of the store with 2 booster boxes each, plus other prizes down to 16th place. If you’re ever in the middle-NJ area, seriously consider giving Ron’s a shot.

Heebs and I arrived a couple of minutes early for the tournament. I was on a pretty standard B/W tokens list. In the car on the way there, I had a brief moment of panic and texted Heebs the following.

“Hey, could you bring your Champions of the Parish?”

I’d been running without them so far, preferring to have a beefier top end, but the more I thought about the format’s evolution, the more I was convinced that playing a virtual Wild Nacatl couldn’t possibly be the wrong choice. Worst case, it provided an early blocker that would help me stall for the Lingering Souls + Multiple Anthem endgame.

I’ll go more in depth as to the specific choices as they come up in matches, but here’s the list that I played.

As for Heebs, he decided to be the only true man in the room and sleeved up a Goblins-themed RDW that had been testing very well. We’ll get back to that.

We get the word that we’ll be playing 7 rounds, followed by a Top 8. The first round begins and I sit down with more than a little bit of nerves grinding at me.

I’m going to be honest here. I had been on a tear – getting a Top 4 finish at a GPT and a SCG IQ Top 8 within a week of each other, winning the fairly cutthroat DKA Game Day, not to mention finishing in the Top 8 split at my DKA prerelease, and winning a couple of FNM events. I feel like my Magic game has never been stronger. However, since all of that a couple of months ago, I haven’t been able to post a winning record for anything. Part of that could be deck choice – I’ve been running a Naya aggro list that just didn’t have enough power to punch through to a deck with midgame presence, but it had translated over to limited as well, and I generally wasn’t happy. This tournament was going to be my first time back on Tokens in a couple months – and I admittedly hadn’t tested this version at all.

Round 1 – UB Zombies

This match starts out as well as I could possibly hope – I win the die roll and start out with the Champion > Gather draw. His single Gravecrawler matches up extremely poorly against it, and his Geralf’s Messenger meets an Oblivion Ring, clearing the board and letting me beat in for a ton of damage once I get an anthem on the board. Champion deals more than 12 damage by itself. I feel immediately vindicated by my choice to include him in the deck.

As we’re shuffling up for game two after a fairly quick scoop, Heebs walks over.

“How’s your match going?”

“Oh,” he said, looking a little confused. “It’s over. I won.”

“Goblins, right. What’d you play?

Blue/Black Zombies.”

“2-0?”

“Yep.”

My opponent looked worried at that. We shuffled up and he took game 2 after I mulliganed and ate a couple of bad removal spells. Game three sees him stick on two mana and he just can’t cast anything quickly enough – I win the race handily.

1-0   (2-0 in games)

Round 2 – UW Delver

Game one goes to me off his mulligan, despite the turn one delver flip on the play. He can’t quite muster any real offence once I get an intangible virtue and a few flyers online. I’m very careful to double-block so he can’t use his vapor snags to get 2 for 1’s everywhere. Eventually, I drop a Hero of Bladehold and a single unimpeded swing tilts the game in my favor.

I’m going through my sideboard and seeing nothing useful, so after a moment’s consideration, I took some advice from Patrick Sullivan – master of Legacy (and other types of) Burn. “My favorite sideboard plan with Burn is to just present my original sixty.”

I hand the deck over to him and he crooks an eye at me.

“No sideboard?”

“Not exactly a matchup that I have much against.”

“You’re probably pretty favored.”

That may be true, but my mulligan to five dooms me before the game even starts. He crushes me with a turn one Delver flip (How does that keep happening?), backed up by enough Mana Leak action to keep me locked down until I’m virtually out of threats.

Heebs walks over.

“How’s it going?”

“I beat some Green/White thing.”

“What was he playing?”

“Just good things. Hero. Thrun. Some planeswalkers.”

“Township Tokens?”

“Oh yea. He had one of those.”

“Nice. Goblins getting there?”

“Yep.”

Heebs walks away so I can start my third game (Look ma! Still no sideboard!) and my opponent leans over to me, glancing at Heebs across the shop.

“Is he really playing Goblins?”

“Yea, it’s pretty sweet.”

“I am scared shitless of that deck. I don’t think I can do anything about it.”

I laughed.

“Seriously! What can I do? Vapor Snag a Goblin Chieftan? That seems terrible.”

Game three goes my way after a turn 2 Honor of the Pure buffs my Champion and I’m able to grind out through a Sword of War and Peace with Vault of the Archangel.

2-0   (4-1 in games)

Round 3 – Esper Control

The guy sits down and rolls out one of those playmats. You know, the one that proudly reads “GP Somewhere Far Away.” He’s got a bunch of Top 8 pins from everything, and he shuffles like a Vegas pro.

“Doing well so far?”

“Not bad,” he shrugs. “You?”

I shrug. Seems like things are working out pretty well. Deck running well?”

“So far.”

I guess the wheels fall off everyone sometime. Luckily, not this round for me. I crush him in two games. In the second, he throws everything and the kitchen sink at me. Recurring a ratchet bomb off a Sun Titan, resolving an Elesh Norn, but it doesn’t help. Both games are won off the back of removing his Oblivion Ring to free an anthem and alpha strike.

It’s around this point that I realize one of the issues with my sideboard – it hasn’t been significantly updated since this deck was Junk Tokens (B/W/G). As a result, the Ray of Revelation in the sideboard have no green mana to fuel their flashback. Man, did I feel stupid realizing that. I hoped it wouldn’t be relevant.

My opponent sighs after the round and smiles at me while extending the hand. “You know, I played in PT Honolulu. I guess today’s just not my day.”

Firs t off, nice guy. Shook my hand, looked me in the eye, and genuinely didn’t complain about his loss. Also gave me the biggest ego boost of the day.

I walk over to Heebs. He smiles, announces “Delver, 2-0. Goblins rule.”

“I beat a Pro Tour player.”

The day appears to be going pretty well so far.

3-0   (6-1 in games)

Round 4: UW Delver

I’m paired against Lance, who’s from a shop that I play at on occasion. He’s a very solid mechanical player, but I decide to be daring with my sideboarding choices, actually choosing to sideboard this time. I realize that the only way he’s going to beat me is with a turn 1 delver flip, so I side in insurance against that eventuality. I’m paid back with Timely Reinforcements for full value in games 2 and 3. The games are close, but I edge him out in game 3 because Vault of the Archangel is incredible.

Heebs goes against an Esper Control player and wins 2-1.

As I'm walking past a couple of people, I hear someone lamenting their loss.
"I'm going to need to win out from here to even have a chance."
"Look at the bright side man, at least you can't go against that Red Deck."
There was only one mono-red deck at the tournament. Goblins striking the fear into people's hearts all over the place.

4-0   (8-2 in games). Heebs has the same record.

Round 5: Heebs with Goblins

It was bound to happen eventually. It's just a shame that it happened now. One round later, and we probably would have been able to shake hands and safely draw into top-8. We’re seriously considering drawing here anyway to give both of us two chances at a win-and-in, but I think we screwed up the math and decided to end up playing it out. As is, a win here locks one of us for Top 8.

Both games go more or less the same, and it regrettably isn’t close. His Goblin deck preys on a ton of decks that have fairly fragile early games. Being cute with a delver, or a single creature defending you, works in the majority of cases, but being able to go Goblin Chieftan > Hellrider is petrifying. It’s significantly less impressive when there’s a veritable wall of vigilant flyers on the other side, which periodically have lifelink.

Timely Reinforcements makes it a lot worse in game 2, and I win despite the resolved Sword of War and Peace on his side of the feel.

5-0   (10-2 in games)

Round 6 and 7:

I draw both of these rounds to lock myself for top 8. I was going to play round 7 to try and mess with the numbers a little more and give Heebs a better chance after he lost his round 6 match, but unfortunately for him, we end up with an awkward break that only guarantees my spot if I draw. Hopefully, in a perfect world, we’ll stop having double-draw situations soon. Regardless, Heebs ends up losing his 7th round to a Hero of Bladehold + Geist of St. Traft + Honor of the Pure swing.

Quick: Calculate how much damage that is! The math got pretty amusing.

5-0-2 (10-2 in games)

Top 8: BR Zombies

Two people decline the ‘one box per person’ split, which was unfortunate. I’m already tired and I’d rather be getting to our friend’s house. There’s dinner waiting there, and frankly, I don’t want to end up losing once and going home with 9 packs to show for it.

“Blackcleave Cliffs, Gravecrawler, go.”

Red/Black Zombies. God damnit. I like this deck.

I get beaten down to 5 life, holding my breath and hoping that he doesn’t have Brimstone Volleys in his list. I end up forcing him to sacrifice his whole team to save a Falkenrath Aristocrat, which I eventually Oblivion Ring, but he’s still got me on a significant clock once he plays a Highborn Ghoul. A well-timed second Oblivion Ring stalls the turn I need for my flyers to get the job done.

Game two is even closer. I go to two life before Vault of the Archangel comes online. I lean on it heavily, gaining 8 per turn and still only barely keeping my head above water. He dealt over 60 damage to me that game and I ended up winning on 13 life. Some lands are just awesome.

He shHe

He shook my hand and we were informed that there would be a Top 4 split - the dissenters had either changed their mind or lost.

I walked out with two boxes – one mixed foreign cards, the other English Innistrad. I had a blast with the event, and I'll absolutely be going to further events that are run here. Here's hoping that they get the ability to run PTQ's and such, because I'd be more than happy to give them my money.

Final Result:  6-0-2 (12-2 in games)

Tuesday Lore: Light and Flame

The innocents screamed, and Gisela answered. A single sword stroke – unwavering and true – bisected the demon from head to thigh. Black mana coursed out of the husk as it dissolved into the night.

“Goldnight!” she shouted from the town square, her voice echoing out to the fields. “To me!” They had been fighting for hours, and the fighting only just begun. Her troops – Cathars and priests, archmages and angels – began to filter into the square. Within minutes, they were building the perimeter. Refugees helped fight the fires that had engulfed half the village. The shadows that had besieged the hamlet swarmed, but none dared cross the defenders.

This fight was different. For months, they had been waging a losing battle. Avacyn’s imprisonment within the Helvault had driven the Flights into hiding. Human magics had weakened, and even Avacyn’s own holy wards faltered. Hundreds of villages across Gavony, Nephalia, and Kessig had been lost to the darkness.

No more.

Avacyn’s restoration had brought with it more than mere power. It brought renewed resolve. They fought with the  With a quick glance across the assembled warriors stirred something in Gisela that she hadn’t felt since…

We’re winning.

The thought scarcely crossed her mind before she dismissed it. People were dead – and the demon attack was still potent, if broken – no doubt orchestrated by one of the greater demons.  It needed to be handled if the horde was to be defeated. Gisela’s hand rested upon the runic longblade at her side.  One of the Cathars looked up to her.

“Lady Gisela,” he bowed. “Will you take the field?”

“I believe that I shall.” She said, her lips curving into a smile.

---

Her blade whirled, intercepting claws and spines. She rolled her wrist and stepped into the attack, cleaving through flesh and bone. No sooner than she felt the attack connect, she was moving into a second strike. She cleaves through the horde as if she was wading through a creek – barely slowed by their attacks.

She was Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Chosen of Avacyn. The Archangel had chosen her to be the sworn sword of the Angels. Let the Herons and Alabasters issue their wards and pray for spirits. Goldnight would do as Goldnight had always done. Fight, and win.

Magic: Making Miracles Matter

“I’ve got one out,” he announces suddenly on his opponents turn. Game three with lethal damage coming in the following turn. There’s a dozen people crowding around, waiting for the last match to decide the PTQ. To one, a blue envelope and a trip to Spain. To the other, a handshake and a pat on the back.

“What?” his opponent asks, confused.

“One out in the deck. One card that beats you.” He looks down at the stack of cards. “One Blight Dragon.”

His opponent looks at the board. No flyers to speak of, and only a Doom Blade in hand. With most of a dozen swamps in play, and a Lashwrithe, the Dragon would attack for the full ten infect – a veritable one-shot.

He’s got maybe forty cards left in his library. Two percent odds. Two and a half, maybe.

“So draw the card.”

He'd worked so hard to get here. Nine grueling rounds of play. Dozens of hours of practice and tuning his deck. He knew every card, picked and tested each one. He was up half the night agonizing about a last-minute switch. He sleeved it up even though everyone told him he was wrong. He trusted his deck then.

He places his hand on top of the deck, takes a deep breath, and whispers, practically praying.

“Just one time, deck. Just one time.”

He flips the card.

-----

Over the last few days, there’s been a lot of talk about a new mechanic that’s coming out with Avacyn Restored. That mechanic is Miracle.

 

If you’ll excuse the lore nut in me for a moment, I adore this mechanic. Magic lore is full of moments like this. The sudden turn and twist that overturns everything we know. The moment when we realize that, maybe, despite the odds, we can do this. It distills everything in the game to one critical point where everything hangs in the balance.

“What is Urza doing with that Sylex?”

“Is the Legacy powerful enough to defeat Yawgmoth, manifest upon Dominaria?”

“What’s happening to the Eye of Ugin?”

“Does Thalia sacrifice her men, or the Helvault?”

Miracle tells us everything that we need to know. When you’re on your last topdeck, knowing that nothing in the world could save you, and suddenly, Time Walk appears. Not a five mana time walk imitation. Not a variant with buyback. Honest to god, two mana, take another turn. You get a breath of fresh air, an extra untap, cast one extra spell, and dig yourself back from the precipice.

It’s hard to call that anything but a miracle.

The detractors from this mechanic have a point. Magic is designed to be a skill-intensive game. Giving more power to random elements like the draw stew doesn’t increase the skill required to be good at it. Any chump could top deck four Thunderous Wrath and beat the best player in the world. There are issues with the mechanic being extraordinarily swingy. When draws such a huge role in a game, it’s easy to get frustrated by the ‘run bads’ or to lose a game because of sheer luck.

But you've been there - that situation when you're drawing dead. You hate that feeling. Everyone hates that feeling. How much better is it to play a game when you're behind, but you've got outs. If we didn't want any randomness, we'd play chess. Every top deck is a thrill. Did I find it? Did I get there? You know that you probably won't find it, but every so often...

There is a quote on my desk. I feel like it distills this down to a single line.

“When something isn’t supposed to happen, but it does, that’s magic.”

So, is this much variance good for the game? Certainly, it’s going to lead to blowouts. It’s going to lead to a sudden reversal at a critical moment. It’s going to make everyone peel their eyes on the top of the deck when that last draw happens – hoping, praying.

It’s going to cause upsets. It’s going to make people talk about it. And, sure, while someone might be a little sour about losing the PTQ to the lucky topdeck, someone else is going to be on a cloud because they pulled the card, won, and ended up at a Pro Tour.

“I’m going to Hawaii!”

“I’m going to Spain!”

 “I’m going!”

So, is that good for the game? Let’s go back to a different story, from not so long ago:

-----

He looks down at his hand, no help there. A single whipflare stares back at him, just not powerful enough. Across the board: a fleet of 4/4 hexproof spirits threatening lethal damage. He has one chance – one out. There were two whipflares left in the deck, and either of them would dig him out, wipe the board, and let him set up for a favorable endgame.

Any other card meant death.

He puts his hand on the deck, his hand gripping on the top card. He pulls it, flipping it over because he knows it’s the only thing that matters anymore in this game.

Whipflare

The crowd goes wild.

Brian Kibler taps the mana and wipes the board, so overcome with relief and emotion that he even forgets to attack with his creature before wiping the board. A few short hours later, he’s clutching a trophy in his hands as they name him Pro Tour Champion.

“Just one time, deck. Just one time.”

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