For those who don’t know me (which is probably a fair amount of people), my name is Ben Costrell. I’ve never really accomplished anything of note; a handful of PTQ top 8’s, a couple States top 8’s, a Regionals top 8, but I’ve yet to do anything on the pro level. This past weekend, I managed to win my first PTQ, in Oklahoma City. I didn’t take notes or anything since I wasn’t planning on writing a tournament report, and I’ve also never written one before, so forgive me if my account is a bit fuzzy.

My testing for the event basically amounted to nothing.  I decided about a week before that I would play Zoo with Blue, since it seemed like it wouldn’t require as much intimate knowledge about the deck to play competently as other decks in the format.  I also knew it was one of the best decks.  On top of that, Zoo seemed like it had a gameplan against most of the other decks in the format, which I think is good for a PTQ deck since there is often more random stuff than at higher level events.

I scoured PTQ top 8 lists and MODO daily event lists (an underutilized tool, I think) until I found some lists I liked. I decided on Gavin Verhey’s Top 8 list from the San Diego PTQ.  I liked that it was able to use both Bant Charm and Tribal Flames, since I think often the Blue lists tend to be a bit slower than the Domain ones, and sometimes you just randomly win when you draw multiple Tribal Flames. I played about four games with it against Affinity at my local card store on Friday night, and that was the extent of my testing. I guess that was better than nothing.

On the ride up there, I talked with some friends and decided I wanted some more high end in the deck, since the 4 Noble Hierarchs seemed a bit odd with only the 4 Knights of the Reliquary and 4 Bant Charms as cards costing more than two in the deck. I cut one Qasali Pridemage for one Ranger of Eos maindeck to give the deck a little more late game and ways to fight attrition. In hindsight, I’m not sure if this change is necessary or even correct, as I learned throughout the day that Noble Hierarch works just fine even if you aren’t really ramping into anything.

Upon arriving at the site, I did a little bit of scouting and saw a pretty significant amount of Zoo (surprise, surprise). I had been thinking about cutting the second Ghost Quarter in the sideboard for two reasons.  First, although Gavin’s original list had a Damping Matrix in that slot, I had read him recommending a second Ghost Quarter in its place.  Second, I had been talking with my friend George Blankenship, and he informed me that most Thopter-Depths lists were siding out some amount of Hexmages and Depths against Zoo, so the additional hate card against that combo seemed unnecessary. Based on that, and my small amount of scouting, I decided to go with a one-of Kitchen Finks in that slot. Here is the list I registered:

Like I mentioned before, I didn’t take any notes or plan on remembering everything for a tournament report, so this is all from memory. I might have mixed up some games in my head, or forgotten certain parts of them, but here’s my account of the rounds:

Round 1: Zoo
He informed me that it was his first PTQ, and he flashed me some cards while shuffling, so I knew he was Zoo before we started playing.
I knew my gameplan in this matchup was just to save all non-Bolt removal for Knights and Goyfs, and to try not to expose my own Knights and Goyfs to getting Bolted or Helixed.

Game one I can’t remember too well, but I recall him spending some removal spells on some of my irrelevant early drops, and me eventually killing him with some combination of Knights and Goyfs.

I sided in the Rangers, the Finks, and the Jittes, taking out some combination of Hierarchs and Bolts.

Game two I kept a sketchy hand with Plains, Breeding Pool, Wild Nacatl, a Ranger, and some amount of Knight of the Reliquary. I didn’t draw any more lands, and he beat me down.

I’m not sure if I would’ve mulliganned this hand if given the chance now, as there aren’t that many spells I can draw that I can’t cast, and if I hit ant land then I can play my Knight.  Assuming the Knight lives until the next turn, even if I haven’t drawn another land, I can play the Ranger, which is the other major plan in the mirror. From my limited experience, it seems like the mirror essentially tends to come down to who can stick more Knights and Goyfs.  If neither player sticks any, it’s whoever lands a Ranger or, to a lesser extent, a Jitte, because Jitte can be answered more easily with Bant Charm or Pridemage.

For game three, I keep a pretty controlling hand with no early plays until a Knight of the Reliquary, which is actually kind of what I want in the mirror. I kill his Nacatl, Goyf, and Knight (I even got the Knight with a Tribal Flames for 4, pretty good usage!), and proceed to play a couple Knights of my own. He answers with a Ranger of Eos, but my Knights are just too big for a bunch of 3-power guys to stop them and I eventually beat him down with them.

Win 2-1 (1-0)

Round 2: Living End
My next opponent also informs me it’s his first PTQ (man!), and he’s playing with clear sleeves, so I immediately assume he’s bad (false) and that he’s playing Zoo (also false). When he starts cycling Deadshot Minotaurs, I know I’m in trouble.

Game one, I start off pretty decently, and he spends his turns cycling and playing Fulminator Mages, blocking, and killing my lands. I’m able to thwart his Fulminating to some extent by holding a Knight back to sacrifice the target. At some point he plays a Night of Soul’s Betrayal. I have never played with this card in play, so I proceed to make a fool out of myself. I play a Noble Hierarch, and he informs me “That’s dead.” At least he didn’t make fun of me for it, but I feel like an idiot. I think I eventually killed it with a Pridemage, but it’s not long before he Living Ends and brings back some beaters and Fulminators and kills my remaining creatures and lands.

I side in the Mages, Negates, and the Bojuka Bog, taking out Bolts, Tribal Flames, and the Ranger, since he kills enough lands such that it’s difficult to get to four mana. Taking out Tribal Flames might have been a mistake, and I side differently later on in the tournament (foreshadowing I suppose, though it never really ends up being relevant).

Game two I land a pair of Mages, and he doesn’t really do a whole lot. I wasn’t sure what to name on the second Mage, because I didn’t know if he was playing Shriekmaw, Spitebellows, Firespout, Damnation, or whatever, so I just named Living End again. In any case, it was good enough.

Game three, I manage to embarrass myself further. I start off with a Nacatl, but when I go to cast Meddling Mage on turn two, I am informed “you can’t cast that”. Looking at my lands, I see that I fetched Stomping Ground + Hallowed Fountain, a combination that is good for game ones, but obviously can’t cast Meddling Mage. Probably a symptom of never really playing the deck before that day, but still a pretty bad mistake. I think I probably could’ve pulled it out had I fetched Breeding Pool + Sacred Foundry, but as it was, he eventually landed a Night of Soul’s Betrayal and destroyed a bunch of my lands (he was pretty good at drawing multiple Fulminators apparently) and at some point Living Ended a few men into play. I naturally drew my one-of Bojuka Bog at some point before then, which slowed my death, but I basically didn’t cast a spell after turn 4 or 5-ish, so it only delayed the inevitable.

Lose 1-2 (1-1)

Round 3: RG Scapeshift
I recognize my opponent’s name, Drew Dumanski, from somewhere, but I can’t quite place it. I figure he’s probably good, but I hear him say to someone that he basically just played a deck that was available to him, so I thought at least his deck choice might not be optimal (not that mine was either).

Game one I start off with the beats, while he plays some Bloodbraids and Finks and Goyfs and such. I remove most of them, and the game gets to a point where he has a Finks out and six lands, holding a card in his hand, which I assume is a Scapeshift. I’ve got a couple Nacatls out, and he’s at a life total where I can kill him in two turns. I can:

A.) Path his Finks to put him on dead next turn, but then die if he has or topdecks a Scapeshift

B.) Attack into his Finks and potentially not kill him for much longer, and still probably die if he draws a land or search and has Scapeshift

C.) Not attack at all and hope to draw a different removal spell for his Finks, but then still die to a lot of his topdecks

I decide to go for the quick clock and Path his Finks, fully expecting to get Scapeshifted out the next turn, but he just draws and scoops. Mise, I guess.

I side in Negates, Finks, Rangers, and Jittes to help fight attrition and not be kold to Scapeshift. I think about bringing in Mages, but they don’t really seem that great since he has Punishing Fire and dudes to win with. It’s possible that I could bring them in just to name Punishing Fire, but I decide against it. I take out burn spells and a Pridemage.

Game two I play some guys, while he plays some Bloodbraids and Finks and burn spells. I don’t remember too much about this game, but I think I eventually get Scapeshifted and don’t have the Negate.

At this point I realize that Finks is pretty awkward against Punishing Fire even though I luckily didn’t draw it game two. I bring it back out for, I think, the Pridemage since I was reminded that he had Jittes when he played one in game two.

Game three is really close. The early game involves a bunch of trading, with me keeping up with a Ranger and him with his natural card advantage in Bloodbraids and Finks. He eventually gets me down pretty low, but I manage to come back on the back of a Jitte. I think I Negated a Scapeshift at some point, but the Jitte managed to kill all his dudes and eventually end the game in two or three hits after that.

Win 2-1 (2-1)

Round 4: Doran Rock
I recognize my opponent’s name again, Matt Wainwright, but this time I really have no idea where I had heard it before, so I don’t really make any assumptions before the match (for once!).

Game one I played some men while he Thoughtseized me twice, taking Tribal Flames the first time, and another Tribal Flames that I topdecked the next turn (still leaving one in my hand). I was fine with him playing Healing Salves with reverse Dark Rituals attached (I don’t even have to play the Tribal Flames!).  Although it was probably correct for him to take them, Thoughtseizes are just not that great against Zoo. He plays some combination of Goyfs, a Doran, and a Baneslayer, but I have an answer to them all and I beat him down with the help of a Ranger of Eos.

I side in Rangers, Finks, and Jittes, taking out Bolts and something else I can’t remember to fight attrition wars better.

Game two was not a very good game. As far as I could tell, it seemed like he drew a land almost every turn of the game. He played a Goyf that I was able to Bolt after attacking into it with my own Goyf, and I think he played a Doran, and he definitely played a Baneslayer, but I was able to kill all of them and eventually him due to his severe flood. It certainly would have been a closer game if he had drawn fewer lands, but I feel like I still would’ve been advantaged.

Win 2-0 (3-1)

Round 5: RWb Stax
Game one he starts off with Boros lands, so I think he might be Boros, but when he has no turn one play and his turn two play is Helixing my guy, I am definitely suspicious. When he plays a Boros Signet, the jig is up and I start thinking about what cards he might be playing in what I assumed was some sort of weird RW control deck. He played some irrelevant cards like more Signets and an Aven Mindcensor while I brought the beats. I was holding back some guys since he seemed like the kind of deck with Wrath effects, but he never played one. At some point he played a Magus of the Tabernacle or a Ghostly Prison and I finally got the idea that he was playing some sort of mana denial control Stax-ish strategy. I think he also played a Chandra Nalaar at some point, although that might have been game two. In any case, he wasn’t able to stop the beatdown.

I side in Negates, Rangers, and Finks to fight attrition and counter whatever weird spells he might be playing.

He starts game two with a Leyline of the Void in play, which I guess was interesting. It kind of made the two Knights of the Reliquary I had in my hand by the end of the game a little awkward, but it didn’t really do I whole lot. I was prepared to Pridemage it at one point, but he played a Ghostly Prison that seemed like a much more worthy target. Eventually he was doing very weak things, like playing the Raze half of Boom//Bust because he was too behind on the board to afford to play the ‘Geddon half. I killed him with very large Goyfs due to the abundance of weird card types in his graveyard, despite his Leyline of the Void. He had enchantments, planeswalkers, artifacts, sorceries, and lands.

Win 2-0 (4-1)

Round 6: Thopter-Depths
Game one he has sort of shaky mana, with a Tolaria West, a Dark Depths, and Chrome Mox with a black card. He misses his third land drop, so I destroy his Chrome Mox with a Pridemage. He proceeds to topdeck an Urborg, and play a Thoughtseize to take my one nonland card (a Ranger) and then play a Hexmage. I topdeck a Bant Charm (mise!) and go to combat, but when he sacs his Hexmage to make a token and block, and I Bant Charm, a nearby judge points out that my lands are Forest, Stomping Ground, Hallowed Fountain (curse you Stomping Ground!), so he gets to block one of my guys as I sheepishly play my Scalding Tarn post combat and kill his Marit Lage then. He draws his card and concedes to my remaining guys.

I side in Negates, Finks, Rangers, and the Ghost Quarter for Bolts and Tribal Flames. This plan might seem a little odd, but from what I understand, most Thopter-Depths players are bringing in a bunch of removal and taking out some Hexmages/Depths, so I want to be able to grind them out, and Meddling Mages didn’t really seem that great.

Game two I don’t remember particularly well.  I think he maybe just played a bunch of draw spells and never really did anything, but I’m not really sure. In any case, I won.

Win 2-0 (5-1)

At this point I’m hoping I can draw in since the PTQ was only seven rounds, although I’m a bit nervous since my loss was in round two. As I wait for the round to finish and standings to go up, I watch some friends who are out of contention play DC10 with Anthony Avitollo’s cube. I may be getting the timing of some of their games mixed up, but the highlights included someone going turn one Memory Jar, playing a bunch of spells, only to get the board wiped by someone’s Jaya Ballard’s Inferno, and in another game, a dominating board position getting destroyed by a Mindslaver that brought back a Wickerbough Elder with a Debtor’s Knell to kill the Knell, then spending all of a Chandra’s loyalty to kill the Elder. Fun times.

Standings are posted, and I see that I’m in 7th, but there are three 13 pointers, so I think I may have to play it out. Ben Jackson is in 8th, so I tell him that we will probably be paired and there’s a good chance we’ll have to play.

Round 7: Thopter Depths (Ben Jackson)
We end up getting paired, and to the pleasure of the people drawing next to us, we start to play it out as we have the two worst breakers of the 15’s.

Game one I can’t remember that well, but uh, I win, somehow. Maybe Ben can chime in on this one. (I drew half of both combos, a bunch of draw spells and Muddles, and not much action while he turned men sideways -Ben)

I side like I did in the previous round, in Negates, Finks, Rangers, Ghost Quarter, out Bolts and Tribal Flames.

Game two I manage to make another embarrassing play (number four maybe? But who’s counting!), when I Path his Confidant on upkeep. I could’ve sworn it was a draw step trigger! Anyway, at some point I counter his Smother on my Goyf with a Bant Charm because I still had a Pridemage for the Thopter Combo. I played the Pridemage post combat, and he proceeded to rip a Damnation. Oops. Didn’t know he had that. I scoop to the Thopter combo a couple turns later.

Game three I put him under some pressure, and he doesn’t play a third land after making a Chrome Mox and playing Bob.  The next turn he plays a land and Damnations, facing lethal damage, but I have the Negate. At some point later in the day he informs me that apparently he just didn’t play a land on turn three, even though he had one in hand. He thus could’ve Thoughtseized before playing the Damnation to protect against Negate. I still had gas in my hand, as I had just cast a Ranger of Eos, so I had two Nacatls and a Knight, but it definitely would’ve been a closer game had he been able to resolve the Damnation.

Win 2-1 (6-1)

I went into the top 8 as the top seed, and I was paired against an interesting UR control deck with Blood Moon, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, a Trinket Mage package with Explosives and Chalice, and typical blue control stuff like Spell Snares, Mana Leaks, and Thirsts. It seemed like a pretty bad matchup, so I was kind of worried.

Quarterfinals: UR Blood Moon/Jace, the Mind Sculptor control
I can’t quite remember what happened in game one. He played a Jace at some point and Brainstormed a couple times before I killed it, but I guess he didn’t draw much relevant. It seemed like the deck might have had some trouble closing out the game, but in any case, I won somehow.

I sided in Negates for Paths.

Game two I remember a little better. The game went kind of long, with him countering and Exploding some guys away.  It got to a point where I had a Noble Hierarch and a Goyf and he had a Blood Moon. He played Threads of Disloyalty on my Goyf, so I played another one.  The next turn my Goyf attacked with exalted, and “his” was forced to chump. I played another Goyf to get through his Jace bouncing my guys. He Brainstormed once or twice, but I guess all he could find were counters and another Blood Moon, as he played a second copy. It’s possible he should’ve Threadsed the Hierarch so I couldn’t recast Goyfs or play more if he bounced them with Jace, but I guess he drew the Jace after he played the threads, and I ended up drawing my one-of Forest anyhow, so I don’t know that it would’ve mattered. He eventually succumbed to the Goyf beatdown.

Win 2-0 (7-1)

I see that my second round opponent has beaten his Elves opponent with Living End, but we are opposite sides of the bracket, so we just walk to the other table to watch the other matches, Living end vs. Thopter-Depths and Faeries vs. All-in red. I’m facing the winner of the Faeries vs. All-In Red matchup, so I watch the tail end of that match. Luckily for me, the Faeries player pulled it out so I was not forced to play against Blood Moon again.

Semifinals: Faeries
I saw from his match that he had some, uh, subpar cards in his deck. Apparently he couldn’t get a third Jitte, so he was playing one Sigil of Distinction.  He claimed had been very good for him that day, but I found it hard to believe that it won him games that Jitte would not have. He was also playing Underground Rivers in his manabase, which seemed a bit odd, at least from what I’ve seen from Extended Faeries decks. Anyway, this turned out to be an interesting match despite one of us mulliganning to five in each game.

Game one he mulliganned to five, but still made a game out of it with a Spell Snare for my Pridemage plus a Bitterblossom and Jitte.  But he was short on lands and couldn’t really keep up with my multitude of guys after I killed his Jitte with a Bant Charm.  At least that’s what I remember happening, since this game is less clear in my mind than the others.

I sided in Meddling Mages and Jittes for Tribal Flames, the Ranger, and something else I can’t remember.

Game two was my turn to mulligan to five, and although I made it look like it was kind of a game, it was never really close. I had a Noble Hierarch and a bunch of Paths, but any guys I drew were killed, and Path to Exiles aren’t really enough to keep up with Bitterblossom and Ancestral visions.

Game three, the mulligan to five bug hit him again, but this game was actually very close. Although I had thought about it a couple other times this tournament, this was the first game where I really wanted a Steam Vents in my deck. I only had two lands, and after he killed my Nacatl and countered my Meddling Mage, I had a hand full of Bolts, Paths, and uncastable Knights. Unfortunately, in order to cast my Meddling Mage on turn two, I had to fetch Breeding Pool + Sacred Foundry, meaning I could only cast one spell per turn. I did make a mistake in not Pathing my Nacatl in response to the Deathmark that killed it, but in any case, I was only able to play one spell per turn as he beat me down with some Spellstutter Sprites and a Mutavault. I got down pretty low before I was able to finish off the last of his pressure. I eventually drew a land and he was unable to answer my Knights of the Reliquary and other guys.

Win 2-1 (8-1)

There was a Living End mirror going on in the other semifinal match next to us as we were playing, so we knew that the winner would play one. The winner of that match ended up being my round two opponent, my only loss in the tournament, and he was happy to see me again in the finals as opposed to the Faeries player. It was not an ideal matchup for me certainly, but I felt like I knew how to play it a bit better and I was determined not to make a total fool out of myself at least.

Finals: Living End

Game one I got a pretty fast start of Loam Lion into Nacatl + Loam lion, but I soon managed to make yet another embarassing play, by playing a Plains precombat as the third land to my Stomping Ground and Hallowed fountain instead of a fetchland, so when he blocked my Nacatl with a Fulminator and destroyed my Stomping Ground to only take two damage, things got a bit awkward. I soon realized that things were about to get much more awkward, as he began tapping four mana on his next turn. I was binning my Loam Lions before his Night of Soul’s Betrayal even hit the board. So much for not making a fool out of myself. I still managed to win this game on the back of my surviving Nacatl and a Pridemage to kill his Night. He had yet to draw a cascade spell, and when he played another Fulminator to block my Nacatl, I drew my card and flashed him the two Bolts that were lethal in my hand.

I sided basically the same way as in round two.  In Negates, in Mages, in Bojuka Bog, out Bolts, out Ranger.  Only, this time I realized that Bant Charm didn’t really do much, so I took those out instead of the Tribal Flames that I pulled out in round two.  I left Path in so that I at least have something to do if he starts just hardcasting Deadshot Minotaurs and Monstrous Carabids and such.

For game two, I started off with a Forest into a Noble Hierarch, so I was pretty safe against his Fulminator Mage. I played a fetch and a Nacatl on turn two, so when he played a Fulminator, and I cracked the fetch at the end of his turn, he said “and I guess you’ll be getting a basic off that too…” Well, actually, I was planning on getting a Hallowed Fountain, but his idea seemed better. I got a Plains, and the next turn I just attacked with my Nacatl for 3 and played a second one, and passed without playing a land, despite having a Blood crypt in hand, leaving Negate mana up. He played another Fulminator, and the next turn I attacked with both Nacatls and he was forced to trade his two Mages for my Kitties, and so I was free to play another land and cast a Qasali Pridemage, still leaving Negate up. He went for the cascade spell, but I was holding triple Negate. The next turn I attacked, played a land and a Knight, still leaving Negate up, and when he went for another cascade spell, asking if I had another counter, I flashed him the two I had left and he extended his hand.

Win 2-0 (9-1)

And so that’s how I won my first PTQ. I definitely caught a few lucky breaks, but I think I overall played reasonably well, apart from the several errors that I noted in this report.

San Juan will be my first real pro-level event. I’ve played in one Grand Prix before, but I’ve never day 2′d, never qualified for the Pro Tour, and never even qualified for Nationals despite being one match away on two separate occasions last year. To be fair, I’ve only really been playing competitively for about two years, with my first real PTQ being Lorwyn Block Constructed right before Eventide, where I lost in the finals to Ben Jackson.  I guess technically I played in a Time Spiral one, but I was really bad then and my deck was stolen after round 4, so I don’t think that counts.

Now I’m just hoping that some other people I know qualify, because I’m only 17 (although I’ll turn 18 the day before the Pro Tour starts), so my parents want my dad to go with me to San Juan, which I think would be a little bit awkward.

As far as the deck goes, I might reverse the change I made to the maindeck and turn the Ranger back into a Pridemage, and I think the deck needs a Steam Vents somewhere, though I’m bad at manabases so I’m not sure where. The sideboard seems pretty good, although the one Kitchen Finks could probably something else; just something against whatever decks you think will be popular, I guess. Other than that, it was a pretty tight list (props to Alex West for making it) and it won me a PTQ despite my lack of testing and making several significant errors.

Anyway, thanks for reading, hopefully I’ll be in a position to write more of these tournament reports soon!

- Ben Costrell

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This past Saturday, May 2, I went to Fort Worth, TX for the first Standard PTQ of qualifier season for PT Austin. My weapon of choice was U/W Reveillark, a deck that I got very familiar with before Time Spiral block rotated out of Standard. Sets left, sets entered the format, the deck got terrible and I believe the deck is now good again. First, the list I played:

U/W Reveillark

7 Plains
5 Island
1 Mutavault
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Mystic Gate

4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Mulldrifter
4 Reveillark
2 Glen Elendra Archmage

4 Cryptic Command
4 Path to Exile
4 Wrath of God
1 Tidings
4 Fieldmist Borderpost

Sideboard
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Remove Soul
3 Negate
2 Runed Halo
2 Celestial Purge
1 Tidings
1 Wispmare
2 Austere Command

Props to Adam Boyd for sending me the initial version of the deck. I cut a Mutavault for an Island and an Archmage for a miser’s Tidings, then reworked the sideboard. Someone noted that they didn’t expect to see Borderposts played in the top 8 of the PTQ. I told them to blame Adam, and I still mean it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Why play U/W Lark to begin with? Well, I started playing Swans at FNM and really liked the deck. Those who know me know that Swans is exactly my type of “fun” deck. I enjoy draw-go mirrors, though I’m kind of strange. Moreover, I was winning lots of matches, and the 5cc matchup seemed almost unlosable.

But the week before the tournament, I was losing to a bunch of Green decks and Anathemancer, so I sent my list to Adam and asked him if he wanted to swap lists. He obliged and sent me his list for U/W Lark. Conveniently enough, U/W Lark seemed good against dumb green animals AND Anathemancer. I liked EsperLark decently well, but the Black cards didn’t seem that important and I wanted to try Fieldmist Borderpost and Knight of the White Orchid.

The deck was doing really well, and the only match I was having problems with was Faeries. I decided that Remove Soul and Negate plus some ways to kill Bitterblossom would be my best chance in that matchup, though there was probably nothing I could do to make it favorable. I didn’t expect much Faeries at all because I don’t think the deck is very good right now and I think people are probably sick of it anyway. There were only 6 out of 140, so ding!

Round 1 vs Alberto with RGBW Midrange
Alberto’s deck featured Ajani Vengeant, Garruk Wildspeaker, Mycoid Shepherd, Spellbreaker Behemoth, Terminate, Birds of Paradise, and an assortment of trilands, painlands, and filterlands. Before the round he told me that this was his first PTQ. I thought about telling him about my incredible Magical accomplishments, but I mean, while I don’t mind sounding like a douche, I’d rather not sound like a douche for no reason. I wasn’t sure if Alberto would care, and I doubted I’d need a psychological edge to win the match anyway.

In game 1 he got Garruk and Ajani down against my empty board while I was a little flooded, but Finks held the fort until I found a Cryptic to bounce Ajani, then a Reveillark which allowed me to go after his planeswalkers, then trade with his guys, then draw into enough gas to kill him.

Sideboarding:
-4 Knight of the White Orchid
+2 Runed Halo, +2 Celestial Purge

I decided not to bring in the Austeres because I should be able to trade one for one with his guys without any problems, and because the most annoying permanents were generally creatures. White Orchid’s body is unimpressive here so it gets the axe even though I’m on the draw.

Game 2 was even less close. It’s not hard for Lark to deal with 5/5s for 4, and I don’t think he found White mana for a very long time due to playing trilands instead of Vivids.

Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0

Round 2 vs Jonathan with G/W Beats
Jonathan’s deck included Noble Hierarch, Dauntless Escort, Knight of Meadowgrain, Treetop Village, Wilt-Leaf Liege, and Path to Exile. I only know most of those from the cards he turned over after the games were over. He won the roll and scrunched his face at his first hand. I sat there motionless even though I had looked at my hand and knew I wasn’t going to mulligan. I didn’t want to give him any incentive to throw back a loose one. Eventually he kept. His first four turns were Forest, Forest, Forest, Reflecting Pool. He eventually found a Noble Hierarch for White mana and hit me 3 times with a Treetop Village, but I drew a Path and easily won the race.

Sideboarding:
-4 Knight of the White Orchid
+2 Runed Halo, +2 Austere Command

He shipped his first hand back pretty quickly, then seemed unhappy with his 6 cards but kept them pretty quickly. When turn 2 rolled around it became clear that he had kept a hand with only Treetop Village for lands. He couldn’t even cast any spells after he drew a Forest on turn 3. I think he eventually cast a spell or two but I think Sower stole his only creature. I won on 22 life.

Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0

Round 3 vs Brian with Monowhite Control
Brian was playing with Mind Stone, Kitchen Finks, Stillmoon Cavalier, Elspeth, Ajani Goldmane, Wrath of God, Path to Exile, Martial Coup, and Oblivion Ring, along with some Mutavaults and 12 million Plains.

Game 1 he dropped Elspeth and several annoying creatures. The game went long, and I had to Wrath away some Martial Coup tokens. He managed to run Elspeth up to 8 counters, but decided to go up to 9 counters before going for its ultimate so he would be able to keep it around. I’m pretty sure he also had Ajani Goldmane in play at the time. The turn after he put the 9th counter on Elspeth, I ripped a Cryptic Command to bounce it, then found a Sower to take his Stillmoon Cavalier to punch through to his planeswalkers. I let him hit me down to 4 so I could keep attacking his planeswalkers, but I stabilized with the help of Finks. Five turns after I stabilized, it was over.

Sideboarding:
-4 Wrath of God, -1 Path to Exile
+3 Negate, +1 Glen Elendra Archmage, +1 Tidings

Game 2 Brian played a Stillmoon and an Elspeth while I could only Evoke some Mulldrifters. I was trying to stick some attackers, but Brian cast Martial Coup for x=5, then raised Elspeth’s loyalty to 8, then activated her ultimate ability and cast Martial Coup for 6. That was enough.

Resideboarding:
-1 Wrath of God, -4 Path to Exile
+3 Negate, +1 Glen Elendra Archmage, +1 Tidings

I brought a couple of Wraths back in because I didn’t want to be giving him lands for Path, and because it dealt with Martial Coup armies.

Game 3 I drew a couple of counterspells and some card drawing, so he was basically kold. He had a Relic of Progenitus all game which was mildly annoying, but he eventually ran out of gas and cycled it. The two Larks I still had in my hand were more than enough Air Elemental beatdown for him to handle.

Games: 6-1
Matches: 3-0

Round 4 vs Roy with 14-land, 4-color, 12-cantrip midrange
Roy’s deck included Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, Ponder, Manamorphose, Elvish Visionary, Kitchen Finks, Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, Makeshift Mannequin, Reveillark, Primal Command, Loxodon Warhammer, Sower of Temptation, and Chameleon Colossus. His lands consisted of some Forests, a bunch of painlands, Murmuring Bosks, Secluded Glens, and Gilt-Leaf Palaces. He was allegedly playing only 14 lands on account of all his cantrips. I remember this match pretty vividly because I think I learned some things during it.

I’m pretty sure I messed up game 1 on account of not knowing what was in his deck. I played as if stuff like Colossus and random guys like Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw were his threats, but then I drew a couple of lands in a row while he played Primal Command to put a land on top of my deck and get Reveillark out of his deck. I Sowered it, so he played another Primal Command the next turn to put the land back on top of my deck and find a Shriekmaw for my Sower. I died after drawing three blanks, but I couldn’t help but feel like I could have won that game if I would have sandbagged a Cryptic Command rather than dismiss some spell that ended up being irrelevant.

Sideboarding:
-4 Knight of the White Orchid, -4 Path to Exile
+1 Glen Elendra Archmage, +1 Tidings, +3 Negate, +3 Remove Soul

I think this is how I boarded, but I might have also boarded Finks or a couple of Wraths out. I can’t remember exactly. The Negates may seem a little loose but they counter Primal, Mannequin, and potential Mind Shatters. I wouldn’t blame you for only bringing a couple in. Remove Soul is obviously very good in a matchup that essentially boils down to a Lark mirror.

At about turn 6 of game 2 my opponent resolves a Reveillark. We both have juicy graveyards from Evoking Mulldrifters and trading Archmage counters for spells. Whoever gets that Lark to hit the graveyard on their side of the table is probably going to win the game.

We fight for control of the Lark for a few turns, with Sowers and multiple Evoked Larks on my side versus Sowers, Shriekmaws, and Mannequins on his side. Eventually he manages to stick the last Sower, though he had to Mannequin it back into play. We both have Archmages. I also have a Mulldrifter and a Sower, which had control of his Lark until his Mannequined Sower hit play.

He attacks me with Lark and Shriekmaw. I step away and ask a judge if a creature that has lethal damage assigned to it will still take that damage if it switches controllers in the middle of combat. The judge says yes. I go back to the table, block Reveillark with Sower and Mulldrifter, and put damage on the stack. Then I play Cryptic Command to bounce his Sower and draw a card. He uses his last Archmage activation to counter Cryptic, even though it would be countered on resolution because he has to sacrifice his Sower due to its Mannequin counter. I tell him that I gain control of his Reveillark with damage on the stack because my Sower still has control of it until it leaves play. He argues that Sower only gains control of the creature once, when Sower comes into play. He doesn’t understand that it’s a continuous effect, and as both games have been pretty long already, I decide to call a judge to have them explain to him what happens.

Two judges show up and immediately make the right call, but my opponent argues for a long time and is quite obstinate. He believes that he’s read the pertinent section of the comprehensive rules and that neither of the judges, myself, or any of the spectators had, and that it’s his right to have it looked up. Neither the judges nor my opponent want to use logic to convince the other side that they’re right, but instead resort to yelling at one another while I sit there trying not to laugh. Occasionally I’ll try to explain some facet of the rules to my opponent so he can make sense of the ruling, but it’s hopeless and I eventually give up. The judges tell us to play on as they have ruled, and the head judge starts to walk away.

I stop him to ask for an extension. He gives us 5 minutes, but I’m pretty sure the argument took at least 10, and the round is winding down so we really need the time. He says something about how he checked his watch when he came over and it was 5 minutes ago, but I’m pretty sure he was lying and just didn’t want to add 5 minutes to the tournament so we could finish our match. Lesson learned: it’s my responsibility to time judge calls to make sure I get fair extensions.

We play on and I turn the tide in game 2 with all the pretty cards I get from the Mulldrifters his Lark supplies me with. Time is called while we’re presenting for game 2, so I have 5 minutes plus 5 turns to try to win the round. I should have probably boarded in my Knights and Paths to try to be more aggressive but I didn’t.

Game 3, I Sower his first couple of guys and he has removal for both of them, then Mind Shatter for my hand. I could have played it safe and taken a sure draw, but I wanted to try to win. That was probably wrong in hindsight. He beats me down to 10 and Mind Shatters my sick grip away on turn 3 of 5. I rip Wrath to stay alive. He Mannequins his Cloudthresher back at the end of my turn, attacks me to 1, but can’t deal the final point. He passes and I say “Ok, it’s a draw.” The judge sitting next to me nods in agreement. My opponent had no idea that we were on extra turns, even though the judge announced it. To make it more obvious, I was using a die to count the turns, but some people are just oblivious.

Games: 7-2-1
Matches: 3-0-1

At this point my opponent is on full blown tilt and pretty much stays that way the rest of the day. He is now known as “Sower guy” to everyone in the room. We sit next to each other the next few rounds and he precedes every match by telling his opponent of all the terrible injustices that happened to him during our match. This lasts until round 7, where he and his opponent are both DQed for flipping a coin for the win.

Round 5 vs Mandee with BW Tokens
I don’t remember much of this match, but it was a blowout, and not in my favor. Game 1 he sticks a Sculler, Bitterblossom, and Glorious Anthem. I basically do nothing, and just evoke some Mulldrifters until I die.

Sideboarding:
-4 Knight of the White Orchid, -2 Glen Elendra Archmage, -2 Kitchen Finks
+3 Negate, +2 Austere Command, +2 Celestial Purge, +1 Wispmare

I boarded wrong this round. I’ll talk about the right way later. Game 2 I mulliganed and kept a loose 6-card hand with Path, Lark, and lands. I’m pretty sure I should have gone to 5 as this hand doesn’t do anything. I did draw a Mulldrifter but Mandee had Identity Crisis under a Windbrisk Heights and that was that.

Games: 7-4-1
Matches: 3-1-1

At this point, I’m pretty sure I can’t win the tournament. These thoughts probably aren’t helpful, but I realized that I didn’t have a tight enough gameplan against BW to win the tournament. I was hoping to dodge it the rest of the day, but I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could sideboard or play differently if I came across it again.

Round 6 vs Rocky with Doran
Rocky wasn’t able to find much pressure game 1, though he did Maelstrom Pulse my Borderpost to try to manascrew me. It wasn’t enough and I easily stabilized. I’m pretty sure it involved me Sowering his guy with a White open. He tried to kill my Sower at the end of my turn and I Pathed his guy in response so I get the land. If he kills my Sower with the “gain control” trigger on the stack, I still have to Path his guy, so he gets the land instead of me. This happened several times throughout the day, and a judge even commented on how many times he had seen me make that play.

Sideboarding:
-4 Knight of the White Orchid, -2 Glen Elendra Archmage
+2 Runed Halo, +2 Celestial Purge, +2 Austere Command

In game 2, we traded threats and answers until it was his 2 Wilt Leaf Lieges plus Treetop versus my empty board, 4 cards, and 16 life. I played Runed Halo naming Wilt-Leaf Liege and found a Path for his Treetop. Sower came down and made him trade his Wilt-Leaf Lieges for each other. A Lark finished him off.

Games: 9-4-1
Matches: 4-1-1

Round 7 vs Robert with 5cc
All 3 games of this round were very long, and I was very happy with the pace we played at. It seemed like we both pretty much knew what was important, so most of the turns were quick and we had plenty of time to think about the critical turns.

In game 1 I simply drew too many dead cards. That happens sometimes, especially when the games go long. Sower is the worst card because it dies so easily, so it isn’t even that good if they tap out for Broodmate Dragon. Path is pretty bad too because land is pretty important in control mirrors, and being able to Path your own guys isn’t exactly redeeming. Wrath can be helpful sometimes, but it’s not something you want 4 of in this matchup. Anyway, my opponent resolved a Cruel Ultimatum and I scooped upon sifting through his graveyard.

Sideboarding:
-4 Sower of Temptation, -4 Path to Exile, -2 Wrath of God
+3 Negate, +1 Tidings, +3 Remove Soul, +1 Glen Elendra Archmage, +2 Celestial Purge

From what I could tell from game 1, my opponent had Cloudthresher but no Broodmates that I could see, more Remove Souls than normal, and Bant Charm instead of Terror or Path. Celestial Purge came in for Ajani and Scepter of Fugue. Runed Halo can stop those and has other applications but is vulnerable to being bounced or destroyed so I prefer the Purges here.

I started game 2 with two Knights in beatdown mode. On turn 4 I played my fourth land with Cryptic, Archmage, and other goodies in hand and attacked. My opponent tapped three lands and I started to think about whether I wanted to Dismiss his Plumeveil. Instead he aimed a Bant Charm at one of my Knights. I happily let it resolve and dropped Archmage. He mainphased a Cryptic to bounce the Archmage and draw a card, but I replayed it and found another one, and he couldn’t muster any resistance after that.

Game 3 was the most fun game of the tournament for me. I had several lands so I decided to just play those out and see if he could keep up on land drops. Meanwhile I presented one spell a turn and stocked up on cheap countermagic for a turn when I would try to resolve a Reveillark. He countered several things, then missed a land drop or two. I got up to 7 mana and played Lark, which he countered. Next turn went the exact same, though he shrugged when he played his counterspell. He had two mana open, and I could tap out to play Negate. My hand was three counterspells and a Tidings, and I had gone through through three Larks. He didn’t seem to have many counterspells left in his deck. Ultimately I decided that I was dead if he had Broken Ambitions plus Cruel Ultimatum, so I let him counter the Lark and passed. He Jund Charmed my graveyard during his mainphase. I untapped and played Tidings. His shoulders slumped. He defeatedly tossed down a Cruel Ultimatum, which I Negated. He was out of gas, while I had plenty. I dropped my last Lark a couple of turns later and rode it to victory.

Games: 11-5-1
Matches: 5-1-1

After this round I looked at standings, which confirmed what I thought. I was win and in, and praying for forests.

Round 8 vs Mikal with RB Blightning Aggro
Game 1 he mulligans to 5. I don’t remember much of this game, but I do know that he got me down to 4, though I was on the offensive at that point. I drew a Cryptic, and that sealed the deal. A little close against a mulligan to 5.

Sideboarding:
-1 Tidings, -2 Glen Elendra Archmage, -1 Mulldrifter
+2 Runed Halo, +2 Celestial Purge,

I think I should have boarded out Cryptics and kept in Archmages and the Mulldrifer, plus brought in another Archmage. Archmage is pretty useful as a chump blocker, plus it counters burn spells and doesn’t get hit by Guttural Response. Most of the time Cryptic is just going to be a fog that cantrips, but that’s not that bad, and when you stabilize it’s excellent, so it’s probably close either way.

Game 2 my opponent mulliganed again. I hit him with the old Wrath ‘n’ Path and stabilized at 10 with a Cryptic versus his one card in hand. His one card turned out to be a Flame Javelin, but I countered it and he drew nothing of relevance in his last draw step.

Games: 13-5-1
Matches: 6-1-1

I ended up 8th in standings, so I had to play the 1st seed. That ended up being Brett McCleaf, my one friend in the top 8. Such is life.

Top 8 vs Brett with BW Tokens
The top 8 was covered on TwinFu.com, though they didn’t note who mulliganed. I believe Brett mulliganed once game 1 and I mulliganed twice game 2 and once game 3.

I don’t remember exactly how I sideboarded, though I know that I boarded wrong for game 2. I put too much emphasis on his Persist guys, which led me to keep in too many guys and Paths which are terrible if he tries to get me with tokens. I fixed some things for game 3, but I still kept in Cryptics, which is probably wrong. Most of the things I care about aren’t creatures, so Negate is generally a good enough counterspell. I thought the tap mode on Cryptic would be important, but the games are attrition wars, not races.

Games: 14-7-1
Matches: 6-2-1
8th place

Going forward, I want to try to slip a couple of Negates into the deck, as they’re pretty good against your mediocre matchups. Knight was nice with Borderpost, but at the end of the day I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather just have Mind Stone. I think the Runed Halos and Remove Souls could probably be cut from the sideboard. I like Elspeth for control matchups and Galepowder Mage for Tokens. There’s actually a good chance I won’t play Path at Regionals. It’s a nice anti-aggro card, but it’s generally weaker than Wrath or Sower in addition to being miserable against control and tokens. I think I would actually rather have Runed Halo main if I want a spot-removal type of card. At least Halo is rarely dead. Once you cut the Knights you can lower the Plains count, cut the Borderposts for basics or trilands, and think about playing Ponder to smooth your draws out instead of the miser’s Tidings. I think I still want Cryptic Command, as 4 Cryptics plus 2 Negates gives you a decent chance to force through a key spell against control.

This is what I would play if Regionals was tomorrow:

4 Mystic Gate
4 Adarkar Wastes
2 Mutavault
8 Island
7 Plains

4 Kitchen Finks
4 Sower of Temptation
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Mulldrifter
4 Reveillark

4 Cryptic Command
4 Wrath of God
1 Tidings
2 Negate
4 Mind Stone
2 Runed Halo

Sideboard
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Tidings
1 Negate
3 Austere Command
1 Wispmare
2 Celestial Purge
4 Galepowder Mage
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to cut 2 Halos, the Tidings, and a land for 4 Ponders, and I might even do that myself.

Other than U/W Lark, I think B/W Tokens is obviously very powerful, as is anything that is good against it while decent against everything else. I wouldn’t want to play 5cc or Swans right now for fear of Anathemancer, though I think that card is beatable with Runed Halo, Pithing Needle, or Relic of Progenitus, provided you are expecting it.

Feel free to leave questions, comments, or feedback in the NeverFanTheGrip.com forums, or hit me up on Facebook. Good luck at Regionals.

-BenJ

Top Picks:
Fall Out Boy - Tiffany Blews
The Academy Is… - Slow Down
Jimmy Eat World - Work
Say Anything - You’re the Wanker, If Anyone Is
Ludo - Good Will Hunting By Myself

R/G aggro is an archetype that got a lot of cards from Alara Reborn so I think it’s worth a look. For example:

Bloodbraid Elf
Jund Hackblade
Blitz Hellion (nobody likes this guy for some reason)
Colossal Might

Also, Kyle Boddy’s Blightning RDW recently showed that Red can be successful in this format, so I’m interested.

Very early in my brewing process I thought about what straight R/G would and would not let me do. It would give me fast creatures, burn, pump, 8 dual lands, access to Treetop and even Moonglove Extract as a way to kill Forge-Tender. It would leave me with only Firewild Borderpost and Trilands for additional fixing and without many ways to kill big creatures. Spitebellows and pump spells would be options for that.

Splashing either White or Black would give us spot removal for large creatures, but would likely involve playing some trilands and more painlands. My gut reaction is that it’s not worth it, as most decks can play midrange better than you can. I could be wrong though. Alternatively, R/B could still be better despite the new cards, but I think R/G is at least worth a shot.

When I build decks I generally try to build around the format. There is no excuse not to know what your opponents are going to do before you try to beat them, especially since you can find anything on deckcheck.net. At the same time, I have heard compelling arguments from Adam Prosak about making sure your deck is objectively powerful, and while I think that is important, especially in the opening rounds of an opening tournament such as Regionals, I want to have a plan against the most popular decks and cards in the format.

Here is a list of “threats” to you, using the definition from Zac Hill’s latest article.

5cc:
Plumeveil
Wall of Reverence
Counterspells (usually too slow unless your draw is bad/you are too midrangey)
A few removal spells, Volcanic Fallout
Cruel Ultimatum/Broodmate Dragon/Obelisk of Alara (represent inevitability)
SB Celestial Purge/Condemn

In this matchup we want to be fast, ideally not get blown out too hard by Fallout, and have ways to deal with Walls. Reach such as Flame Javelin and Banefire should help seal the deal.

BW/RW/Kithkin
Spectral Procession/Marsh Flitter/Cloudgoat Ranger
Some light removal
SB Burrenton Forge-Tender
Ranger of Eos/Reveillark for card advantage (RW/Kithkin)

In these matchups our opponents will try to chump block to buy time and turn the tide with Anthems or card advantage creatures.

Swans
Lots of Pyroclasm effects
Lots of counterspells
Plumeveil

This should be a relatively good matchup if we don’t get owned too hard by Pyroclasms or Plumeveil. It is important to sometimes sandbag burn spells to use on Swans if they decide to run it out there.

Faeries
Removal/counterspells
Mistbind Clique

Should be another good matchup, though if they have multiple Cliques and you don’t have Javelin you could be in trouble.

Doran/Elves
Big men that need to die
Profane Command/Shriekmaw lategame
Kitchen Finks

Burning a mana accelerator should buy you some time, and Blitz Hellion can create problems for them. SB Spitebellows will be key here, and Puncture Blast or Boggart Ram-Gang can bring their big men down to size.

EsperLark
Some Wraths/spot removal
SB Forge-Tender
A bunch of creatures that die to Shock/Magma Spray

Generally any draw with quick dudes and cheap burn is going to get enough damage in that you can finish them off with bigger burn spells.

So in conclusion, these are the main, most relevant ways decks will fight you:
Plumeveil
Chump blocking
Volcanic Fallout
Big men
Random counterspells and removal which is generally too slow or not plentiful enough
SB Forge-Tender

With those points in mind, we need to construct our curve. Obviously curve is very important to an aggressive deck. Our opponents will have inevitability in every matchup, so it’s important for us to get enough early damage in while still having enough reach to finish them off.

We have some options when it comes to our philosophy about curve. The three main ones are:
1. RDW-style with many one-and two-drops. Can struggle against big men but punishes opponents for slow starts and clunky “answers.”
2. Midrange, with bigger men and burn spells designed to clear out blockers.
3. Big Red, with fewer little guys and more sweepers and big burn spells. Struggles against lots of counterspells.

At first I thought RDW would be the best choice of the three. This was my first build:

2 Forest
11 Mountain
3 Ghitu Encampment
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Karplusan Forest

2 Boartusk Liege
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Tattermunge Maniac

3 Colossal Might
3 Banefire
4 Flame Javelin
4 Magma Spray

Sideboard
4 Volcanic Fallout
1 Boartusk Liege
3 Spitebellows
3 Moonglove Extract
3 Guttural Response
1 Banefire

I was pretty impressed with Boartusk Liege. I would say that it was better than Blitz Hellion on the whole, and I only had so many slots for expensive cards if I was going to include stuff like Tattermunge Maniac and have no ramp. In multiples, it represented a ton of trample damage, which was quite solid across the board. I even boarded an extra one for matchups where I wanted my guys to be bigger.

Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t impressed by Banefire. Colossal Might normally pushed more damage through, and all too often I’d end up dealing 1 damage to a Spectral Procession token to get a guy through. I wasn’t sure yet that I wanted to cut it completely until I played some other matchups, but it went on my watch list.

The deck performed solidly, and I even beat BW Tokens in 3/3 games. In a handful of matches my only loss was to a G/W deck playing Noble Hierarch, Spectral Procession, Kitchen Finks, Wilt-Leaf Liege, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Ranger of Eos, Figure of Destiny, Reveillark, and Path to Exile, all maindeck. I’m not sure any red deck *should* beat that deck in a best of 3 match, but I wanted to try. Spurned on by my newfound crush on Boartusk Liege, as well as Sam Black’s midrange R/G list from his article, I tried this:

4 Treetop Village
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forest
3 Mountain
1 Vivid Crag
1 Plains
4 Fire-Lit Thicket

4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Woolly Thoctar
4 Boartusk Liege
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Blitz Hellion

4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Rampant Growth
4 Colossal Might
4 Trace of Abundance

Sideboard
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Firespout
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile
3 Guttural Response

I tried Vexing Shusher, Ashenmoor Gouger, Deus of Calamity, and Thornling, but they were both bad lots of times. Thornling was sometimes good but got countered or Pathed too often. I rarely wanted to activate Treetop, usually preferring to sink my mana into one spell or another. Even when I was out of spells, Treetop was never enough to turn the game around.

At this point I realized that Colossal Might was pretty much good on anything. I decided I would rather have two-drop creatures than big awkward men. As it was I had to expend too much effort to cover up my midrange deck’s weaknesses against counterspells, which left me too open to Spectral Procession, yet still fundamentally bad against control.

I wanted a low curve R/G deck that would be good against white decks. I stared at the decklists I had been going through and noticed that Bloodbraid Elf is, derf, an Elf. There were several Goblins in Blightning. I could add Wren’s Run Vanquisher, Nameless Inversion, and some Tribal duals and have a quick 3-color deck with a good curve without having to play any trilands. Here’s what I came up with:

2 Karplusan Forest
4 Auntie’s Hovel
3 Mountain
2 Sulfurous Springs
1 Swamp
3 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Forest
3 Graven Cairns
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace

4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Goblin Outlander
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher

3 Colossal Might
4 Tarfire
2 Eyeblight’s Ending
4 Flame Javelin

Sideboard
3 Guttural Response
3 Infest
2 Mind Shatter
4 Deathmark
3 Banefire

Nameless Inversion ended up being quite bad, so I didn’t play any. Being able to play Wren’s Run Vanquisher and Goblin Outlander was kind of nice, but not worth having to play such crappy Tribal spells and Civic Wayfinder. Gilt-Leaf Palace was pretty terrible with Figure, though filters helped somewhat, and not having room for any manlands was lame.

I went back to straight R/G and ended up with this:

10 Mountain
3 Ghitu Encampment
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forest

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Colossal Might
4 Flame Javelin
4 Magma Spray
4 Puncture Blast

Sideboard
3 Spitebellows
3 Moonglove Extract
3 Guttural Response
4 Cloudthresher
2 Murderous Redcap

I felt like I was losing to Doran decks too much, so some of my card choices reflect me trying to right the ship. Boartusk Liege is still nice, but I cut him to try Puncture Blast; it’s possible that he should come back in some number. I also reworked the sideboard some based on my experiences with the deck. Sarkhan Vol and Unwilling Recruit could be good against fatties, but I think I’d rather just kill them.

Where do we go from here? I’m not entirely sure. I’ll be playing some games with variants of these lists as well as R/B Blightning and Swans and potentially some new brews in preparation for PTQ season and Regionals. I may end up picking up Islands when all is said and done, but I want to continue to explore Bloodbraid Elf and the Cascade mechanic until I feel like I have an optimal list. If I find one I like I’ll write a follow-up article.

Happy brewing.

-Ben

Visit the Starkngton Post for a complete list of PTQs-Austin.

The new forums are now active. Click the tab at the top of the page to participate!

Car ride: 12+ hours of me, Jeremy, and my parents. They paid for hotel and gas so I would probably do it again, shitty as it was. This obv meant no smoke breaks for me so it’s a minor miracle nobody died. Also, I’m apparently able to sleep with my neck snapped back 90 degrees.

We left Thursday morning (day before the tourney), got there at like 8 PM, threw our shit in the room, and had time to side draft. I drafted a pretty good monogreen deck with Howl of the Night Pack and a lot of winners but got daggered in the top 4 for no prize. Game 1 I double mulliganed and got Indundated by a monoblue deck, game 3 I mulliganed once and kept 2 lands on the draw but failed to ever get to 4. Kassem split the finals with his terrible B/R deck. We ordered pasta via some delivery place and I test T2 with the guy who beat me in top 4 while we wait. His name is Jorge and he’s from Idaho. I think he Argentenian.  Anyway, he’s got UW Merfolk and I beat him all 4 games preboard. Satisfied that my deck can beat Merfolk, I figure it can beat Faeries too and am happy with my deck choice. I gorge myself on shrimp fettucini alfredo and feel ready to smash.

I wake up thursday morning and register this, the deck that won Finland Nats:
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Grove
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Snow-Covered Island
4 Flooded Grove
3 Adarkar Wastes
4 Wall of Roots
2 Prismatic Lens
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Bonded Fetch
4 Reveillark
3 Body Double
3 Greater Gargadon
2 Primal Command
4 Mulldrifter
4 Sower of Temptation
3 Firespout
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Murderous Redcap
Sideboard:
4 Trickbind
4 Cloudthresher (at bare minimum, should be Raking Canopies)
3 Pact of Negation
3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Firespout

We get a free PT pen and Scorepad at the start of each morning, which is ballin. Round 1 I play against a smallish child with Faeries. Guy was probably 17. There was nothing I could really do game 1, other than mulligan and drop most of my deck on the floor while shuffling. Nerves of steel, etc. Game 2 I played like dogshit. For example, My opponent suspended 3 Ancestral Visions by Turn 4. I had a Wall, so I could have cast Teferi during his upkeep with Pact backup and possibly stranded some or all of them. Instead, I just let him draw nine cards. Then once I actually cast the Teferi with five lands and two Walls in play, I paid with my five lands, he Rune Snagged (for 2) and I put my Teferi in the graveyard.

I obviously know better than to assume my matchup against the #1 deck in the format is “fine” without testing it, but I guess nobody plays Faeries on Magic-League. That’s a terrible excuse, but if they did, I could have still been lazy and appropriately tested. Whatever.

Round 2 I played against B/G Elves. His draw was pretty good both games with a Thoughtseize and dudes, standard fare. I just chumped with Finks, cast a couple of five drops, and killed him on turn 6-7 both games. Game 2 I would have lost if his last card in hand would have been an Extirpate or a Faerie Macabre, but I had no other option besides trying to combo off, and he instantly scooped.

Round 3 I played against Matt Hansen, a very good player from Iowa, with Faeries. He had Vendilion Cliques main, and none of the games were very close. I’m sure I got outplayed here at some point; I think I was probably too quick to play out my Sowers game 1. This matchup is just so much more miserable than Merfolk, because you can’t just draw two Sowers or Firespouts and autowin. Moreover, they have Thoughtseize and Vendilion Clique and better counterspells. It’s probably possible to win a match, but not with my build. You need to do something besides facing them with one spell per turn every turn at sorcery speed. Whether that means Mannequin for an EOT threat or Pact of Negation to force things through, you need something. Rune Snag is probably better than I give it credit for too. Anyway, I got 2-0ed.

Before the draft, I talked to Jacob Van Lunen, one of the “Sliver Kids” who won the 2HG PT: San Diego. He was really cool and just gave me good advice about how to handle my first big draft. They had us move to a room down the hall that had round tables for us to draft on, and I was in pod 23 out of 28:
01 Swanson, Sam 3
02 Jackson, Ben 3
03 Phan, Tuan 3
04 Dao, Phu 3
05 Calcaterra, Nicholas 3
06 Wilson, Jeremiah 3
07 Feigerle, Dustin 3

The guy on my left, Tuan, was the kid that won Dallas Regionals. I didn’t really have much of a plan going in; I was willing to draft anything, but if I felt like two picks were equally good, I’d default towards Black, then Green, then Red, then whatever else. I don’t think Black is the best color by any means, but I do think Monoblack and Br are kind of underrated. The pros all think monocolored decks are the stones apparently (I didn’t know this at the time) but especially monored and monowhite. White is the deepest color according to most people, but monored is the deck everyone wanted to draft. Think stuff like Intimidator Initiate, Giantbaiting, Mudbrawler Cohorts, and burn. Anyway, I opened Oversoul of Dusk, so the draft was pretty simple. I didn’t get completely cut off in green or white, so I just dabbled in both and was free to pass Elsewhere Flasks. I ended up with a pretty sick curve including Spawnwrithe, but only Curse of Chains for removal and 2 Niveous Wisps and 1 Barkshell Blessing for tricks. I also had 2 Nettle Sentinels and a Duergar Assailant, so my deck was superaggro. I sort of wish my two drops would have been something more than random mimics, but such is life.

Round 5 I get paired against another G/W deck. The guy was probably my age but didn’t seem that great. I curved out perfectly both games and smashed him before he had a chance to get his slow cards like Barrenton Medic online. We played a couple more for fun, and he had a Seedcradle Witch, which is pretty good against me until he decided to assign damage to my Spitemare. I basically had no way to race it or efficiently trade with his guys though. I think my deck was still better, but if I got a superslow draw he could have won.

Round 6, I played against Sam Swanson, who was a pretty cool dude, probably about 21, and friends with Jorge who I tested with the night before. He had a pretty good monoblack deck. Game 1 I got thrashed pretty hard by Ashenmoor Gouger and Creekwood Liege, which I have no answer for. I try to make a game of it, but I can’t beat a 3/3 every turn. Game 2 he didn’t draw his Liege. If he had a Gouger, I was able to race it, I probably just curved out and finished him off with a flier or two. Game 3 I kept like 3 lands, Oversoul, and some other crap. I played a couple of dudes, our boards were pretty even, but I went straight to five lands and cast Oversoul of Dusk. He was kold to that. I felt pretty good about winning this match against a good deck after dropping game 1.

Round 7, I played against Tuan. I expected him to be U/B with lots of evasion since I was passing to him. We went the full three games and deep into the round, but he edged me out in games 1 and 3, partially thanks to him winning the die roll. It was pretty much a race and he played pretty well overall, though he did run his Inkfathom Witch into my Tatterkite game 2. He also had a surprise 7-mana Reaper King game 3 off an Elsewhere Flask that ripped me up pretty good. I was surprised that he only managed to go 2-2 with his deck, but apparently he mulliganed a lot. I asked him to concede since it would only be his 3rd win of the tournament, while it would have put me to 5-2, but apparently we aren’t that good of friends. Oh well, 4-3 is technically still in contention, and I didn’t feel too shitty about it.

Jeremy and I went back to the room, pretty much famished and oblivious to the fact that there was a mall food court literally right above the tournament center. So we eventually decided to go to the lobby and try to find food. Seven zebras with bifocals were standing in a circle looking at menus, which can only mean one thing: Judges are venturing out into the outside world. We found out they were going to Chinatown and seemed to know of a good restaurant, so we tagged along and split two cabs. It was like $15 roundtrip for the cab I think, and I mised paying none of it. The restaurant was indeed DI. In the middle of a random wall and up some stairs, they had a “Chef’s Special” which is basically a buffet with different types of meat, noodles, and rice, brought out and placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table, along with water, hot tea, and cookies. The more people that get it, the more types of meat you get, so I was down for the cause. We had 6 people, so we ended up with like Beef, Shrimp, Steak, Chicken, and who knows what else. It wasn’t all you can eat, but it was all I could eat (God, sorry). Jeremy also got a “Volcano” Long Island Iced Tea, which was a giant LIIT (6 different liquors as I understand, plus Coca-Cola for color) in a giant glass-tub hybrid, with some flaming liquid in the middle compartment. He said it got him pretty trashed, and I believe him. Bitch was huge. Unfortunately, I could not partake

There were 5 judges with us. The only one I vaguely knew beforehand is Chris Richter, a L2 who writes for Star City from time to time. There was one L3 and the rest were all L2s. We talked about wierd stuff that comes up with judging, and one of them told this story. Star City Games Center was hosting a Type 1 tournament about 3 years ago, and one kid was leaning to the side when he shuffled. The judge walked to the side he was leaning to, and he leaned the other way and continued shuffling. Suspicious. So they coordinated an assault for next round, which was top 4. One judge walked up on the side he was leaning to. Then other judge walked up on the other side. He sat up straight, then when he cut his deck after his opponent shuffled, he lifted his deck up and clearly looked at the bottom card. What he didn’t know was that there was a third judge standing behind him the whole time who saw the bottom card too. They stopped the match and DQed him. They left his deck on the table and did a follow-up investigation. At first the kid tried to say he didn’t know what the bottom card was. Eventually the judge told him he saw what it was, told him, looked at the bottom card. Sure enough, Brainstorm. Then the kid tried to say he saw it but wasn’t going to use it to his advantage. Yeah, okay. Apparently, the kid was popular in the local scene, so Pete (SCG owner) didn’t want to kick him out of the Center. He’s obviously being loud and a douche, and eventually cracks. He goes outside and comes back, then sits down beside a Judge with a Beta Time Walk. He says “You know what? I don’t care about the tournament, I don’t care about winning, I don’t care about anything. You know what I care about?” At this point he takes the Time Walk, puts it in his mouth, and bites off half of it, chews it up, and swallows. He leaves the rest of it lying on the table, while the other players are left to mutter “Holy shit, that was a real Beta Time Walk.” And that is the story of the kid who ate a Time Walk.

Judges talk about more judge shit, we go back to the hotel, and they talk to us about judge shit. Eventually we get away (enough is enough) and go back to the tournament center for the last 8-man draft of the night. I draft a retarded G/W deck with the sickest curve ever and real removal this time. I win my Quarterfinal round in under 10 minutes, and my Semifinal opponent has a pretty awful Monoblack deck featuring Batwing Brume (again, for only black) and double Poison the Well. He did however have a Demigod, Beseech the Queen, Creakwood Liege, and Stalker Hag. Still, the only way he can actually beat me is to play turn 3 Stalker Hag, follow up with Poison the Well and/or a Creakwood Liege I can’t kill, and he has to do it on the play. He managed to do that games 1 and 3. I had the Last Breath for his Creakwood Liege game 3, but when I sent in the lethal attack with five guys he showed me Batwing Brume for the first time. I was at 5.

I manage to actually say “good game” to the guy and Jeremy and I go to sleep.

So I had to win out on Day 2 to make top 8, and had to go X-1 to have a shot at money. My second draft pod was considerably less soft:
01 Yurchick, Adam 12
02 Hines, Stephen 12
03 Locke, Steve 12
04 Jackson, Ben 12
05 Kasliner, Scott 12
06 Lottich, Michael 12
07 Cutler, Aaron 12
08 Efland, Zach 12

In case you don’t know, Adam Yurchick finished 2nd at GP: Philly, Steve Locke is one of Gerry’s friends, and Stephen Hines was a name I recognized from the Jagged-Scar Archers Elf deck he won City Champs with, and Zach Efland is friends with guys like David Irvine and Charles Gindy, making him no slouch either. Of course I still feel like I can win at this table though.

I firstpicked a Wasp Lancer and followed up with 2 Inkfathom Witches, 2 Wingrattle Scarecrows, and a Consign to Dream. I considered just going monoblack, but the Blue cards were there, so I was just mostly black. I also had 3 Sootwalkers, a Curse of Chains, 2 Smoldering Butchers, a Noggle Bandit, 2 Unmakes, a Soul Reap, and a Beseech the Queen that I can remember. Basically, some quick evasive guys, some standard 4-drops to trade with fatties, and a lot of removal. My sideboard included the 2 Smoldering Butchers, 2 Splitting Headaches (really good), a Whimwader, and 3 Talara’s Banes. I felt like my deck was really good and I had a strong chance to 3-0, but I’m not really confident in my ability to guess such things.

Round 8 I played Zach Efland with U/R. Game 1 he had an apparently scary guy who I think had 5 power, which I put a Curse of Chains on. He had me pretty low already from Crag Puca and other beatdown, and decided to put Elementary Mastery on his Cursed guy. I didn’t have any real removal left and there was no way I could block 5 guys a turn. I boarded in the Splitting Headaches and Smoldering Butchers because he had some 4/4 guys that my Sootwalkers were awful against, and his deck seemed pretty slow and potentially bomby since I saw an Elsewhere Flask game 1. Games 2 and 3 I just used Smoldering Butchers and removal to hold down the ground while my evasive guys got the job done, and used the Splitting Headaches to make sure things didn’t go according to plan for him. I’m pretty sure he mulliganed to 5 and/or got manascrewed game 3 as well. Ding!

Round 9 I played against Steve Locke. He was really quiet both games, so I was too. His deck was a very good B/G and he played very well from what I could tell. He had multiple Gwyllion Hedge-Mages, Cultbrand Cinders, and Soul Reaps, which were all very good against my deck, as well as other good Black and Green things I can’t remember. Game 1 I drew a lot of dead cards including two Inkfathom Witches, and 187ed a few of my X/1s with his guys. Game 2 I took out a lot of Fear guys and managed to piece together a good enough curve on the play to get there. Game 3 I drew more X/1s and he still killed them then me. There was one situation in which we both made mistakes, but they evened out. I Splitting Headached him and saw Soul Reap and Snakeform, along with a dead Gloomwidow’s Feast and pump spell (he had no creatures in play). I had a Wingrattle Scarecrow and some black nonflier in play. I took the Soul Reap, reasoning that all he could do with the Snakeform was cycle it to save some damage. I don’t think there was a counter on the Wingrattle Scarecrow yet (or something, it’s kinda fuzzy), but I remember that I should have taken the Snakeform so he couldn’t kill my guy with the counter on it and draw. A couple of turns later, he still doesn’t have any creatures, and I have him low from the Scarecrow which now does have a counter and a 3/3. When I attack him, he Snakeforms the 3/3. Whew. I was a nice guy about it, and told him after the match (in a nice way). Anyway, I ended up losing in 3. We talked for a few minutes about the draft and other strategic things. I could tell from talking to him that he knows his way around a Magic deck. He apparently won a Limited PTQ awhile ago, and I fully expect Steve to be on tour soon (if he’s not already). On top of that, he ended up cashing at Nats. Congrats Steve!

Round 10 I played against Stephen Hines with monogreen. We got deckchecked, for the third of four times total for me. Luckily I managed to desideboard correctly and neither I nor (unluckily) my opponent had any issues each time. Stephen’s deck was okay, but I get to play removal and he just gets to tap out for big creatures that I’m allowed to block. Suck it, green. The games were really long, thanks in part to him drawing Aerie Ouphes both games, which was a minor blowout each time. He also had Scuttlemutt to make my Inkfathom Witches mediocre, but my removal eventually got it done both times. Game 2, he had a bunch of 2/2s out and our boards were pretty even, but he had 2 cards to my 4, and I cast Splitting Headache, hitting a 6-drop and something else good. Next Level!  I won 2-0.

When Round 11 game around, I had this wierd feeling. I needed to 4-0 Standard to cash, but I really just wasn’t feeling it. I literally didn’t have the desire to shuffle my sixty card pile together. I suck it up and try to make a go of it, but I get paired against Faeries. I kind of go through the motions, but I’m dead only shortly after the match next to us gets done with their deckcheck. Sigh.

I decide not to drop and slit my wrists, and I get rewarded by getting paired against B/R tokens for Round 12. I punted game 1 to him because I announced my Firespout as “red only” when he had Bitterblossom tokens. He leverages those extra tokens plus me drawing a jillion lands and no Body Double into a free game win. He boards in ten cards, and casts two Extirpates and an Earwig Squad game two, removing all my Mulldrifters, Reveillarks, and 3 something from the game, so I hardcast a Gargadon, then suspend another, Firespout his blockers away, and bring in a second Gargadon to kill him. His Bitterblossoms helped me out as well. Seriously, if I easily won that game through so much hate, how can I lose this match? By mulliganing to five and never hitting five mana, obviously. I’m on lifetilt after the match and drop at an even 6-6.

The rest of my time in Chicago involved eating, smoking cigarettes that cost me $9 a pack, playing EDH, staying up all night watching LSV, GWalls, Lachmann, and others moneydraft, finally exploring the mall, and falling asleep in the crowd during the top 8. I checked the line for the artists in the morning, but Aleksi was like 20 minutes late and his line was over two hours long. Which is a beating, since I was supposed to get like 50 cards signed by him. I felt shitty about it, but decided that people would understand. I did get Flooded Groves and a Hallowed Burial signed by Dave Kendall, though. I wish I would have actually slept, but since I didn’t I decided I would rather leave and sleep in the car than watch the rest of the top 4 and finals. I was disappointed that Heberholz lost to Michael Jacob, but the team of MJ, Sam Black, and Cheon is serious bad news for every other country. I like our chances in Memphis.

On the way home, we stopped for BBQ, and Jeremy and I talked about the Swans Combo deck and new Extended in general. After that, I slept basically the whole 12 hours home.

In the end, I can’t really be too disappointed with 6-6 for my first Pro-level tournament. I felt like I drafted fairly well and played great in Limited. Surprisingly, I played terribly in Constructed, and probably did worse with my deck choice. Eventide actually had a lot of impact on the format with just Figure of Destiny, and I fell in to the trap of believing the hype that nothing would really change. If you’ll look at the deck breakdowns from England and Netherlands Nats, you’ll see that Faeries is practically dead; I think there were only 5 Dutch Fae decks. Of course, that means that the metagame is much more optimal for Reveillark, but even then, the monored deck is just so powerful that Reveillark might not even be a favorite on the draw.

Moreover, I’m not even sure that playing Vivids and Pools in Reveillark is the best idea. Sure, you get to play more powerful cards, but occasionally you have to timewalk yourself because you drew too many Vivids, and that really hurts. I played a U/W noncombo Reveillark deck at FNM and it just kinda feels like it might be more important to keep the core elements of the deck and be more consistent. U/W has all the cards to handle red decks, and less Faeries in the metagame is great for the deck. Of course, there’s still Swans to worry about.

In testing for Berlin, one thing I’m going to do differently is try to evolve every deck in my gauntlet, not just the one(s) I’m interested in playing. PVDDR said that in testing for Yokohama he made his White Weenie deck in such a way that it would beat the Teachings deck they were testing against, but when he got to the PT, Teachings had evolved such that it didn’t lose to White Weenie anymore. I think if I would have actually tested the monored decks, which I had lists for, before Nats, I might have made a much better deck choice. I probably should have also just considered playing them; even though they’re not really my style, let’s be honest: Monored is the most powerful deck in the format. This is going to be a difficult problem to overcome, but maybe one day I’ll find the courage to go to a tournament without any islands.

Thanks for reading.
-Ben
Draft 1 decklist:
8 Plains
8 Forest
1 Safewright Quest
1 Barkshell Blessing
2 Niveous Wisps
1 Curse of Chains
2 Nettle Sentinel
1 Duergar Assailant
1 Shorecrasher Mimic
1 Nightsky Mimic
1 Battlegate Mimic
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Gloomwidow
1 Tatterkite
1 Ballynock Cohort
1 Spawnwrithe
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Raven’s Run Dragoon
1 Watchwing Scarercrow
1 Spitemare
1 Desecrator Hag
1 Crabapple Cohort
1 Glamer Spinners
1 Oversoul of Dusk

Relevant SB:
1 Reknit
1 Duergar Assailant
1 Trapjaw Kelpie (IT’S A TRAP!)
1 Hoof Skulkin

Draft 2 decklist:
10 Swamp
7 Island
1 Oona’s Gatewarden
1 Emberstrike Duo
2 Inkfathom Witch
1 Somnomancer
1 Wasp Lancer
2 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Soot Imp
1 Noggle Bandit
1 Loch Korrigan
3 Sootwalkers
1 Smoldering Butcher
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Beseech the Queen
1 River’s Grap
2 Unmake
1 Soul Reap
1 Curse of Chains
1 Consign to Dream

Relevant SB:
1 Smoldering Butcher
2 Splitting Headache
3 Talara’s Bane
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Cache Raiders (I boarded him in a lot, maybe could have MDed him)
1 Whimwader
1 Steam Hopper
1 Raven’s Crime