Ancestral? Targeting Columbus?

About midnight last I had a revelation.

I’ll go ahead and call it Revelation with a capital R.

Okay, not really.

If you’ve been following along, you know that I wanted to find a card for the UB Fish sideboard to bring in against the combo matchup. Eventually I settled on Disrupting Shoal. I don’t need the extra creatures in that game because as long as I keep them from winning, it’s almost inevitable that I will.

I can attack for damage!

In the end, my game against combo is actually pretty good. Duress, Stifle and Force of Will are all four-ofs, so if I get a turn, it’s likely I’ll be able to do something significant and at least by myself some more time. They can’t always have a counter.

The matchup I’m was more worried about last night was the aggro matchup. UB fish won’t win against UW Fish because UW Fish has more, bigger creatures.

The uber tech I brought in for that matchup?

Please don’t laugh.

Black Knight
BB
Creature – Knight
First strike. Protection from white.
2/2

It kills everything in UW Fish except for Jotun Grunt, which it blocks all day long thanks to being pro-white. Or is that anti-white? I guess it depends on which side of the red zone you stand.

After that, I figured that a good anti-aggro card is Umezawa’s Jitte. I mean, crap, that card does a lot of stuff.

So my sideboard ended up like this:

3x Planar Void
3x Energy Flux
3x Diabolic Edict
2x Black Knight
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
2x Disrupting Shoal

The latter six cards should all have been against aggro, and they should have been better.

Next time I do better.

This tournament was interesting. That’s the best I can say for myself.

I got to the Soldiery shortly after 12:30 and started registering my deck. Anthony let me borrow two Polluted Deltas, which I have yet to return to him. The decklist is in the previous blog entry; the sideboard is in this one.

The usual Columbus crew were there (not the soccer team—I mean Meandeckers and Chewy Nips), but I’m pretty sure I’m the only one there with a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.

Cheap lunch is tech. That’s my new recommendation for everyone: pack a samitch.

Anyway, the tournament commences at 1 p.m., and Meandeck tournaments are run efficiently and on time, which is nice. Pairings go up, and I head to… table one! I bet I’ll never see that one again.

Round 1 – Paul Mastriano playing Meandeck Gifts

Surprise, surprise, Meandeck Gifts now has Wipe Away. Good thing my deck really doesn’t care about Wipe Away.

This was a fun match to play. In game one, I Duressed his Merchant Scroll first turn, dropped a second turn Withered Wretch and the beats commenced. There were Stifles, more Duresses, and some Wastelands Played. He got a Gifts through a Force of Will but did not win. In the last few turns, with him at five life, he brought out Darksteel Beatstick, but I had two bounce spells in hand for that guy. The Wretch and his Mana Crypt did him in.

Game two I should have won but neglected to do so. Many of you have probably already heard what happened, but I will relate thusly. I had complete control of the game with Ninja, Wretch, and a barrage of mana denial including Null Rod. When he Fire & Iced my Ninja, I had one waiting in hand. Duresses wrecked him early on. I get him down to five life.

His board has an Island, a Volcanic Island, and a Mox Ruby, and I know his hand has a Force of Will, a Wipe away, and a mystery card. He Scrolls for Mystical Tutor and tutors next turn for Tinker. My board has Wasteland, plenty of mana, two Null Rods (to protect from Wipe Away), and a Ninja. On my turn, the one after the Mystical Tutor, I neglect to Wasteland his Volcano to keep him off of Tinker mana next turn. He Tinkers for the big man.

My next turn I draw Diabolic Edict. Wow, that’s really good. It would be if I didn’t know he had a Force of Will in hand, anyway. So I have to sit on it. My Ninja stays home. Next turn he attacks and I eat it, going to 7. My hand has a Force of Will and the Edict, so I’m in okay shape. I have five mana in play. I’ll get the draw for my turn and the Ninja draw; that’s two draws to find any blue card, especially bounce, Duress, or another Edict. I draw Polluted Delta for my turn and an Island off the Ninja.

He swings next turn and I Edict him, which he Forces. I lose.

Game three started in five turns. I have plenty of ways to make him not win and I, of course, cannot win fast. So we draw.

It is not an auspicious start, but I didn’t lose, so I’ll take it.

Games 1-1-1; Matches 0-0-1

Round 2 – Anthony Michaels playing TwaunStax

I should interview Anthony about his Stax builds because they’re always interesting. He plays more enchantments than most builds and eschews Welders based on that fact and the fact that everyone packs hate for Welder. Beyond that, it looks like a pretty standard five-color list

He gets down an early Suppression Field, which I never realized was that good against me. I realized I was in trouble as soon as I wasn’t able to crack a fetchland. I have the Chain of Vapor for it in hand, though, and use it a couple turns later to fetch two lands and send a Ninja into the fray dressed as Bob Maher. I Force of Will a Chalice at one, real Bob shows up next turn, and supreme card advantage kills Twaun in short order.

In the second game Stax starts doing its thing with the traditional components of Crucible of Worlds and Smokestacks. I play a number of turns without permanents and am finally able to drop an Energy Flux with the help of my good friend Black Lotus. It’s too late, though, as Black Vise and Sundering Titan tear me apart.

Yes, Black Vise. Tell me that card should be unrestricted and I’ll tell you you’re crazy. Vise as a four-of is abusable in so many ways.

My opening hand includes both Black Lotus and Energy Flux, so I’m feeling pretty good about going first. Unfortunately we enter the final five turns too soon, and I can’t capitalize on my good fortune. Hello draw number two.

Games 2-2-2; Matches 0-0-2

So as long as I win out I should be able to top eight, right?

Round 3 – Jimmy playing Goblins

In game one, I scoop when he Lackeys out a Siege-Gang Commander.

In game two I mulligan and die to Gempalm Incinerators that kill my creatures and Piledrivers that kill me.

I did, however, Stifle one of each of those cards before dying. Whoohoo!

My notes on this round take up nine lines and conclude with “Goblins = Not a good matchup at all.”

Games 2-4-2; Matches 0-1-2

Round 4 – Shawn playing Oath

In game one, I definitely had the Fish control rolling. I was Stifling fetchlands and Wastelanding everything in site. I don’t recall that he even had any basics. I definitely didn’t see any Forbidden Orchards or Tropical Islands, though, or they might have given me some clue as to what he was playing. Since all I saw were Underground Seas, I thought for sure he was playing either PitchLong or Gifts. Regardless, I Force of Willed his Black Lotus and beat him down pretty quickly with Bob and a Withered Wretch.

I sideboard like I’m playing PitchLong, I think, which is okay because it means I have a lot of answers against Oath too. Unfortunately, I include zero Diabolic Edicts and actually side one of my Chains of Vapor out.

Needless to say, he got an Oath pretty quickly and I immediately knew what I was playing against. I Stifle one of his activations and he Time Walks into Razia. That seems pretty good, but I bounce her before she gets a second attack. He Oaths up Akroma next turn, obviously, and Brainstorms Razia back into his library for the win next turn.

So I keep my Planar Voids in the game and bring in three Diabolic Edicts as backup. That seems pretty good, eh?

Lemme tell you, he was scared of Planar Void like no other after I dropped it on him first turn. I mean, it doesn’t hurt his chances of Oathing up an angel, but it does remove great chunks of his library from the game. We had epic counter and bounce battles over that one, easy-to-cast enchantment. Thank goodness it was that and not Leyline of the Void.

He got two of his countered Oaths past the Planar Void and into the graveyard and reshuffled after finding Akroma and Gaea’s Blessing. I had the Edict for Akroma, though, and she was gone for good on the attack. His next Oath activation found Razia as the last card in his library.

My outburst of, “You’re kidding me!” drew people over to watch his unfortunate and unlikely demise.

The next events were quite jumbled in real life due to the flurry of activity that surrounded him removing his library from the game. Of course he triggered Gaea’s Blessing and it would have shuffled a Darkblast and something else, a Thirst for Knowledge I think, into his library for two attack phases, but I removed the Darkblast with Withered Wretch in response to the Blessing.

One attack was not enough to kill me and I emerge victorious and lucky.

I dedicate that victory to Bob Confidant for helping me find the cards I need all match long.

Games 4-5-2; Matches 1-1-2

I need to stop writing out my tallies like that. It’s depressing. I mean, ugh, how mediocre.

Round 5 – Justin Uy playing URB Fish

I’m not sure if this was the Urbana Fish list that was posted on TMD a few months back, but I really wish I had been able to beat it. Unfortunately, it turns out that the color red pretty much owns my deck all the time. My creatures are puny and don’t disrupt aggro.

Anyway, I open pretty brokenly with Lotus, Ancestral Recall into Null Rod, and Duress. He plays a Volcano and I Waste it. He plays a Volcano and I Waste it. Seems like I really should get the jump on him with that. Unfortunately his Gorilla Shaman is really a Ninja and meets Bob Maher head on. He has some Fire & Ice action for me and another Dark Confidant and I take the beats pretty hard. It looks like my life takes monkey, ninja, ninja and monkey, ninja and monkey, dead.

Crap.

So I side in seven cards of anti-aggro hate—three Diabolic Edicts, two Black Knights and two Umezawa’s Jitte. Seems pretty weak, even compared to his main deck.

I win the second game by getting down to one life and drawing and casting creatures constantly thanks to Ninja. I have Ninja on the board and he has three creatures, all tapped attacking but all of manageable power levels. I hit him with an Edict and have to be able to block his remaining two (which will be Waterfront Bouncer and Dark Confidant). Ninja Bobs to the top, sending him to one himself, but he doesn’t realize that his best chance of killing me is to not attack and let my own Bob kill me next turn. When I double block his attack with Dark Confidant and Withered Wretch and still have a Ninja up for the win next turn, he scoops.

I’m pretty sure at least half of my board will be dedicated to anti-aggro next tournament. I don’t know why it’s so popular!

The third game is pretty sad as his creatures, especially Flametongue Kavu, completely outclass me. I stop drawing creatures and he’s able to bounce my one stalwart Withered Wretch with Waterfront Bouncer and swing with the Kavu every turn. My only hope was some Jedi mind manipulation so with two Chains in my hand I bounced his Kavu. Next turn, when he replayed it, I bounced my Wretch in response, hoping he would have to blast one of his own creatures as the only legal target. Unfortunately, he somehow had the counter for that after pitching a bunch of spells to the spellshaper.

Time was called and he didn’t have quite enough time to finish me off.

It was real Type 2 action, and it kind of sucked for me a lot.

Games 5-6-3; Matches 1-1-3

I’m pretty sure that if either of us had won we would have top-eighted, so if Justin Uy ever reads this, I’m sorry I didn’t concede to you. You clearly had me outgunned and deserved to win.

Plus, the goblins wouldn’t have made the final rounds. Curse you, red devils!

After my tournament was done, Anthony and I played some TwaunStax vs. UbaCaps casual games, which were good. For me anyway. But our attention was drawn to the Mono-R Stax vs. Mono-R Stax matchup between Jerry Yang and Mark Trogdon. It was insane. Anthony and I had played three games during their first game, which Yang had won.

By the time we started watching each player had about eight lands in play in the second game and were having the most ridiculous battles between Goblin Welders, Gorilla Shamans, Duplicants, and Solemn Simulacra. I was watching Trogdon’s hand, and I have to say that he’s probably the most patient Magic player I know. He had a Rack and Ruin in his hand for so many turns against Yang’s plethora of machinations, and he continued holding it even after Yang dropped a Mycosynth Lattice out of the sideboard with an, “I win.” Of course it wasn’t victory quite yet, it was just a wacky card choice.

Yang dropped a Null Rod next turn to lock down the board, but ran his Solemn Simulcrum into double blockers. Somehow Trogdon got two Smokestacks into play and ramped to two counters on each.

Yang bided his time, built his mana, and sacrificed his Null Rod to them. Then, with the power of Mycosynth Lattice, he played Shattering Spree for 14 targeting most of Trogdon’s board. Trogdon let the ones targeting artifacts resolve, then cast Rack and Ruin on his opponent’s Lattice and another target. When the R&R resolved and the smoke cleared, Trogdon’s lands were no longer artifacts and were spared.

That play even brought Type 4 at the next table over to a screeching halt as everyone wanted to know what was going on.

I don’t even remember what happened after that.

Game three should have been decided by Game of Chaos.

I’m pretty sure game two ended when Trogdon drew the Duplicant he needed to seal the deal, but that would still put the match at 1-1. Oh well. If anyone knows what exactly happened, put it in the comments and let us all know.

But that’s pretty much it. Good times were had all around, even when I had to play Goblins. And I hate goblins!

Tune in next time, when we build a bookcase replicating one we found in an antique store in New Hampshire.