Re-visiting Skred Red

A short while ago, just before the State Championship tournaments, this article space was dedicated to a goofy red deck centered around the snow mechanic which I was intending to bring to battle with me at the Iowa State Championships. At that time it was assumed the deck was good (or it wouldn't have taken up article space) but likely a one-trick pony that would simply be outclassed following Champs. For some reason, however, the deck struck a chord with players and it managed to earn spots in the Top 8 of tournaments all over the country as well as winning the championship in both Iowa and Nebraska. Since that time it has remained popular on Magic Online so it seemed, some two months later, appropriate for another look at Skred Red.

Deck Name: Skred Red
10 Snow-Covered Mountains
4 Tresserhorn Sinks
4 Scrying Sheets
4 Mouth of Ronom
2 Molten Slagheap
4 Coldsteel Heart

4 Stalking Yeti
4 Martyr of Ashes
4 Shriekmaw
3 Chandra Nalaar

4 Incinerate
4 Molten Disaster
3 Dead//Gone
2 Disintegrate
4 Skred

Where the heck is Stuffy Doll?

It's the first thing everyone to date has said of the new list, after their eyes stop bugging out of their head in shock. Yes Stuffy Doll was an integral part of the deck, originally, but the 0/1's time has come and gone (though as the metagame continues to cycle, it will become good again).

Let's be clear about one thing, first and foremost: Skred Red is not, nor has it ever been “a Stuffy Doll deck.” In the piece before States it was said, and bears repeating, “the deck is not a Stuffy combo deck, but a deck that combos with Stuffy.” At that point in time the format wasn't willing to consider the 0/1 indestructible creature a relevant threat, let alone prepare to beat it. Things have changed and Stuffy has gotten gradually worse.

First, nearly every deck with removal has removal that can kill Stuffy. Oblivion Ring, Nameless Inversion, Crib Swap, even Serrated Arrows are all waiting in the wings to bash the 0/1 to bits. How is that any different than at States? The answer is a bit complex. States often trends towards mid-range creature decks and mopey “big spell” decks that beat up on the untuned aggro and control decks, the first because they're not aggressive enough and the second because they're not certain what facets of the game they're supposed to be controlling. By the time Grand Prix-Krakow rolled around all that had changed. The aggressive decks had become either hyper-aggressive (like RG) or disruptively aggressive (UG Faeries). The control decks, meanwhile, had become entirely more focused.

So how does that make Stuffy Doll worse? Against the aggro decks you no longer have a marquee threat that shuts down their offense; instead you have a 5-mana turn-waster that eats their 2-3 mana removal spell while they put the final bash on until you stop twitching. The control decks, meanwhile, are happily countering your horrifically expensive spell or, God Forbid, stealing it with Guile. Game after game Skred Red would trade early burn for threats as it always had in the past, then play Stuffy ready to stabilize only to see that plan fall flat on its face and its life total quickly dwindle. Something had to be done.

Enter the Maw

One of the reasons Skred Red was so great headed into States was its particular resilience to the new kid on the Nekrataal block, Shriekmaw. It's almost comical, then, that we turn to exactly that card to replace Stuffy Doll, but it shouldn't be too surprising. Shriekmaw replicates what Stuffy did very well. Providing a win condition? Check, even if a 3/2 with fear isn't quite as exciting as comboing Skreds onto the ole' Stuffster. Nullifying Tarmogoyf? Check, but instead of having to stick around in play Shriekmaw actually justs bins the infamous 0/1 dealing with the problem whether your opponent has Nameless Inversion or not. All that and for less than half the price (in a pinch) and we're more than happy to make the switch.

The important thing to remember is that Skred Red is a control deck, even though it plays Mountains. Stuffy Doll provided you with a win condition that could halt an opponent's attack before turning the tide in your favor in an environment with little counter magic to speak of. That format no longer exists and as a result we need to find a card which does what Stuffy did but taking into account the new design constraints. Shriekmaw is an excellent solution, halting an opponent's attack in a different manner than Stuffy Doll while still providing us with a win condition. Is it as big and splashy? No. Does big and splashy inherently mean more wins at Magic? Of course not. So Shriekmaw it is.

The Matchups

Guile

At Grand Prix-Krakow the French players debuting the Guile deck, sometimes called Sonic Boom, felt they were favored in the Skred Red matchup. That might have been true at the time, but that no longer seems to be the case. There are two primary reasons for that and they are the Guile deck's painfully slow clock and Molten Disaster.

It's really rather simple. The Guile deck is seeking to stop its opponents plays with countermagic, Desert, and large threats like Teferi and Guile or by a bounce and re-counter with Venser. The majority of spells in Skred Red cost less to play than the counters from the blue mage and some of the most important card in the matchup are simply not counterable. Your draw engine (Scrying Sheets), your primary win condition (Molten Disaster), your big-mana engine (Molten Slagheap), even your answer to Teferi (Mouth of Ronom) are all outside the Arena in which Guile is trying to force you to interact in.

For these reasons Skred Red, unbelievable as it sounds, is the control deck. Your entire goal in the match is to create a life advantage, any life advantage (even just a single point!), then sit back keeping the board cleared, maintaining your lead, and then eventually split seconding a Molten D that puts the Island fiend out of their misery.

There are some key cards which allow you to do this, first and foremost the cards most likely to provide you with the life advantage: Martyr of Ashes and Incinerate. A first turn Martyr provides an attacking threat that sneaks in under the countermagic and must be answered with Desert. Incinerate is a great response to an early Think Twice while the Guile player is tapped out, or to set up an early Disintegrate/second Incinerate to resolve on your turn. That play comes up against a Guile player in the know in which you Incinerate them at the end of the second turn, they counter with Faerie Trickery or Rune Snag tapping themselves out, then you resolve the other burn spell safely on your turn.

Games usually play out with you posturing for advantage early, then sitting back and accruing cards and mana with Scrying Sheets and eventually Molten Slagheap, all the while holding off on things like Shriekmaw, Stalking Yeti, and Chandra until the time is right. Meanwhile the Guile opponent will attempt to build up their hand with Think Twice and Ancestral Visions, then eventually attempt a creature. It's important that you manage to stick a Mouth of Ronom with the requisite mana by this point to prevent getting Lightning Bolted by Teferi; while not impossible to battle through the 3-point swing in life, it's a whole lot easier to not have to. A resolved Martyr of Ashes will also provide security against the 3/4.

As the game goes longer and longer and manabases become more and more cluttered, you will begin to blank Rune Snag and weaken your opponent's ability to stop your threats. At some point, when Guile is NOT in play, you may attempt to resolve something like Chandra Nalaar or a medium sized Disintegrate in order to start getting ahead. The historical game plan of “unleash a bunch of burn end of turn, untap and resolve a large threat” for red versus blue is applicable here, and proves why the plan has been so successful in the past.

Your solutions to Guile are plentiful and efficient. You should not have creatures on the board when they play the 6/6 meaning a Spelljack on your Skred is worthless; the only legal target is their 6/6 and they certainly don't want that dead or they wouldn't be using counters. An evoked Shriekmaw is also a fine answer, and part of the reason the 3/2 made the cut into the deck. Terror costs less than Cryptic Command and Faerie Trickery and often Rune Snag is irrelevant by the time you're evoking so it's highly likely that if you need to kill Guile, Guile will be dead. Also, because Guile is still the only target for Shriekmaw and the comes-into-play effect is not optional, the blue player can't afford to counter your creature and replay it without trading their 6/6 in.

Mannequin

The matchup against Mannequin can be challenging, but isn't necessarily bad. Your long term plan is to control the flow of the game from the creature front while matching your opponent in cards with Sheets and two-for-ones, then resolving Chandra and charging her to eight. To accomplish this you must carefully utilize your resources. Try to trade Martyr of Ashes for Phyrexian Ironfoot or Teferi, save spot removal for flying threats and in particular Faerie Conclave, utilize Stalking Yeti and Shriekmaw on Venser, Riftwing Cloudskate, Mulldrifter, Shadowmage Infiltrator, and their Shriekmaws whenever possible (being aware that only the Yeti can handle the last two). Hold Mouth of Ronom and Skred for Phyrexian Ironfoot and Teferi (particularly Mouth for Teferi), and try not to Molten Disaster unless you must to maintain your life total. Sheets when you can and don't be afraid of your opponent using their mini-suite of bounce effects to return Chandra. She will resolve eventually and when she does, she will cause problems.

Typically you find yourself behind in this matchup only when your opponent lands an early Phyrexian Ironfoot and you struggle to find an answer. Yes they draw a fair amount of cards with Mulldrifter, but a single Drifter can be nullified by a Stalking Yeti + their removal spell and your draw engine, unlike theirs, costs only mana not cards. Over time you will outdraw them, you simply need to find ways to force the game to go long.

That said there are a few tricks it is important to remember against the deck. Reserve Disintegrate for their Epochrasites; the 1/1 can be problematic and the X-spell is your only permanent answer. If you fail to draw it, you're best off ignoring the little bugger and soaking up 1 damage each turn. Make sure to play around Makeshift Mannequin when possible as their board being clear does not equate to “swing away” with whatever 3-powered creature you manage to land as a Mannequin for Ironfoot can really throw a wrench in your plans. Finally, and most importantly, you must monitor your life total to guard against Profane Command. The X-spell is one of the most important developments to come out of States that has impacted Skred Red. Previously decks needed to play Mountains to have any reach against you with burn, but players who realized Profane Command's power bear that statement false. You can actually be at risk against the Mannequin player at a moderately high life total so once you establish control of the game, go to town on their life before they hit one of their two outs to do the same to you.

The Mirror

Unfortunately adapting to the new metagame means shifting away focus on some matchups in order to be favored in others. The Skred Red mirror is one in which you lose ground this time around. Not having Stuffy Doll is a huge blow in that it prevents you from benefiting from Molten Disaster, quickly comboing them with a fortunate Skred draw, and preventing them from utilizing the effects of Molten Disaster and Martyr of Ashes.

Still, we do have some tricks at our disposal to try to make a game of it, and the most important is Dead//Gone. Many Skred Red lists are removing the flexible Shock from their maindecks though that play seems entirely wrong. The flexibility of the spell is impossible to Recoup from something like Shock or Tarfire even if those two can go to the head, and it's one of the key cards to winning the mirror. Opponent played Stuffy Doll with a single red up? Slump dejectedly, then counter their Skred by bouncing Stuffy at the end of your turn when they excitedly try to 6 ya'. Or simply put the problematic artifact back into their hand so you can attack around it.

Aside from careful resource management in the first game (hold those Dead//Gones!), Skred Red is a matchup best evened out in the sideboard. An anti-burn package of 4 Bottle Gnomes and 4 Loxodon Warhammers for Skred Red and RG is something that has seen some success with Hammer serving to provide “evasion” for your creatures against Stuffy Doll and Bottle Gnome providing you an additional life cushion as well as another warm body to Hammer your opponent. Serrated Arrows was a card Brandon Scheel used for the mirror in the finals of the Iowa State Championships and one which is still relevant though perhaps more narrow than I'd like in other matchups (though it does kill Faerie Conclaves against Mannequin…). Flowstone Slide is another card that's been considered as it answers Stuffy Doll, Paladin en-Vec/Soltari Priest/Burrenton Forge Tender, and Albino Troll as well as occasionally allowing you to pump your team and swing for an unexpected win. The only problem is that it's very expensive though it does swap out nicely for Molten Disaster in the matchups in which that card is sub-par.

Pickles

The Pickles matchup has stayed about the same as it was for States, even with the addition of white. Your removal is simply too much for them to hope to lock you, moreso now with Shriekmaw, and for the most part you can play the matchup as you would against Guile. However as friend Blu McFarlane found out at States while playing Skred Red against Matt “Cheeks” Hansen and his Pickles list, you have to be a bit more careful than you would against Guile. Tapping out to use all your fancy lands at the end of turn could leave you red faced following a Teferi, then Brine and Shapeshifter lock. The moral of the story? Don't get greedy.

Instead, sit back accruing an advantage in land and cards with Scrying Sheets, Coldsteel Heart, and charge lands burning what creatures they play as they present themselves. Remember that Pickles as a deck has swapped counters for more creatures, good news for Skred Red as it's designed to win creature battles consistently while not as designed for the counter war. Over the long term you'll want to resolve Chandra and let that do the work for you, or else save up a huge Molten Disaster blast. Do not simply run Martyr of Ashes into play if your opponent is playing the white version as their removal (like Oblivion Ring) can nab the 1/1 which in turn is very good at cheaply wrathing the board. Unless, of course, you're running cover for Chandra in which case that play is just fine.

The Sideboard

Normally these articles come with a pre-set sideboard tested for an environment and ready to go. We've stayed away from that today and for a simple reason: the metagame, depending on what environment you're playing in, is pretty fluid right now. The professional community (aka “q'ed for Worlds”) might consider the deck a solid choice for their metagame which was filled with control decks the last time out (Grand Prix-Krakow). The online metagame is apparently more filled with, well, Skred Red in which case the above version of the deck is not the best choice and the sideboard of the deck would have to be built with that in mind, if not having the maindeck altered a bit. Finally potential new kids on the block like a return of red Storm decks could necessitate things like Thorn of Amethyst and/or handkill in the sideboard.

So what are some options? Against the control decks it still seems best to force them to play in an Arena they're not comfortable in and that means uncounterable threats/answers. What are some of the things that fall under this category? Redkroma, Detritivore's suspend effect, Urza's Factory, potentially even Shock and Tarfire which are hard for the control players to spend cards and mana answering though they are not technically uncounterable. Additionally other lands to help you accrue a lead on mana, particularly charage lands, provide you with the ability to get to your ultimate plan in these matchups: a huge Molten Disaster. The most important card, however, is probably Krosan Grip.

Wait…Krosan Grip? But you're not even playing green!

True, but we're not very far from doing so. A number of control players have begun recognizing the problematic cards in the Skred Red matchup with prime suspect numero uno being Scrying Sheets. Accordingly they have begun sideboarding Pithing Needle to put an end to those shenanigans, and for good reason. K Grip gives us an indefensible answer to the $20 rare plus a free excuse to run more charge lands in the sideboard in the form of Fungal Reaches. It might be prudent to run something like this, for right now:

4 Fungal Reaches
3 Krosan Grip

It is important to keep in mind in that scenario that Coldsteel Heart doesn't necessarily need to be set to either red or black, and that we should keep open the possibility of setting it to green if we're not there on mana. The cards to sideboard out depend on the matchup but usually the expensive stuff like Chandra and Stalking Yeti, neither of which do much against a deck like Guile, can go.

As for the creature matchups we've already alluded to the Skred Red mirror with the anti-burn package of Loxodon Warhammer and Bottle Gnomes. Both of those cards buy us some time and cushion that most precious of resources in those matchups: our life total. It's key to board the extra attacker in against burn to ensure someone is always willing to pick up a piece of equipment and charge across the red zone for a relevant amount of damage. For a time under this plan even Stuffy Doll would occasionally pick up the Hammer and go to town before the switch was made to Shriekmaw. Anything to counter the effects of burn, which leaves us with this sideboard:

Skred Red Bill Stark

Main Deck:
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Martyr of Ashes
4 Shriekmaw
4 Stalking Yeti
4 Coldsteel Heart
3 Dead // Gone
2 Disintegrate
4 Incinerate
4 Molten Disaster
4 Skred
2 Molten Slagheap
4 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
10 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Tresserhorn Sinks
Sideboard:
4 Bottle Gnomes
4 Fungal Reaches
3 Krosan Grip
4 Loxodon Warhammer

It remains to be seen if that's the best option or if there isn't something more nuanced that can do both jobs as good or better, but we've got a start.

Well, that's all for this week. Again, I'll see some of you at the PTQ in Chicago this weekend (feel free to say hi!) and if you're going to be at Worlds I'll be there doing coverage so feel free to look me up then as well.

Thanks for reading.

-Bill Stark
Assistant editor, TCGplayer.com

Saturday, November 24 Tournament Standard

Metagame
RG Mana Ramp: 14
RWG Predator Aggro: 3
Haro Rock: 1
BG Rock: 4
Gb Elves: 6
Skred Red: 8
MGA: 7
Uw Pickles: 3
Ug Faeries: 6
Mono Blue Pickles: 3
Sonic Boom: 8
Mannequin Control: 6
Mono Black Control: 6
Discard Effects.dec: 1
Gruul Beats: 2
Mono Red Jank: 1
Rb Goblins: 2
Mono Blue Merfolk: 1
Gbw AggroControl: 2
Mono Green Treefolk: 2
Uw Merfolk: 5
Ub Faeries: 3
Changeling Zoo: 1
TarmoSkred Red: 1
Gb Midrange: 1
TurboTog: 3
Mono Green Elves: 2
RG Tokens: 1
mtgfanatic's deck: 1
Angelfire: 1
TSPS: 2
KajTheMan's Deck: 1
RBg AggroControl: 1
WRU Blink: 1
UB TarmoControl: 1
RB Control: 1
Snow White: 1
BW Haakon Inversion: 2
Mono Black Aggro: 1
Bg Haakon Inversion AggroControl: 2
Kithkins: 1
RU Aggro: 1
Uw Blink: 1
Mono Blue Aggro: 1
sideney's deck: 1
Ug Pickles: 2
GRB AggroControl: 1
Mono Red Aggro: 2

TOP 8:
RG Mana Ramp
1st - MiguelG
Main Deck:
5 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Karplusan Forest
5 Mountain
4 Treetop Village
1 Urza's Factory
1 Pendelhaven
2 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Wall of Roots
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Cloudthresher
4 Fertile Ground
4 Harmonize
3 Incinerate
3 Molten Disaster
4 Search for Tomorrow
2 Loxodon Warhammer
Sideboard:
3 Krosan Grip
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 Pyroclasm
4 Eyes of the Wisent


RWG Kavu Justice
2nd - D4rk3z
Main Deck:
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Horizon Canopy
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Treetop Village
1 Mountain
2 Forest
5 Plains
3 Brion Stoutarm
4 Kavu Predator
3 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 Serra Avenger
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Incinerate
4 Call of the Herd
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Fiery Justice
Sideboard:
3 Crib Swap
1 Fiery Justice
3 Krosan Grip
4 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Mystic Enforcer
2 Thrill of the Hunt


BG Rock
Top 4 - Haro
Main Deck:
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Treetop Village
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Ohran Viper
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Graveborn Muse
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Shriekmaw
3 Nameless Inversion
4 Thoughtseize
4 Eyeblight's Ending
Sideboard:
2 Shriekmaw
2 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Distress
3 Krosan Grip
3 Extirpate
2 Profane Command


Gb Elves
Top 4 - Equinox-
Main Deck:
4 Thoughtseize
3 Wren's Run Packmaster
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Masked Admirers
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Elvish Champion
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Thornweald Archer
3 Boreal Druid
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
6 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Pendelhaven
4 Treetop Village
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Horizon Canopy
Sideboard:
4 Slaughter Pact
2 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
3 Shriekmaw
3 Krosan Grip
3 Riftsweeper


RG Mana Ramp
Top 8 - Batutinha
Main Deck:
1 Urza's Factory
5 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Treetop Village
6 Forest
3 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Wall of Roots
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Cloudthresher
1 Deadwood Treefolk
3 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Molten Disaster
4 Harmonize
4 Search for Tomorrow
3 Fertile Ground
3 Incinerate
Sideboard:
2 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Quagnoth
2 Krosan Grip
4 Eyes of the Wisent
4 Sulfurous Blast


Skred Red
Top 8 - Tidus-
Main Deck:
4 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
15 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Fungal Reaches
4 Martyr of Ashes
3 Stalking Yeti
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Stuffy Doll
4 Coldsteel Heart
4 Skred
3 Molten Disaster
4 Incinerate
4 Dead/Gone
2 Disintegrate
Sideboard:
1 Fungal Reaches
1 Molten Disaster
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Serrated Arrows
4 Sulfur Elemental
3 Akroma, Angel of Fury


MGA
Top 8 - GreatMind
Main Deck:
2 Pendelhaven
10 Forest
4 Treetop Village
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Quagnoth
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Boreal Druid
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Spectral Force
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Masked Admirers
2 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Fertile Ground
Sideboard:
1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Call of the Herd
4 Eyes of the Wisent
4 Gaddock Teeg
3 Riftsweeper


RWG Kavu Justice
Top 8 - Nameless1
Main Deck:
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Treetop Village
2 Forest
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Pendelhaven
3 Mountain
1 Karplusan Forest
2 Brushland
1 Plains
2 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Kavu Predator
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Greater Gargadon
3 Mogg Fanatic
1 Magus of the Scroll
4 Mogg War Marshal
3 Masked Admirers
4 Tarfire
4 Incinerate
3 Fiery Justice
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Oblivion Ring
Sideboard:
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Molten Disaster
3 Krosan Grip
3 Riftsweeper
2 Serrated Arrows

Hm, no blue in top. Green eats each other.
   +      =   old, but works?

PTQ Kansas City *Top 4*

I hope all you Americans enjoyed your Thanksgiving this year, but a lot has happened since last we met so it's time to get back to work! Without further ado here's the recap from the recent Pro Tour Qualifier in Kansas City…

The People

Magic represents many different things to the people who play it, but as much as I love the game (and I really really really love the game), the people I meet through it are as much a reason why I keep coming back as anything. That's why I love going to Kansas City.

You see, Kansas City is home to a man known by those close to him as “Tel”. His birth certificate may read differently but Tel Parrett, so named after a Louis L'amour character by his parents in his youth, is one of my favorite people to hang out with. We met in the summer of 2003 at the San Diego Convention Center, recently home to the Two-Headed Giant Pro Tour but then the scene for the United States Nationals tournament won by Josh Wagoner. It was the first major tournament for both of us and I was fortunate to have been traveling with Scott Lewis, long time Iowa City forefather and certainly one of the better people to have as a roommate on a Magic trip. Tel, unfortunately, hadn't been so lucky as to have any of his friends qualify with him at Regionals that year and had made the trip solo.

Towards the middle of the first day of competition Mr. Parrett had approached me casually and asked “What's your record Bill?” To this day I'm not sure how Tel knew my name beyond the fact I believe we both qualified at the same Regionals tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska. I'll admit I was a bit taken aback but replied and we brokered up some minor conversation that led to further conversations throughout the day, often with the aforementioned Scott Lewis, and by the evening when Tel mentioned he was staying solo at his hotel Scott and I extended the offer to join us for dinner.

You could say we hit it off and on the flight back from San Diego we wound up seated next to one another battling halfsies using his Vintage deck with Tel occasionally white-knuckling his way through turbulence (Tel and flying go together like…well, that's a story for a different day). We've stayed in contact ever since and whenever I'm headed to Kansas City Tel's the first person I call and the first person who extends his guest bedroom should I need a place to Crash.

Of course, some things have changed over the years. Tel eventually married his long-time girlfriend Bobbie, a character in her own right who was a champion martial artist and cleverly bartered naming their cats after Star Wars characters in exchange for never doing the same to their children. They settled in the suburbs of Overland Park, conveniently just up the road from the Overland Park Convention Center, site of 2008 Grand Prix-Kansas City, and Tel is just finishing up his law degree. Oh, did I mention the time he was inadvertently shot with a .9 mil during a drive-by at a pool?

The stories could go on and on but the moral of this one is simple: Tel Parrett is a good man and I'm grateful to be playing a game that allowed our paths to cross.

Of course a discussion of my favorite Magic persons would be painfully incomplete if I didn't mention Tim Berkley. Save for my brother Mike there is no other person in the game who I have played with so long as I have been playing with Tim (and the nearly-always-close-by Blu McFarlane). It's a matter of miles really. You see, growing up in rural Iowa (on a farm near Aurora, where the newly re-elected mayor won with 20 votes…total) leaves one with few places to actually play Magic: the Gathering. The nearest shop when I was growing up was some 50 miles up the road in Cedar Falls. As luck would have it, Tim happened to live in Cedar Falls and on most days you could find him at said shop.

Our first few meetings were derisive at best, the headstrongedness of teenage boys and un-supervised competition to blame. Over the years, however, Tim slowly changed into a familiar face in sometimes foreign lands, then into an acquaintance, then into a testing partner, then one day I woke up and found myself having spent a snowed-in week at his loft in Minnesota playing cards and PTQing while looking for jobs on the possibility I would be moving north. It's almost funny how quickly that transaction happened and when Blu called me Friday night at 1 a.m. to ask me if it was true there was a PTQ in Kansas City that weekend (the Wizards site didn't have the date listed) I assumed he was joking. Even if the Cedar Falls crew left right then, I thought to myself, they wouldn't get in until 5 or 6 a.m.

Imagine the joyous surprise on my face the next morning when Tim's mug was the first I saw as I walked into the cavernous convention center. It turns out they had driven straight through to arrive at 6 a.m. all because Tim wanted to surprise me by coming down. Thanksgiving is a slow week for him at his job as a chef in the Twin Cities, so he had made the journey back to Cedar Falls then convinced the crew to PTQ and…well, I guess there you have it. A good trip had only gotten better.

And of course there were the usuals. Larry Waymon and the St. Louis crew came down sans the apparently newly-girlfriended Tim Galbiati (their very own Mike “Pimpin'” Donovan actually registered the pool I got to play with). There was a young crew from Nebraska featuring not one but two Rolf brothers though hardly a member out of high school. The intrepid Ames guys made it sans Steve Locke, who managed to qualify in Wichita, instead adding Nick Mohon to the mix. The man they call Money had a rough night off it on Friday when they got into town. It seems the crew had gone out to enjoy some of the local pubs and a misunderstanding led to quite an unfortunate scenario. Nick mistakenly believed the gentleman who had purchased them a round of drinks early on in the evening was speaking with an Irish accent in jest and followed along with the ruse. Turns out said gentleman was…um…actually Irish and didn't take kindly to Nick's mimicry.

Calm heads and wise words nearly prevailed until the bouncers decided to remove Nick forcibly for the affront, pinning his arms to his sides and leaving him defenseless. The aforementioned Irishman, sensing an opportunity, planted a boot front square and center on poor Nick's mouth while he was unable to defend himself, then quickly disappeared into the night. Suffice to say Nick had a fat lip, a hangover, and a tip of the nose that read “Doctor Martens”, though a fine lesson had been learned about running accents before determining why everyone else in the room is running one. Still, it takes more than that to keep a good man down, and Nick is one of the best. He managed to find the time to enjoy himself in between griping about his swollen lip and lack of sleep.

Things I Learned

Those of you who read my blog from PTQ-Kansas City had a chance to see my entire sealed pool with the promise I would reveal my actual list in this article. Here is what I played (and if you want to see the entire pool, click on that link silly):

1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Vivid Meadow
7 Plains
7 Mountain

1 Wanderer's Twig
1 Footbottom Feast
1 Mulldrifter

1 Austere Command
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Crib Swap
1 Avian Changeling
1 Kithkin Healer
1 Kithkin Greatheart
1 Hillcomber Giant
1 Lairwatch Giant
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Sentry Oak

2 Tarfire
1 Consuming Bonfire
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Lowland Oaf
1 Thundercloud Shaman
1 Fire-Belly Changeling
1 Axegrinder Giant

I gave Ingot Chewer a shot in my maindeck after discovering just how good Springleaf Drum was the previous weekend in Madison. For this Sealed Season I have found myself building decks from my pool which provide the minimal amount of “weak” resources to allow me to survive the early game and focusing on overwhelming the late game with large-monster threats like Axegrinder Giant and Oakgnarl Warrior or bombs like Chandra Nalaar and Austere Command. Of course one can't take credit for being given decks with a few bombs in them but I still hate the feeling of an opponent stabilizing at 8 life while you pray to find your one flyer, hit on a Lash Out clash, and rip the Giant's Ire on your way to a three-outer.

Ingot Chewer, then, is a medium-sized threat with a not-irrelevant ability. This is certainly no format dominated by artifacts but enough targets exist to have convinced me to try the lil' 3/3. Thoughts of trading with Hill Giants after bashing a Drum, Runed Stalactite, Dolmen's Gate, or forcing a Moonglove Extract to go off when my opponent hadn't planned it to danced in my head and eventually came up. Sure throughout the day Ingot Chewer mostly just killed opponents or traded for other creatures, but the second ability was relevant from time to time. Would I play it again? I would certainly move it to my pile of playables, though I consider it a 23rd caliber card.

I've mentioned previously that I've been pretty greedy so far this season when it comes to splashing powerful effects from other colors. Lorwyn makes it so easy! The Vivid lands, Springleaf Drum, Shimmering Grotto, Wanderer's Twig; nearly any sealed pool is capable of playing the most powerful off-color spells available with a minimal amount of effort. In Madison I discussed such splashes with Sam Black who said the card he most wanted to open for splashing in his pools was Footbottom Feast. I agreed the Bone Harvest retread was very solid, but pointed out I would prefer Mulldrifter, what I consider the top common in the set (even if it means being at odds with those who feel Nameless Inversion is the better card).

Lo' and behold my pool in Kansas City offered up both, as well as just enough mana fixing (I believe) to splash the two. Ultimately that's what I opted to do with a Twig and on-color Vivid Meadow but I was surprised to see other players whom I hold in high esteem disagreeing with that decision. Brandon Scheel, generally regarded as the top Iowan player and the individual who knocked me out of the Top 8 in KC, offered up a list that was only red and White. Here's what that looked like:

8 Mountain
8 Plains

1 Austere Command
1 Avian Changeling
1 Axegrinder Giant
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Consuming Bonfire
2 Crib Swap
1 Fire-Belly Changeling
1 Hearthcage Giant
1 Hillcomber Giant
1 Kithkin Greatheart
1 Kithkin Healer
1 Lairwatch Giant
1 Lowland Oaf
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sentry Oak
1 Surge of Thoughtweft
2 Tarfire
1 Thundercloud Shaman
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Wanderer's Twig
1 Wispmare

Describing the list he said “I think you don't have enough fixers for more than two colors. Red/White are the pool's strongest colors and share your obvious tribe.”

One area a lot of bloggers keyed into was the fact that the pool offered up a number of creatures to combo well with two Makeshift Mannequins and the Footbottom Feast I opted to play. Rickaroni offered up this list:

1 Cloudgoat Ranger
2 Crib Swap
1 Austere Command
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Avian Changeling
1 Sentry Oak
1 Hillcomber Giant
1 Kithkin Greatheart

1 Lowland Oaf
1 Hearthcage Giant
1 Axegrinder Giant
2 Tarfire
1 Chandra Naalar
1 Thundercloud Shaman
1 Fire-Belly Changeling

2 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Footbottom Feast
1 Mournwhelk
1 Thorntooth Witch

1 Wanderer's Twig

1 Vivid Meadow
6 Plains
7 Mountain
3 Swamp

Said Rick “I think you play enough black cards to warrant a splash. Footbottom Feast is a no brainer, and I felt that it would be worth it to splash the Makeshift Mannequins because of the quality creatures you could get back with them (Cloudgoat Ranger, Hearthcage Giant, Thundercloud Shaman, Mournwhelk). I also splashed for Mournwhelk (as stated above) and Thorntooth Witch. You have five Treefolk spells you can cast (2x Crib Swap, Avian Changeling, Fire-Belly Changeling, and Sentry Oak), and in my limited experience (LOL PUNS), it is amazing.” Rick couldn't have guessed how close he was to the build I almost ran with, for exactly the reasons he mentioned, though I had Mulldrifter in that build as well. Ultimately I decided that the consistency of being RW with only two minor splashes would be more successful, but I was BWru until about 10 minutes left in deck registration.

In addition to the builds focusing more on black, a lot of players opted to consider blue as a serious contender as well. I think the version of that deck I liked the most came from Savaj Cheetr, aka Grand Prix-San Francisco Top 8 competitor Zack Smith, who offered up this list which also managed to sneak in some green cards:

1 Stonybrook Angler
1 Silvergill Douser
1 Silvergill Adept
1 Amoeboid Changeling
1 Sygg, River Guardian
1 Streambed Aquitects
1 Avian Changeling
1 Kithkin Healer
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Aethersnipe
1 Mulldrifter
1 Hillcomber Giant
2 Crib Swap
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ego Erasure
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Austere Command
1 Wanderer's Twig
1 Briarhorn
1 Gilt-Leaf Ambush
1 Lairwatch Giant
1 Kithkin Greatheart

2 Forest
1 Vivid Meadow
7 Island
7 Plains

Explaining the process by which he came to that conclusion, Zack said “White is an easy inclusion as it has your best removal, a legitimate bomb, and some solid creatures. From there, I look at what color offers the most solid creatures in addition to what I've already got, and look to splash cards from there based on available fixing and power level concerns. Blue offers Sygg, Aethersnipe, Mulldrifter, and Douser, along with some other fine early game men. Green has some decent creatures and the mighty Briarhorn, black is fairly weak, and red has some quality cards but lacks the depth to be a base color.”

Other players opted to splash Briarhorn as well, there were some UWb lists, and truly some interesting things being discussed on the forums attached to the blog. Ultimately I think you simply have a lot of evidence that the format is a very complex one for Sealed and Draft play and at the end of the day I'm not sure whether choosing power or consistency is the correct play. At Pro Tour-San Diego Randy Buehler watched Jon Finkel finish a draft on Day 2 with teammate Josh Ravitz. Buehler complained that Jon had the bad habit of drafting for card advantage and potentially weakening his manabase when he could, it seemed Randy felt, get just as far being consistently minded instead. While Lorwyn is certainly different than Time Spiral in regards to Limited play, those are still two very solid minds grappling with the power versus consistency argument.

Kansas City saw a marked rise in the number of players opting to draw after winning the die roll. In Madison there were only a few rounds, one or two, in which my opponent both won the die roll and opted to play second. I feel that is the default choice in this environment, preferring the extra card to the unremarkable gains from making the first land drop, and apparently others are coming around to that decision as well.

One of the important things I've learned in this format is that it's not always right to play a card with clash simply because you're able to. In this deck that became particularly apparent when playing with Sentry Oak. The repetitive card filtering is actually a potential problem when stabilizing against an aggressive curve hell-bent on finishing you with the last few points. During one particular match I had stabilized at a paltry 4 life; while firmly in control and unlikely to lose through the combat phase I was certainly within reach of the Giant's Ire my opponent was telegraphing was in his deck. A Thundercloud Shaman had cleared his board and provided ample sized beatdown but when I drew Sentry Oak I wasn't quite certain what to do. I could try to “get there” each turn with the clash, which you're always a slight dog to win, but that meant slowly filtering my opponent's deck into possible outs.

Instead I opted to keep bashing with the Giant, then when he dealt with that I started clashing, winning two quick and ending things before my opponent could change the outcome. I believe the correct play (I'll leave the argument to the forums to determine for certain) was to avoid clashing when I had a separate clock, but that sitting doing nothing seemed worse than being pro-active and taking the risk of clashing my opponent into Giant's Ire in order to attack. I do the same thing against opponent's who are mana/card-screwed; given the choice I'll play non-clash cards until the point where not playing them to get ahead on board is more damaging than clashing my opponent into whatever it is they need.

The Swiss

Round 1 I was naturally paired with Tim Berkley, who had made the trip all the way down to visit. I won the first in resounding fashion, lost the second and, in a trend that would sort of define the weekend, faced off in an all-or-nothing third game. Tim managed to take it down as a Burrenton Forge-Tender seriously impacted my ability to utilize Chandra. After the match Scheel pointed out a strictly better series of plays I could have made with said planeswalker and I was forced to admit I had just failed to think the course of action through clearly enough. 0-1

Clay Gillette was my opponent for Round 2. Poor Clay Gillette. The last PTQ I played at in Kansas City I started 0-1. My second round opponent? Clay Gillette. It sucks to play someone “good” so early in the day, particularly with a loss, but such is life. Unfortunately for Clay, just as last time, I managed to take the match in three games, though unlike last time it wasn't because I ripped two Shrapnel Blasts to seal his fate. 1-1

Next up was John Rolf, a young Nebraska player I knew from Facebook through mutual friends. We went to three games again but I was able to push through on the back of Chandra and two Wrath of Gods though in the final game John put me to 4 on a last-ditch Final Revels, possibly hoping to draw a Profane Command or other “burn” spell. 2-1

Shelton Watson was in the Air Force and my opponent round 4 so we chatted about military life before we got things under way. In the first game I was setting up Austere Command by slow rolling my hand, but hadn't seen the sixth land drop after playing my fourth land. What I had seen was my Swamp, which allowed me to play Footbottom Feast with no targets to try to cantrip into the sixth land in time. There was a rules call on whether you could play the card without targets (you can) and the extra card did net me the land I needed, allowing me to stabilize at something like 8 life. I was blown out of the second, then in the third had Crib Swap for a Timber Protector so that I could untap and Austere Command for a second time in the match. 3-1

John Pennick is a young Gerry Thompson underling who works on a forum group I use to hammer out decklists. His friend Andrew Vick was my opponent for round numero cinco and he was playing a hyper aggressive deck that indicated to me his overall sealed pool was weak but that he was doing the best he could by going to the face so quickly an opponent wouldn't have time to utilize their bombs. That's exactly what he did in the first, so I boarded in Boggart Forager (yes Boggart Forager) and Flamekin Brawler for some of my more expensive threats in order to lower my curve and put up a fight long enough to allow me to Overwhelm. Game 2 was the game where I had Sentry Oak but was concerned about Giant's Ire and got there anyway. The third game was the least close as the early drops showed up to stymie his initial offense, an Ingot Chewer blew up a Runed Stalactite, and an Austere Command showed up to destroy a second Stalactite and his >3 casting cost creatures leaving my monsters on the board. 4-1

For the next-to-last round I would face David Rolf, John's (from round 3) younger brother. He looked to be all of 13 or 14 but one thing you learn as you grow older is that your ability to determine the difference between 13 and 17, something that seems so simple to do when you're 13-17, gets worse and worse. It's entirely possible the young Mr. Rolf is pushing 20, but that's beside the point. What isn't beside the point are the first and third games we played in which David was partially manascrewed. In the first he contributed to his own demise by Boggart Harbinging up a Warren Pilferers despite not having a fourth land drop. In the final he simply didn't get there, and I managed an ideal curve of turn 2 Fire-Belly Changeling, turn 3 Avian Changeling, and turn 5 ripping the land for Thundercloud Shaman to wrath his board after being destroyed in game 2. 5-1

The final round of the day saw me square off against Chelsea Torrez. I was 5-1 but in 10th place meaning I needed to win to make the single-elimination rounds. She was in a similar position. Unfortunately for her it would be the only matchup in which I was comfortably ahead the entire series. In the first she revealed herself to be a tempo-oriented UW deck and I knew which Counterspells to play around as a result of her shuffling face-up. I led with a few “must-counters”, then Austere Commanded her board, played a Giant, and bashed. In game two she pushed all in, hell-bent on beating me before I hit the Wrath. That's not a play I completely disagree with, as it gets really good if you hit one of your Counterspells and are able to sit back on it. The problem was that I had threats in the meanwhile, dropping a Cloudgoat Ranger which met Oblivion Ring, before using Austere Command when her hand was empty. She ripped a blank, then I ripped Wispmare which nailed the Oblivion Ring and returned my Cloudgoat Ranger. I had sideboarded the ‘Mare in to nail Ring, but I never thought it would be that good. It was over soon after that. 6-1

The Top 8

The Top 8 struck me as relatively inexperienced. I mean nothing disrespectful to the other members of the final table, of course, but simply mean that the nervous energy at the table was very high and there was a great deal of excited chatter. Scheel and I, anxious to get the draft started so we could finish up and go home, exchanged knowing glances from across the table. After your dozenth PTQ Top 8, when it has started to become semi-automatic and you're no longer satisfied with nearly making Top 8, playing the single elimination rounds loses its “new car” feel and becomes more of a second nature, like playing FNM at your local store but with higher stakes.

I was seated next to Kenny Castor to my left and an unknown to my right (meaning I didn't recognize him or get his name, but not that his play was questionable in any way). Scheel was on the other side of Kenny, and the packs opened up pretty strong. I started with a Moonglove Extract intending to keep flexible. I saw some early Merfolk cards going by, but not the ones that make you go into the archetype (Deeptread Merrow, double Veteran of the Depths). I've drafted Merfolk more times than any other tribe in the format so I felt comfortable with it and have had some success with the fishies. When the choice between Consuming Bonfire and Neck Snap came up, I opted to take the Neck Snap in case Merfolk presented itself. Sure enough in the next pack I saw Silvergill Adept, Merrow Harbinger, and Fathom Trawl.

Those are some saucy picks.

I love Silvergill Adept because I'm a huge fan of drawing cards in Limited but it simply doesn't compare in power to either the Harbinger or the Trawl. I was worried shipping the Harbinger would send signs to someone to my left that Merfolk was open (I had sent a few solid-but-middling picks down the line earlier to give that impression), but Fathom Trawl was simply too insane. Brandon Scheel disagrees with that pick, but I'm just too greedy to pass on 3 action cards in a format relatively devoid of natural card advantage.

After that I picked up 2 Judge of Currents and some tabled Merfolk cards though neither Veteran made it back. I figured the drafter sitting next to Scheel had probably gone Merfolk but that that was more than enough distance between us to both draft fair decks.

In the second pack there were plenty of cards for my deck but none of the marquee bombs I was looking for like Drowner of Secrets or Summon the School. Still I did manage to open Brion Stoutarm so I was pretty happy. The final pack rounded things out nicely with 2 Silvergill Dousers, which I had been missing, a Streambed Aquitects, and a Forced Fruition. Here's the list:

8 Island
6 Plains
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Mountain
1 Vivid Crag

1 Moonglove Extract
1 Brion Stoutarm

1 Inkfathom Divers
1 Fathom Trawl
2 Silvergill Douser
1 Wings of Velis Vel
1 Tideshaper Mystic
1 Amoeboid Changeling
1 Forced Fruition
1 Whirpool Whelm
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Streambed Aquitects

2 Neck Snap
3 Judge of Currents
1 Harpoon Sniper
2 Avian Changeling
1 Crib Swap
1 Goldmeadow Harrier

I was very excited with my draft. For the first time ever this block I was sitting with 30 playables trying to make cuts for my deck. Should I splash Lash Out and Tarfire? I had thought to myself. Instead I opted to stick with just Brion, and was fairly confident in that splash.

The final card that I agonized over was the Forced Fruition. I've seen that enchantment in action and have actually been on the wrong side of it from time to time. Still, I was concerned that it could potentially Backfire if I wasn't careful. Eventually the conclusion I came to was that without Drowner or School I was lacking a “broken” Merfolk means of winning the game which meant needing to get there on the ground. That's not a very hopeful situation in which to be as the fish-folk are pretty weak themselves unless an opponent is playing Islands. Enter Forced Fruition. One thing the Merfolk are good at is muddling up the combat phase and creating situations in which opponents simply cannot attack favorably. From there you start to make a comeback with massive amounts of Judge life and eventually deck them with Drowner. I didn't have Drowner, so Fruition took its place under the assumption that once I had mucked up the board good and plenty, Fruition could come down and KO my opponent short Austere Command or Wispmare (and even then I did have a Faerie Trickery to have a shot at ending those shenanigans). Is that the right play? I'm not positive but my line of reasoning seems…well, reasonable, so again I'll leave it to the forums to offer up otherwise.

Quarters: David Saylor

When we sat down to draft I asked the judge whether we would be paired randomly within our pod or whether we would be paired in the traditional cross-table fashion. He said we were randomly seated but that we would play across the table so I knew immediately I was in for a rough patch in the quarterfinals: David Saylor was seated kitty-corner from me.

Players outside the Midwest may know nothing of Mr. Saylor but the gentleman (*cough*) is shadier than a grove of palm trees at an Oasis. His DCI rap sheet could stretch across a table and his reputation normally precedes him at most Magic events in the local area. Sitting down to play our match he knew that I knew this, and I knew we were going to butt heads throughout our games. I had already requested a table judge be present but things started up even before the judge could arrive, as soon as I sat down at the table.

“Is the number even or odd?” Saylor asked, holding up a Lorwyn token card. David was trying to determine who would play first using a method popular on the money draft circuit: guessing whether a card number is even or odd. Guess right and you choose, guess wrong and the opponent does. There are a number of cheats you can run there that are pretty simple, but the most basic is to simply take a card with an odd set number (the tokens are numbered up to 11) and an even card number (say the Merfolk token which is card number 4). When you ask your opponent “Is the number even or odd?” they might very well be under the impression you're implying “Is the set number even or odd?” but you've explicitly done no such thing. Instead they answer either even or odd and you inform them the answer was the other number type. If they guessed even and disagree, you claim you were referring to the set number, not the individual card number. From Saylor's perspective I'm sure it's a risk-free cheat in that you can't get “caught” because you haven't done anything “wrong” and players are unlikely to notice the shenanigans. Furthermore without allowing the events to reach their naturally shady outcome, we can't even prove David was intending to run that gambit.

Either way I obviously was having none of it, and the posturing for who would control the flow of the game had already begun. I told him we'd roll a die, of which I had numerous, and he quickly responded with “I don't want to roll dice.” That's a surprising turnaround considering at Nationals this year he ran a basic die cheat in which he rolls a die, then has his opponent roll and instead of waiting for the die to fall and checking the roll he quickly scoops the die up and claims it's a number suspiciously less than his own roll. I know one player ensnared in such a tactic but the reality is this: no player should ever touch a die until it has stopped rolling and both players agree on what number it landed on.

Suffice to say a judge was forced to flip a coin for us and Saylor managed to win (though I refused to allow anyone to call the coin in the air, instead simply declaring if it landed heads I'd win and if it didn't Saylor would). We went through the process of shuffling and offering up fake pleasantries while staring each other down much like Dave Price and Mike Long from many years ago.

The games, however, were uninspiring. David's deck appeared to be a pretty run-of-the-mill Faerie deck meaning islandwalk was a relevant path of victory for me and in the first he opened on four lands then drew only land for the rest of the game. In the second things were a bit more fair but I stabilized with Judges, played around Sentinels of Glen Elendra, and resolved Fathom Trawl. That's all she wrote at that point.

It's always a good feeling to beat a player like David Saylor, but there are plenty of competitors who like him or enjoy hanging out/trading with him. There's only so much you can do and I'm sure David is relatively cordial with most people (I mean, who expects the nice guy to be sticking it in your backside?). Still, Richard Nixon had friends too…



Playing David Saylor, pictured on the left. Far left is table judge Peter Martinez.


Semifinals: Brandon Scheel

It feels like I always lose to Brandon Scheel. That might be fair considering it's a. almost always true and b. Brandon is very good at playing Magic cards. Kansas City was the weekend in which I felt I could Snap the curse at major events. My deck was very good, the best in the archetype I had drafted so far this season. I was playing relatively tightly and felt good about my game, and I had even managed to win the die roll.

Naturally I mulliganed to 5 in the first game. Furthermore Brandon revealed himself to be the player a few seats down from me who had gone into Merfolk and he had gotten Drowner of Secrets, an absolute insane bomb in the mirror. Because of that pesky 1/3 I sideboarded in additional removal in the form of Lash Out and Tarfire to keep the thing contained, boarding out Neck Snaps and Forced Fruition. I also boarded Deeptread Merrow so I could potentially islandwalk my way to the finals, as well as two additional Mountains.



Brandon Scheel squares off against me in the semifinals.


Game 2 quickly went my way when Scheel whiffed on his fourth land drop, I hit the Mountain I needed to turn 4 my Brion Stoutarm (after being too aggressive with my Tideshaper Mystic and Scheel correctly recognizing its importance as a color fixer post-board, trading a Judge of Currents for it in combat), and then had a removal spell for each effort Scheel made after that. His Moonglove Extract wasn't going to get there on its own against my 4/4 Brion so it was key that I was able to remove the chump blockers to prevent a double team.



Focusing on breaking the Scheel curse.


Game 3 was the heartbreaker. We went back and forth early on and I managed to resolve a Fathom Trawl for some saucy action, including Lash Out and Tarfire. When I ripped the source of red the following turn Scheel appeared to visibly deflate a tiny bit. I was in control of the red zone with more creatures, multiple Judges, and a Douser, so I started setting up attacks to sneak damage through. A Tarfire to nail a Balloonist traded for Surge of Thoughtweft instead, and the following turn when I used Lash Out on the 2/2 Scheel responded with Pestermite to tap it so he could Wellgabber Apothecary it for the save. That meant I needed to Crip Swap the Gabber in response, and all of a sudden I was ahead on the board but out of removal should he hit a Drowner of Secrets.

The turns dragged on. I gained a considerable amount of life with my Judges, eventually ending the game at well over 170 and removing that particular path of victory from consideration. Scheel blanked on his Drowner for turn after turn until I finally managed to hit a Harpoon Sniper to go with my double Silvergill Dousers, then Brion Stoutarm. I still wasn't getting damage through because of the number of creatures Scheel had on his half of the board, but I felt I was in a position wherein I needed to be aggressive and potentially trade for as many of Brandon's threats as possible. By killing most of his Merfolk I would weaken his Drowner of Secrets, possibly providing myself the time to race.

Brion bashed and after some calculations Scheel blocked with every single creature he had. I used Harpoon Sniper to nail a Veteran of the Depths, then Brion got Silvergill Adept, Pestermite, Judge of Currents, and a Shapeshifter token from my Crib Swap on his Gabber. That opened the avenue for Inkfathom Divers and Avian Changeling to slowly start getting damage through, and they did exactly that.

Unfortunately Scheel managed to finally rip Drowner and start milling. With only one Merfolk, however, my clock was faster. Inevitably he managed to rip Harpoon Sniper, stifling my attacks, then an additional Merfolk and at just 4 life with me at well over 170 Brandon Scheel milled the final card from my library.

Truly a heartbreaker.

Scheel revealed after the match that he had two Drowners, so not drawing one until halfway through his deck was a lucky break for me really, even though I couldn't capitalize. Though I had drafted a very solid deck and played relatively well, even against Brandon, Scheel still happened to have the Merfolk deck that was better for the mirror. In retrospect I think it was wrong for me to sideboard out my Forced Fruition. I think I should have left the card in as my deck was more controlling than his and made it a point to reserve every single piece of removal for Drowner as setting up a long game in which I could answer each of his Drowners with Faerie Trickery and/or removal before winning via Forced Fruition (on an even board Brandon would have to do something to get ahead) or an islandwalker seems far more favorable than trying to race. When you're gaining 6-10 life each turn because of the amount of Merfolk you have tapping and the sick number of Judges you can safely keep in play against Wrathless UW, it's highly unlikely your opponent is going to beat you down.

Still, Scheel's a friend and close testing partner and as much as I wanted to win, I was happy he was able to take the slot in the finals. He's the rare breed of player who usually leads by example, is universally respected within his own community as well as on the Pro Tour, and is one big finish away from finally pushing through into the big time (after a narrow-miss for Top 4 in Charleston).

Up Next

This weekend it's PTQ-Chicago, provided the weather holds. If you're going to be in attendance at the event, say hi! and I'll see the rest of you back here tomorrow for a special two-fer set of articles this week.

-Bill Stark
Assistant editor, TCGplayer.com

Magic The Gathering Color (Mana) Chart

Red specializes in Direct & Mass Damage, Random Effects and hordes of Dragons, Dwarfs, Goblins & Orcs. Red draws it's power from mountains. There are plenty of large flying creatures. Red has good artifact destruction, and lots of spells to blast creatures into nothingness. One of Red's glaring weaknesses is that it has trouble dealing with enchantments.
Green is the color of nature. Green draws its power from forests. Green's specialties are creatures & extremely fast mana growth. Elves are abundant in green. Green's creatures also tend to be less expensive than other colors' creatures of equivalent power. Green's mana quick creation and cheap creatures allow green mages to get large creatures into play very quickly. One of Green's glaring weaknesses is that it has trouble removing opponents creatures.
Blue is the color of Wizard magic. Blue draws its power from Water. Blue specializing in countering spells, changing spells, and controlling spells. Blue has less creatures than other colors, and most aren't all that impressive in size. Blue's glaring weakness is it can have difficulty removing creatures and enchantments. As a beginner, blue can be among the hardest colors to play, but stronger players can scare the crap out of you with it when you go against a strong blue deck. They can really wreak havoc on your deck's strategy.
White is the color of goodness and purity. White draws its power from the plains. White specializes in defense, healing and small dangerous creatures. Creatures include soldiers, spirits and angels. White usually has plenty of good enchantments at it's disposal. White's glaring weakness are lack of large creatures and lack of direct damage spells.
Black represents death & decay. Black draws it's power from swamps. It specializes in creature destruction, forced hand discards, and a variety of large and small creatures. Creatures include Vampires, Zombies, Specters, Shades and Shadows. Black's weakness is dealing with enchantments.

Colors that are designed to work together:

Now I'm not sure how many of you guys actually know this ... but the back of a Magic Card actually tells you which colors are designed to work together!



All 5 colors are represented on the back of the card. Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) does their best to make adjacent colors easier to work together. Here's a larger image to help make things easier to see:


In this illustration (created by Pojo writer EBM many moons ago), the thick green lines between the colored circles indicate the harmonious flow of Mana. Colors are most easily combined when aligned with their immediate neighbors. The magenta-colored arrows indicate disharmonious, opposing colors: in this case White is opposed by both Black and Red. So Wizards tries to make white work well with green and blue, and hate for red & black. You'll see a lot of examples of this when you look at your cards in detail.

What do I mean by "Hate"? Here's a great example in the black card, Perish:


Perish affects only Green creatures, leaving the Black player who casts it with his army intact, and for the quite reasonable cost of just 3 mana.

That's not saying that you can't make a powerful deck that includes opposite colors, because you certainly can. WOTC just tries to make it easier for you to combine neighbors, with great "Hate" cards in opposing colors.

My Grand Prix: Daytona

I take one week off and everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

“Where's Riki?”

“What happened to Riki?”

Answer: I took a trip to GP Daytona Beach to judge, and what with being gone from Thursday to Monday and working 12-hour+ days at the site, it was highly unlikely that I would be able to get an article done. Now having saved some money on my auto insurance by switching to Geico, I have lots of fun stories to relate.

Getting There

Choosing to go to an out of state GP is a big deal for Magic players. It's the point when you decide that you are really “going for it,” investing both large amounts of time and money to become a better player and pursue your lofty goals.

It's roughly the same thing for a Magic judge. The decision to judge a Grand Prix within driving distance, like I did with San Francisco, is all about the decision between playing and judging. After crossing that divide, it's another Leap to get to the point where I am willing to drop a few hundred dollars on a plane ticket to Daytona Beach.

I make my decision to take the cross-country trip to Daytona Beach sometime in early October. I get in touch with the Tournament Organizer, Eric Mock, and make arrangements to judge all three days (GPT's Friday, and two days on the GP, possibly with side events mixed in), and I reserve a room in the judges' block for the Cheontourage and myself. When the dynamic duo returns from their rain-drenched trip to Valencia, we book our flights and the finality of all the planning settles into my mind.

In addition to LSV and Paul “Level 6” Cheon, I will be rooming with Grand Prix SF runner up Jon Stocks and Iain Bartolomei, who seems to have a permanent spot in California PTQ Top 8s reserved as of late. Like their predecessors in the Cheontourage, these two have vowed to push each other to the next level in 2008 with their sights firmly set on Level 3 status.

The next month passes in a Whirlwind of Magical cards between judging States, a PTQ, and the TCGpprentice. I also fit in a Guitar Hero III release party where my meager talents get blown out of the concert hall by local judge Jeff “Judge of Currents” Morrow.

On the Thursday before the event, Luis and I board our plane in Sacramento and make the short hop to LA where we have a three-hour layover until our redeye to Atlanta departs. We mull about the terminal for a bit, taking stock of our options. Luis opts for McDonalds, and like a movie theater, everything is marked up by 50%, which makes it 25% as satisfying. Look, I never said that math was my strong suit.

Unsatisfied with the Golden Arcs, we make our way to “El Cholo,” an in-terminal bar that boasts “LA's best margarita.”

Unlikely. That's the first word to cross my mind. Why is LA's best margarita being tucked away in an airport terminal bar? Sure, there's plenty of traffic in an airport, but most of these people don't care about the difference between a margarita and a Marton Stromgald as long as one of them gets them drunk for their flight.

El Cholo might have LA's best margarita, but their service leaves a lot to be desired. Luis asks for water no less than three times before our Russian-accented waiter remembers to bring them to us. The margaritas are good; I just don't know if they are “LA's best” good. They certainly aren't “twelve dollar” good.

Our flight to Atlanta is just under four hours. The in-flight movie is “Mr. Bean's”—Zzzzz. It's just before midnight so I just end up sleeping through the entire flight and miss Mr. Bean's idiotic hijinks completely.

Atlanta looks just like LAX, which looks just like Denver from the time I flew to GP Dallas. When we get to our connecting gate to Daytona Beach, we see a bunch of prone bodies on the seats. It's around 9am local time, 6am for our native Pacific time, and I imagine a lot of these people are in the same boat as us, road-worn and weary.

Iain should be in Atlanta at this point—he caught a flight out of San Francisco—so Luis calls him up. Suddenly one of the prone bodies in an adjacent row sits up and answers his phone. Like some modern day Kerouac, or maybe just a bum, Iain is on the road sleeping it up at an airport. Luis and Iain dig some packs out of their travel bags and do a Time Spiral-Planar Chaos-Planar Chaos Winston Draft. Such fiends for the game they are. They barely finish before we board our plane.

Standing outside the Daytona Beach airport, Luis and I hit the phones. He calls Jon Stocks, who has flown into Orlando and rented a car. He's about twenty to thirty minutes away from picking us up. I call Eric Mock and get the hotel information that I somehow managed to not print out.

Finally, we're here, and the room isn't ready yet. Wonderful. Some of Luis and Iain's MTGO draft buddies are hanging out in the lobby. So I meet “Aceman,” “Nova Sandler,” and a few others, never learning their real names. I think this is the new state of the world at large and Magic as a subculture where your username is your identity.

A grumpy old man (affiliated with the site, not the event staff) won't let us into the tournament venue, so our merry little band high steps it to the neighboring arcade, where among other things I get to watch some fairly good DDRing from the crew.

Trial and Error

After assorted arcade fun, it's time for me to judge the GP Trials. My head judge is Jared Sylva. He randomly divides us into teams of two to run each 32-person Sealed flight. I'm teamed up with Deb Rivkin for flight two (Yellow flight for those who saw our lovely color coordinated pairing sheets).

When the third flight kick-starts next to mine, I am taken aback to see Shuuhei Nakamura dashing to his seat. You may need a moment to let that one sink in because I certainly did. Shuuhei is one of a select few Level 6 mages in the Pro Player Club. In fact, he is the only mage to repeat as a Level 6 in the first two years of the PPC. Maybe, having finished Day One in 72nd place at GP Kitakyuushuu, Shuuhei wants a little extra practice with the format. The truth is close, but oh so much more Japanese. During rounds, I catch up with snappy-dressing pro and ask him what the heck he is doing in a GPT.

“At GP Kitakyuushuu, Shouta Yasooka asked me to play in a trial with him for fun, but I begged out, saying I was ‘tired.' Then in the main event I opened a really bad card pool.”

That's about the gist of what he tells me. The words he actually uses to describe his card pool are “kuso pack,” with kuso literally translating as sh-t. It's just another case of Japanese superstition; Japan is a nation obsessed with horoscopes, blood type personality matches for couples, and all things Miss Cleo, except they don't have the actual Miss Cleo.

For Shuuhei, the karmic translation is clear: don't play in a GPT, scrub out of main event; play in a GPT, do well? With the power of hindsight, we can see that Shuuhei barely squeaked into Day Two in 63rd place. Perhaps this means we'll be seeing Shuuhei in more GPT's in the future, trying to buy some good Karma, or perhaps barely squeaking isn't quite good enough so he'll be wearing Olivier Ruel's lucky hat.

If you're going to play in GPT's, you need to be aware of the big change that took place within the past year. Instead of being one monstrous Swiss affair that takes its winners into the dawn light hours of the morning, they run as single elimination flights of 32. The key is the single elimination part. This leads to two unique considerations.

Slow play matters (more)- Slow play should always matter and you should be vigilant in making sure your opponent does not take too long think about his plays no matter how complicated the board situation. Just like everyone else, I have an “I just needed one more extra turn to win (or force a draw)” story that means I should have played faster or prompted my opponent to do the same at some point. When you're playing in a Swiss tournament, you can afford to absorb a draw, or even a loss, due to sloppy clock management. Not saying that it is ideal, but X-1-1 will still get you into most Top 8s and Day Two cuts. Not so in a single elimination tournament where a loss boots you and a draw… well, those have their own funny rules.

The life total rule- There are no draws in single elimination; someone has to win, and if the game score is tied, the player with the higher life total in the current game wins the game and the match. If the life totals are tied, then the first change in life total determines the outcome. This can mean damaging your opponent, but also applies to life gain. I heard of one incident when a Tanglebloom won such a match for someone.

I come across one match that finishes game two during the five extra turns, leaving the match at 1-1. Both players look up at me and ask “What now?” What happens now, I explain to them, is that game three starts with the Sudden Death rule in effect. Both players' eyes open wide at this. For the next three minutes they sideboard feverishly, trying to jam as many one-drops as possible into their decks without mucking up their mana too much. I watch with interest as the player on the play keeps his hand with a smile—he's got a one-drop for sure. His opponent, one-dropless, mulligans to six, keeps that hand, and the exciting Sudden Death game begins.

Player one quickly drops a Mountain and a Boggart Forager, about the only time that card could ever be considered useful. Player two has mulliganed into a Mountain and…

#####CARDOD=15667#####

Yep. Good game. I mean, as long as he doesn't do something stupid like Tarfire the Forager (which he doesn't). Later, in another flight, I hear the roar of a crowd that probably means a similar thrilling Sudden Death victory. Other than that, the Trials proceed smoothly and we get out of there at midnight. (Although I think the final flight does not finish and all remaining players are awarded three byes, so the tech appears to be to sign up for the final flight, folks.)

Main Event: Day One

I am on side events for Day One, which means I don't need to be onsite until 11am. Unfortunately, I am rooming with four players so the hustle and bustle gets me up and I figure I'll just wander down and catch the sights. I get a chance to sit down with Ben Bleiweiss and Pete Hoefling at the Starcitygames booth. For me personally, the most interesting thing to come out of this is Ben's explanation of how his “Building on a Budget” column has evolved into what it is today based on forum responses. Even writers for Le Mothership have something to learn from the masses.

I also manage a quick exchange with Brian David-Marshall on event coverage. We swap the usual pleasantries about how much we like each other's work, but he adds a nice little “But there was that one time you misspelled my name S-H-I-L-L.”

Awkward.

Yes, there was that one time I called him out for irresponsible journalism regarding the winner of the Great Designer Search. I've heard about BDM's remarkable memory, so I figure he'll remember that. I do some quick talking about it not being personal (I did call out the entirety of WotC for that incident) and how opinions on the Internet are exaggerated for drama and conflict. I mean if you hold me sacrosanct to everything I write, I probably hate the world and the horse it rode in on. I just play a bitter doctor on TV, kids.

Anyway, with things being as busy as they are, I only have a minute or two to chat with BDM, but I think we square things away and have a good hearty handshake on it. Whatever criticism I might heap upon him—he looks awkward as hell on video coverage what with the long pauses and looking down at his notes—he's still one of the best in the business when it comes to written coverage, and I hope I have a chance to work with him in the future on that.

All of this chatting with people takes me to eleven o'clock, and since no side events are firing yet, I get the temporary shift to assist on the main event where judges are busy counting deck lists for legality. I come across one problem list with only 39 cards listed. I throw it into a pile of about a dozen lists. I guess that isn't so bad for a 650-person tournament, but it still irks me. Having never committed a deck registration error I don't understand what is so hard about counting to forty or sixty (and fifteen).

After getting the counts, it's time to match the deck lists with the players entered into the tournament to make sure we got everyone's list. I read off names from deck lists while Jeff Zandi, an occasional contributor to our site, checks them off the master list. This is actually a somewhat arduous task because Magic players have awful handwriting. On more than one occasion we have to make an educated guess and hope it's right. Shouta Yasooka is the worst offender. At the end of this task, we come up two deck lists short; apparently two players entered the tournament but didn't bother to build a deck. Took their foil Thoughtseize and went home perhaps?

I spend the next few rounds walking the floor of the main event. The bulk of a judge's time at any tournament is spent floor judging, walking around, waiting for a call, stopping to watch matches involving friends—I mean, matches that attract your interest for no particular reason. Most of the confusion on the day stems from layers, with a large number of questions starting with “I play Wings of Velis Vels….” Shapesharer and Turtleshell Changeling are two other contenders for “most asked about card.” I probably need to write a rules heavy article in the near future on these cards.

Girls, Girls, Girls

At just about the midpoint of the day, Carlos (side events head judge) and Jeff (co-TO as far as I can tell) call me over with an unusual job for me. Apparently, a handful of women want to learn how to play Magic, and they task me with putting together a tutorial session for them.

Magic… with women! Who wouldn't jump at such an opportunity? Well, me, I guess. I'm a little too old at this point to get excited just because someone has a pair of breasts. Plus, my keen mind picks up on the fact that these women have to be significant others of Magic players. There's just no other feasible explanation for why they would be at a Grand Prix and not know how to play Magic.

Jeff is explaining to one of the girls that they have to open the tutorial to both sexes lest he get hit with some kind of discrimination charge. Of course, there aren't any guys in the house who need a tutorial in Magic, so it's me and nine women together in a side event conference room with a bunch of Lorwyn precons. If that sounds sexy, you haven't been paying attention. These are Magic players' girlfriends (and fiancйs and wives as it turns out). If fact, a few boyfriends who have scrubbed out join us to help out, which is a relief for me from a manpower perspective, although it completely saps any sexiness out of the whole affair.

The tutorial moves forward with the expected minor hitches (like forgetting to explain how instants differ from sorceries. Oops.) and one major one. Teresa (or possibly Theresa) gets a little frustrated with the game state and storms out crying. Great. Add “made a girl cry” to my list of Magical accomplishments. Real nice. Do they promote you to Level 2 judge if you've ever made a girl cry?

In all fairness to me, one of the other ladies who knows her says that Teresa has tried to learn how to play Magic before with varying degrees of frustration. The Lorwyn precons we use don't exactly help matters. Teresa up and leaves a board involving Knight of Meadowgrain (lifelink and first strike) wearing Battle Mastery (double strike) and her opponent controlling Sygg, River Guide (protection). This is not a beginner-friendly situation. Other than that it's peaches, roses, and whatever. And for the rest of the weekend I have pretty women thanking me and other judges commending me for my patience. All in a day's work.

Main Event: Day Two

I'm actually on the main event staff this time, which is cool in a lot of ways. It's my first time judging in a Professional REL environment (Day One is Competitive). I get to watch the players draft up close and personal, although judging means watching their eyes to make sure they aren't running the Big Peeks, and I get zero sense of what kind of deck anyone is drafting.

After the draft, I am on the deck check team, lead by Jason Powell. Things are a lot more laid back on Day Two since we only have 64 decks to check, and the card pools themselves are smaller (45 total for Draft as opposed to 75 for Sealed). We do beginning and mid round deck checks, and the only usual occurrence is that we randomly select Alex Lieberman two rounds in a row. He's got dinged sleeves both times, even though they are clearly brand new sleeves. The first time, I watch him push the card out of the sleeve from the bottom and see exactly how the sleeve gets the distinctive finger mark. The second time is a completely different mark, so there's no need to upgrade the penalty or investigate for non-Boggart Shenanigans.

For Round Eleven, I draw the Feature Match area assignment. Judging the Feature Match area is the most exciting, boring job you can get. What I mean is, for my Feature Match assignment, I get to watch Paulo Vitor DDR (Dance, Dance, Revolution!) versus Mark Herberholz and LSV versus Tomoharu Saito. That's four of the top ten players in the world. The boring part is that these players need nary a judge. Except that this one time, they do need a judge, or more correctly, Saito needs a judge to tell him if Burrenton Forge-Tender's ability can affect damage from Mudbutton Torchrunner even after it has been sacrificed and is safely tucked away in the graveyard. (The answer is yes.)

After the second draft, it's another fun round of deck list counting. Unfortunately, one of the lists I see in the problem pile is Luis's. He's only registered 44 cards. Luckily, if you can call it that, his deck is pretty awful anyway and he 0-3s his second pod, but it's a crappy way to end what looked like such a promising run. Meanwhile, Iain finishes in 20th place, a strong showing, but just short of the Top 16 he needs to qualify for Kuala Lumpur. And of course Paul and Jon don't even manage to Day Two, this despite Paul powering up with a Hunan fortune cookie. Maybe he still has a hangover from reaching Level 6. Must.

The Draft

Finally free of the stripes, I join Luis, Paul, Ben “2006 US Nationals Team Reunion” Lundquist, Zack “I'm not Zac Hill” Hall, and Adam “no cool nickname, but I'm just damn good at Magic” Chambers for dinner at the BBQ shack across the street from the convention center. There's another table of Magic players behind us that includes Billy Moreno and Chris McDaniel amongst others. Some of our braver souls try the “fried corn,” which ends up looking more like “burnt corn.”

After dinner, our table plus Jon Stocks and Paul's friend Big Dog from LA join up in our room to do a 4v4 draft. I draft a pile, quite possible one of the worst decks I've ever drafted.

Things start off fine with Silvergill Adept and Judge of Currents. Things dry up in a hurry. I end the first pack with three Judge of Currents and nothing to make them good. No Steambed Aquitects or Silvergill Dousers. It's just a big mess. I'm getting cut off hard, and it's pretty clear that I should be in Goblins what with the Tarfire I got passed third pick and the late Muddbutton Torchrunner making the rounds.

Then in pack two, my savior arrives: Forced Fruition. This card saves my draft in a way that no ordinary bomb like Purity or Austere Command possibly could. FF allows me to fill out my deck with some late Broken Ambitions and Faerie Trickeries, along with some very questionable creature enchantments…

#####CARDID=15707#####

During deck construction, Luis convinces me to cut the trips Judge of Currents since they don't actually do anything in my deck. In their place, we pack the deck with those Zephyr Nets I had taken as a backup plan. Paul pans the deck. Zack Hall is off in his own world. I enter battle with this:

Deck:
3 Zephyr Net
1 Forced Fruition
1 Protective Bubble
1 Lairwatch Giant
1 Turtleshell Changeling
1 Stonybrook Angler
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Deeptread Merrow
1 Silvergill Adept
3 Broken Ambitions
2 Faerie Trickery
1 Avian Changeling
1 Sentinels of Glen Elendra
1 Pestermite
1 Neck Snap
1 Glimmerdust Nap
1 Tideshaper Mystic
1 Ringskipper
10 Island
7 Plains

My first opponent is Adam Chambers. His loss to Tannon Grace in the last round left him in 9th place in the main event, just over half a percentage point out of the Top 8. Primarily a Limited player, Chambers has been quiet this year due to the Constructed-heavy United States GP schedule. He's hoping that his performance at Daytona will catapult him to a successful 2008 season. He is also hoping to forget his three games against me.

In game one—Game One!—Chambers plays two—Two!—Wispmares as vanilla 1/3 flyers. While I'm relieved to see him play them out before my enchantments, I wonder how I can possibly win this match against such awful cards that are particularly suited against me.

I slowly lock up his most threatening attackers with my Nets and Naps while countering others. This leaves his Wispmares free to nibble away at my life total. With the help of Surge of Thoughtweft, Chambers nibbles me down to single digits. That's when I draw the deck's Plan B. You may be a bit confused because the deck is already a pile of Plan B, a milling deck without Drowner of Secrets. So maybe it's my plan C, Lairwatch Giant with Protective Bubble.

I think I just heard jaws around the world dropping to the floor. Plan D is to put the Bubble on Turtleshell Changeling.

Let's just stick to Plans A and B then. B works well enough as Chambers can't deal with the untouchable four turn clock. When I tell Paul that I'm winning game one, he shouts, “Did you do it with Forced Fruition?” No, Paul, I didn't. But thanks for telling Chambers and the rest of his team.

Chambers runs me over in game two with some decent cards like Lys Alana Huntmaster.

I “curve out” with Stonybrook Angler, Pestermite, and Turtleshell in game three. That may sound unimpressive, but it's about as beatdown as my deck gets. It's enough pressure to force Chambers to play out his dual Wispmares as 1/3 blockers though. Unfortunately the second one blows up my Protective Bubble that was threatening to take over the game on my Turtleshell. Yes, I just wrote that and it was not sarcastic.

With the Bubble gone, I pretty much have no way to break through his Wispmare defenses (if these games sound stupid, you should have been there), and I switch to the Net plan, throwing a few on his actual cards, Plover Knights and Nath's Elite.

My next opponent is Ben Lundquist of US Nationals fame. Rumor has it that his deck is powerful and slow, the perfect matchup for my counter and mill plan. Sure enough, I trade off some early creatures and land Forced Fruition at a comfortable twelve life. Ben plays Giant Harbinger and fetches up Hearthcage Giant. I counter the Hearthcage and Glimmerdust Nap the Harbinger after it hits me once.

Ben counts his library and determines that his next spell is his last one, so he makes it a good one: Galepowder Mage. I'm dead in three swings and Ben has three cards left in his library after drawing seven for the Mage. No problem. I have Ringskipper and Protective Bubble, which guarantees me one chump block and the win…

If not for his Giant Harbinger sitting there taking a Nap. Because of that, I am forced to Protective Bubble his Harbinger to keep Galepowder Mage from waking it up. So Galepowder pushes my Ringskipper aside and I don't find an answer to it in my next three draws. One of my three Zephyr Nets would have won me the game right there. Ben absolutely crushes me in game two with an early Smokebraider.

My third match is against Big Dog, whose real name is Micah (sp?). I'm not sure if Big Dog is his MTGO name, a nickname from something else, or possibly both. What I am sure of is that by this point he can't help but have heard about my concoction. He reveals an Ajani off an early clash, but doesn't play it into my counter wall. Instead, he holds it until I tap out for Forced Fruition. At that point, he plays Ajani and Garruk, makes his army hunormous and smashes me like a bug.

The next two games are roughly the same: I play Forced Fruition and he goes for a really big turn with his planeswalkers. Fortunately for me, things end up in my favor. In one of the games, Big Dog loses a Fistful of Force clash leaving me at two. As fun as this format is, doesn't it seem like a lot of games are ending in “and then I lost the clash and the game”? The other game ends with Big Dog unable to play Fistful of Force for the win because he doesn't have enough cards left in his library to survive the Fruition.

My 2-1 record with 15th pick.dec, along with Paul's 4-0 mauling, means I don't have to play my final match against Jon, which is all well and good for me. Milling people is hard work. We war (each team member flips over a card and highest mana cost takes those cards) the picks and Luis gets them all. He gets them all. Oh, except for the leftover foil Oaken Brawler that he graciously gives to Paul for 4-0ing the draft. What a nice guy.

Animal Planet

The next day, Jon and Iain leave for their flights sometime very early in the morning. Luis, Paul, and I sleep in late—almost too late—we barely make our checkout time. We catch lunch with my fellow judge Brendan O'Connor at a restaurant that purports to serve “gator tail.” I have to try this. I just have to. I'm left somewhat disappointed. As James Spader says in Stargate: “Tastes like chicken.”

Brendan kindly gives us a ride to the airport. We check in, catch our connecting flight to Atlanta and settle in for our respective layovers with Tiago Chan, Raphael Levy, and Gadiel Szleifer. Somehow the conversation turns to animals, and this is apparently right up Levy's alley. He starts things out with a rather innocent “How many unarmed humans would it take to kill a bear?” The group asks Levy various questions about these humans. These are average people; no warriors, bodybuilders, or Peter Petrellis. They are also afraid of the bear to whatever extent normal people are afraid of bears, which means that you have to factor that fear in. It will take a certain amount of people to build up the Mob Mentality to attack in the first place.

Most of us agree that it would take something like fifty people to kill this bear. We move onto a slightly more dangerous animal. How many people would it take to kill a shark? In the ocean, we deem the number to be infinite. There's just no way people stand a chance against a shark in water. In a swimming pool, I postulate that you might be able to stack enough dead bodies into the water to suffocate the shark.

Next Levy drops the mother of hypothetical animal questions: would you rather spend a half hour in an Olympic-sized swimming pool with a shark or half a soccer field with a bear? I wonder if this is what all Magic Hall of Famers think about in their spare time. Tiago opts for the bear and I have to agree with him. Luis offers up the contrary opinion, saying, “Unless you're bleeding, the shark might ignore you.” I guess that's true. I then suggest that the bear might ignore you too, but Levy, the Crocodile Hunter of Magic, says that bears are very territorial and will attack intruders mercilessly.

After a couple more animal related discussions, we grab a bite to eat, with we fat Americans haumphing twice as much food as the Europeans. Then we scatter to our respective planes and another exciting Magic weekend is over.

In Closing

There are so many other people I met that weekend. I came across Justin Vizaro and Mike Wawszczak from TCGplayer.com in the side events area. Apparently their Main Events didn't go so well. On the plane from Daytona to Atlanta, I sat next to GP Toronto Top 8 competitor Brad Taulbee. I expanded my judge-signed foil Rule of Law collection by five, including level 5 Sheldon Menery. I also talked to the heads of two new, exciting online Magic ventures, MtgChicago and ManaNation. I also ran into Chris Williams again, who mistook me for someone else at first, but apparently it wasn't Mike Flores. Oh, and there was also Lance Loden, most famous for Kiki-Opposition from three years ago. I played him at GP Salt Lake and I've always tried to say hello since as a fellow Opposition lover.

All this and I still missed talking about that one guy or that one thing that happened at that place. That's the nature of these events. There's just too much going on in a short amount of time. This hasn't been a tournament report in the traditional sense because I didn't play. If I have advice to offer from my experiences, it would probably be:

a) Double check your deck reg sheet.

b) Play at a reasonable pace and make sure your opponent is playing at a reasonable pace.

c) If b) isn't happening, call a judge. In fact, call a judge for anything out of the ordinary.

d) Meet people and have fun.

P.S. Yes, we will have the TCGpprentice Finals this week. Fellow Seattleites Robin Russell and Zaiem Beg square off for the title of TCGpprentice, a Feature Writer position, and a bag full of marbles. The loser gets nothing. Okay, that's not true. We've set up some nice parting gifts for everyone in the Final Four. I'm looking forward to seeing how Robin and Zaiem approach the “Year in Review” and I hope you are too.

by Riki Hayashi

Examining Blue: Sonic Boom

The Standard metagame is pretty much defined by now, with loads of deck lists in from States and GP Krakow. Despite the diversity of the field, only one color caught my attention; blue. As a control player, I'm glad to see all the successful blue decks performing in the current metagame. To start off my preparation for Worlds, I chose Wafo-Tapa's Sonic Boom Mono Blue Control. The deck managed to get a respectable 2nd place finish in GP Krakow piloted by Frenchmen Amiel Tennabaum, only to lose to another blue/white control, which I will discuss in the next article. I bought the required cards like Cryptic Command, Guile and others in Magic Online and started my research. Without further ado, here is my updated version of Sonic Boom:

Main Deck:
3 Guile
2 Sower of Temptation
3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
2 Venser, Shaper Savant

4 Ancestral Vision
4 Cryptic Command
4 Faerie Trickery
2 Pact of Negation
4 Remove Soul
4 Rune Snag

4 Desert
2 Dreadship Reef
2 Scrying Sheets
18 Snow-Covered Island
1 Tolaria West
1 Urza's Factory

Sideboard:
2 Dreadship Reef
2 Jace Beleren
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
3 Razormane Masticore
2 Serrated Arrows
2 Sower of Temptation

At first, I copied the exact list and started testing. Then I noticed an issue with the deck; the lack of lands. Sure, Think Twice is considered half a land and earns an extra card, but most of the time you are tapping your mana for Rune Snag, Faerie Trickery, Cryptic Command and etc. There is simply no time to cast Think Twice in the Mono Blue versus aggro matchups, and you must hit the 5th and 6th land drop. However, Think Twice shares its benefits in the control matchup, where you never have to tap your mana anyway in the early game. Still, I don't fancy Think Twice's existence in the deck. There must be something that is as good as a land as well as a good resource against control.

Enter Scrying Sheets. This is one of my favorite standard cards, not to mention I've won my Nationals Championship with it last year. It is pretty underplayed this year, and strangely, I find its place in mostly non-blue control decks like Monored Chandra Control, Monogreen Treefolk and Monowhite Control which I don't quite understand. To start off, I added 2 Scrying Sheets and an additional snow island to the deck and loved it instantly! Not only did I have 28 lands, which is a huge advantage against control, I could consistently play my 5th and 6th land while using my mana to counter threats every turn. Of course, there are turns where your opponent just passed, and it makes little difference if you activate Sheets or cast a Think Twice, but it really matters when you needed the land drop. You are playing mono blue, and you simply can't stall on 3 lands and rip the 4th land to play Wrath of God. You simply need to drop lands every turn to ensure you could play all thecounters in your hand and drop the Teferi and Guile.

Another major change I did to the deck was adding the maindeck Sower of Temptation and cutting the remaining Think Twice and a Pact of Negation. I like the main deck Sower of Temptation a lot, as most people do not expect it and it could single handily win games on its own, as the astounding numbers of counters in the deck ensures that he survives. Sower is also one of the few efficient answers to resolved threats in the deck. The reason I cut a Pact of Negation is due to the redundancy of the deck. There are quite some numbers of cards that you do no wish to draw multiple copies, for example Teferi, Guile and Pact of Negation as well. The difference between them is that, you really need to draw one Teferi and/or one Guile, but you do not necessary need to draw a Pact of Negation for the win and holding 2 Pacts is really bad compared to holding double Teferi or Guile. Sure, Guile+ Pact of Negation is the “combo” of the deck, but most times you still win anyway if the game state is in your favor.

The difference between my main deck and the basic version is;

+ 1 Snow Island
+2 Scrying Sheets
+2 Sower of Temptation

- 4 Think Twice
- 1 Pact of Negation


Strategy Guide

Versus Straight Aggressive Creature deck( Kithkin, Monored, Elf, Faerie)

+ 4 Ironfoot
+ 3 Razormane Masticore
+2 Sower of Temptation
+2 Serrated Arrows

- 3 Teferi
- 3 Guile
- 2 Faerie Trickery
- 2 Cryptic Command
- 1 Urza's Factory

You bring in the hate creature package and takes out all the expensive creatures and cut down on expensive counters. You do not sideboard in the Ironfoot against the flying troops of Faerie though and keep Teferi because they do have countermagic which he could shut down. The reason I cut a land because sideboarded games are slightly slower than it is, and you have a greater defense base to stall out and you never activates Urza's Factory in these matchups. Ultimately, it was strange that I've found Scrying Sheets is pretty relevant in this matchup post sideboard due to Razormane Masticore. The interaction between Serrated Arrows and Desert is insanely powerful, usually killing most of the threat by using an arrow counter and an activation of Desert. This matchup is not favorable before boarding, but favorable after boarding with all the hate except for Elf, which I would explain later.

Versus Aggro-Control Strategy ( mostly Mannequin decks)

+4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
+3 Razormane Masticore
+2 Serrated Arrows

-3 Guile
-1 Teferi
-2 Venser
-3 Faerie Trickery

This is a favorable matchup before and after boarding. They play their games by resolving 187 card advantage creatures, and most of your card stops them from gaining advantage. They does not come out blazing fast, and their turn 2 plays are weak against Teferi and you can counter basically anything that is threatening because their relevant plays starts on turn 3, for example, drawing 2 cards by evoking Mulldrifter, casting Shadowmage Infiltrator. Faerie Conclave does no harm to you because of Desert, although Mouth of Ronom is a pain for you. After boarding, you can hardly lose this matchup. 1 Ironfoot stops 4 Shadowmage, 4 opposing Ironfoot and 4 Shriekmaw (they can't kill Ironfoot nor passes through it). Serrated Arrows kills Shadowmage (literally), dudes with Mannequin counter, Fairie Conclave. Razormane usually seals the game, but do beware of Profane Command because that is the card that will turn the game around. Try to hold on to your Masticore until you can protect it because once it sticks, they can hardly win. This is a battle of Attrition instead of speed; therefore I kept all Cryptic Command and remove most Faerie Trickery.

Versus Control Strategy (all types of blue control)

+2 Dreadship Reef
+2 Jace Beleren

-1 Rune Snag
-1 Desert
- 2 Venser

You only bring in 4 cards in this matchup because most of your card is good and there are few to bring out. There is only 1 scenario that you would be happy with an all land hand or heavy land hand; the control mirror matchup, because literally both player only plays land and it is common knowledge that whoever makes the first step often loses. I increased the land count to 29 after boarding, to ensure that I have more probability of hitting land drops and adding the count of storage land is also significant because you really want to see one on your side of the table by turn 2. Jace Beleren is a cheap and efficient card drawer where you punish your opponent after he had exhausted on resources after a counter war. Tolaria West is a key in finding Scrying Sheets in this matchup.

Against Non-Blue Control Strategy (all sorts of Monogreen,Monored and Monowhite variants)

+2 Dreadship Reef
+2 Jace Beleren
+2 Sower of Temptation

-2 Desert
-4 Remove Soul

These decks are light on creatures and feature some card advantage engine and some creature control element. Therefore, Remove Soul is petty useless on them and you actually want them to resolve their big and expensive creatures because you can steal it with Sower of Temptation and protect it to victory. They are the active player in this matchup and you are the reactive player. They often have to play spells before you do; hence it is unnecessary to add up the land count, although you still do the Desert swap for Dreadship Reef. Again, Jace Beleren makes sure you have enough answers for them.

The conclusion

I took the deck to the 8-man queue and been cashing in some wins. So far, I've played approximately 8 times, with 2 wins, 2 split in the finals, 3 semifinals lost and 1 quarterfinal lost. After all, it is not a bad profit ratio. Of the 4 loses I incurred, 1 was a mirror match where I made a mistake in using the wrong counter in the counter war, thus costing me the match. The other 3 loses? Green-Black Elf and I lost all of them 0-2.

It is hard to imagine that the tiny green men actually run me over and over again. Mostly is due to the die roll where I lost most of them, and they go land mana elf, land imperious perfect/elvish champion/ vanquisher. Combined with Treetop Village, they don't find a hard time to kill me in game 1. After boarding, I brought in the suite of hate against it. Unfortunately, Elf has the perfect answer to all of my threats. Riftsweeper for Ancestral Vision, Eyeblight's Ending for Sower of Temptation, and even Viridian Shaman for both Razormane Masticore and Serrated Arrows. If they managed to draw any 2 of their hate that answers our threats, it is often game for them. Not to mention Garruk Wildspeaker is a headache on its own. Pithing Needle is a fantastic card to try out, but I have not figure out the right slot to make space for it.

by Terry Soh
www.magic.tcgplayer.com