Never Fan The Grip

Ben Jackson chronicles his first Pro-level tournament, in which he performs much better in Limited than in Constructed, surprisingly.

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