Balancing out the Top 8 in Michigan

Finally, after weeks of itchy, non-magical dryness and irritation, Magic came back into my life.

The tournament this weekend was in Livonia, Michigan, at the storied site of RIW Hobbies. After the suggestion was made online that I’d be willing to drive from Columbus to Michigan if someone else was willing to help pay, or that I’d be willing to pay if someone else wanted to drive, fellow Columbusites (Columbians? Columbeezers? Columbusti?) Matt Hazard, Stephen Menendian and I made plans for the three-hour tour, both ways.

My usual pre-tournament routine went swimmingly—shower, breakfast, make lunch, pack my decks, warm up the car, etc. I watched the Weather Channel closely, as the snow outside had already started accumulating, and I really didn’t want to drive if it was going to be bad all the way up. Fortunately for us, the snow was sporadic, and most of the route north was clear.

I drove to Menendian’s apartment to meet him and Hazard. Looked like a nice place. I sat on the couch while Steve got ready, and it wasn’t long before Matt rang the doorbell and we were ready to go. A quick stop at Tim Horton’s and we were really ready to go for real.

Snow continued falling for most of the drive up Rte. 23, but the right lane wasn’t slippery and we made good time. Conversation was sparse as I think everyone was tired, and that wasn’t helped by the documentary on Shangri-La on the radio. We met Anthony Michaels at another Tim Horton’s in Toledo and fueled up.

Unfortunately, the fact that I had to buy wiper fluid completely slipped my mind, and before long the usable area of my salt-encrusted windshield was a hole about six inches high and eight across. Of course, I kept driving, cars speeding on both sides of us, me weaving back and forth, ducking my head and craning my neck to see where we’re going. We got some help from splashes on the snow-damp highway, but we had to pull off in Michigan to get fluid before we all died.

Finally, we reach RIW, safe and sound. Thank goodness.

RIW’s a nice place; they had big display cases filled with cards and a selection of interesting wargames and gaming supplies as well. The coolest thing I saw was a big rubber-band shaped like a double-X that you could wrap around a cardboard box, like from a board game, to keep it securely closed. What a great idea!

Anyway, we all register and head over to RIW’s third of three storefronts to partake in the usual pregame banter and trashtalking.

Here’s the heat I was packing:

4x Dark Confidant
4x Martyr of Frost
3x Withered Wretch
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours

4x Force of Will
4x Duress
4x Stifle
3x Daze (new!)
3x Null Rod
2x Chain of Vapor
1x Echoing Truth
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus

4x Underground Sea
4x Wasteland
3x Polluted Delta
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Swamp
3x Island
1x Strip Mine

Sideboard
3x Planar Void
3x Energy Flux
2x Nekrataal
2x Black Knight
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Echoing Decay
2x Diabolic Edict

Some of you may be surprised to see me running Daze. I was too. Usually, that slot is reserved for Remand, because I like it so much, but I’ve been reading a lot about Daze recently in Dave Feinstein’s UW Fish reports and in my own report from early last year and decided to give it a shot again.

Regardless, I really like this list. One change I want to try is dropping down to 18 lands and four accelerants again. I remember not being happy with that configuration, though. We’ll see. If any of you are wondering why Bloodstained Mires and not Flooded Strands, it’s for the Stax matchup—I like having access to double black for Withered Wretch, to counter Welder.

After a quick game of trying to guess what Menendian was playing, pairings went up for:

Round 1 – Mark Trogdon – Jester’s Accessories

Hey, Trogdon! I know you from, like, every tournament ever! Good thing we drove all this way to get paired against each other in a foreign state. Nah, that’s cool. I like Mark and he’s always fun to play against.

He won the die roll and elected to go first, leading with Mishra’s Workshop, Jester’s Scepter. Hmm… interesting. I Duressed him on my first turn, see that he’ll be hurting for mana unless he draws into it, and took a Shrapnel Blast. Next turn I find my Mox Sapphire, Waste his Shop, and make a Dark Confidant. Bob helped me find my control pieces to keep Goblin Welder off the board, cancel his mana, and shut down his artifacts with Null Rod. Soon, after that, it was over.

I sided out Duress, a Daze, and Lotus Petal for Planar Void and Energy Flux.

His opening Mox, Mox, Mountain, Scepter paled in comparison to my Black Lotus, Energy Flux gambit. Nice deck, huh? Well, Trogdon didn’t think so. After a few complaints, he Pyroclasm’d my first two attackers, hit me with a Shrapnel Blast and a couple of artifact dudes, and let Bob do the rest. I was impressed.

Game three was a good one. I had a second turn Wretch and a third turn Energy Flux, and he didn’t see a lot of lands until the end of the game. A Shrapnel Blast, some Welder attacks, and Bob damage had me down to four life, while he stood on two. He swung Welder through my tapped blockers and I, fearing Lightning Bolt or something else weird, Echoing Truth’d his Mons’ Goblin Welder back to his hand. I Stifled Bob’s upkeep to prevent catastrophe and drew… Force of Will. Smart? Lucky? I don’t know, but I swung in for the win.

Matches – 1-0-0
Games – 2-1-0

I believe that marked the first time I’ve ever won in the first round; I’ll have to check.

Round 2 – Matt Hazard – UW Fish

Check it out, another local I drove three hours to play. Seriously, though, I have to thank Matt for providing gas and wiper fluid on the drive. I appreciate your help, Matt, and I’ll pay you back…

Anyway, in game one, I opened again with Martyr of Frost and turned it into Ninja of the Deep Hours, which took up farming after one attack. The game lasted a while, but Matt got a nice boost from Bob Confidant helping me find Force of Will and sending me from 13 life to eight. Long story short, Bob killed me before I could kill Matt. I don’t remember offhand what I flipped up at two life, but it was enough.

Out came Duresses, some Stifles and Dazes for two Black Knights, two Nekrataals, two Jittes, two Edicts, and an Echoing Decay. Normally, I would side out Force of Wills, especially on the play, but frankly, I forgot.

I took my first mulligan of the day for game two and kept on six cards. I opened yet again with a Martyr of Frost, but it traded with a Lions. Matt made a Jitte, which would have been really good with creatures, had I let him keep any. Bob gave me the advantage in draw power and found mostly lands for me this game. Finally, I resolved my secret weapon, Black Knight; he doesn’t die to swords, and he blocks Jotun Grunt all day. He was the one creature I really wanted to hit play, and we traded Forces of Will over him. Really, though, it didn’t matter. Bob turned out to be a Ninja, and he, BK, and Withered Wretch finished the game.

In the deciding game, Matt went land go and Forced the Mox I led with. Neither of us had particularly auspicious starts, and the game went into turns soon after it began. Both of us got some beats in, but my bounce delayed his Jotun Grunt long enough to prevent him from killing me. He ended with two Grunts on board, I ended with two Dark Confidants in play, and that was it. We drew.

Sigh. Oh well.

Matches – 1-0-1
Games – 3-2-1

Round 3 – Edman – UbaStax

Jeez, another Workshop deck? I’m glad I packed up three Energy Fluxes in the board instead of just two.

In game one, I played two first turn Martyrs of Frost, and those two twin titans of terror took him from 20 life to three over eight turns. In those turns, though, he played Uba Mask to negate my draws, protected his lands from mine with Crucible of Worlds, and ramped Smokestack to three counters. Finally on turn five, he found Strip Mine, and that effectively ended the game. I scooped at 20 life to Strip Mine lock and no permanents, with him at three.

Crap, so close. For sideboarding information, it was the Voids and Fluxes again.

Game two I opened with another Martyr of Frost, but it turned out to be a Ninja (“Supplies!”). He played a Mons’ Goblin Welder thanks to Planar Void and had some irrelevant artifact mana because of Null Rod. Meanwhile, I rode my Ninja’s card advantage to victory despite his best attempts with Uba Mask, and finished him off with a hardcast second Ninja.

My notes are sparse in game three. If memory serves correctly (and the life totals corroborate this), I Forced his first turn lock piece and put two Dark Confidants in play and another creature—probably Martyr of Frost—while he took damage on his first turn from City of Brass. Whatever happened, it was a beating: slow-start Stax versus fast-start Fish. He went 20, 19, 16, 13, 8, 5, dead.

So after three rounds I was doing pretty well, beating tough competitors with really tough matchups.

Matches – 2-0-1
Games – 5-3-1

Round 4 – Kris, a.k.a. “Pacman” – Stax

This was one of my favorite matches all day, even though I got stomped. Pacman and I were trading jibes and just, overall, having a good time. Still, like I said, I got stomped.

Game one mulliganed to open with a Martyr that got him down to 17. I’m pretty sure I Dazed a Smokestack or something, but it didn’t matter. He had the Stax machines working soon enough and had me locked out of the game with Crucible of Worlds, Sphere of Resistance, Strip Mine and Smokestack. Yeah, I quit.

I boarded like before with Voids and Fluxes, but I also brought in Black Knights for extra permanents. It was just something to try.

My opening seven had no mana, so I shipped it. Six cards showed me two lands, a Wasteland and a Delta, but no one-mana plays and no two-mana plays with the cards in hand.

“Oh man, this is one card away from being good.”

“You keeping it?” he asked.

“I don’t know—seven cards versus five?”

“You don’t know what I’ve got. Maybe I’m sending mine back.”

“If I lose, I have to win next round, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll just do that then.”

I mulliganed to five and opened with two lands, a Martyr, and a Bob. It wasn’t too bad, really. Except that he had Vampiric Tutor for Sundering Titan and launched the 7/10 at my head. I chumped the Titan for a number of turns, starting with Martyr of Frost and ending with my last Bob, on whom I was counting to find me an answer. It was not to be.

Matches – 2-1-1
Games – 5-5-1

Wow, that match record looks way better than that game record. Like I said, I have to win next round to be in top eight contention.

Round 5 – Mike – Threshold

Ah, Threshold. Big creatures, decent control, I really shouldn’t win this one. I was watching his previous match and knew what he was playing. It was depressing, but I would remain unflagged.

Luckily, I started off with a castable Dark Confidant, which he wisely Forced. His first turn Nimble Mongoose was totally negated by my second turn Withered Wretch, though. In fact, Wretch pretty much negated his entire deck, which is okay, because he went on to draw four lands in a row and scoop at nine life.

All right! Halfway there. I side in Planar Voids and everything to kill creatures except Umezawa’s Jitte. Forces and Duresses came out on this one, I believe.

He opened with first turn land and Forced down my Planar Void. I played Martyr of Frost on turn two and got in six good hits with him, while Mike beat the living pants off me with a pair of active Assembly Workers. When I tried to Strip Mine one of the offending Factories, he Stifled. I Dazed twice (hard- and softcast), but he Forced it. Then I died.

Makes me think I should reconsider Mishra’s Factories in UB Fish.

There’s still a stigma about game three for me. See, I like it when people mulligan against me. I think every Magic player appreciates that on some level. But after two mulligans, it just gets sad; it’s barely a game at that point. Anyway, my opponent threw his first hand back, reporting that it had no creatures. The next three hands (three!) went back because he didn’t have lands. At three cards, his hand had Mishra’s Factory, and he kept. Unfortunately for him, I had kept a hand of seven including two Wastelands. He never recovered, and two Martyrs and a Wretch took him down.

I was happy to win, but I still felt a little bad about it. Still, mana screw and mana flood are both part of the game. They keep things interesting and keep the number crunchers on their toes.

Didn’t I say I’d just have to win that round?

Matches – 3-1-1
Games – 7-6-1

Top 8 – Kris, a.k.a. “Pacman” – Stax

GRUDGE MATCH!

I was actually convinced I was going to win this one. Like I said before, my Stax matchup is pretty good because I can match them on permanents, and most of my cards are pretty cheap. It takes the right kind of start (which maybe I’m not recognizing yet), but I’d had good luck in the past and should have had it here.

Oh, how I should have had luck on my side here.

Game one was going really well. He opened with Gemstone Mine, Goblin Welder, and some Moxen. I Duressed him anyway and left him with Ancestral Recall, Strip Mine, and Mana Crypt. I don’t remember what I took, but it must have been really good. His Strip Mine slowed me down, of course, but I got a Dark Confidant nonetheless and began the beats—18, 16, 14, 12, 10—did I mention he had Mana Crypt in play this entire time?

“Evens, all day,” I said.

He rolled no even numbers until he was at seven life—honestly six or seven turns in a row of odd numbers. All this time, Mana Crypt was just a superior Sol Ring, allowing him to build gigantic machines like Smokestacks, which I was frantically trying to keep from hurting me with Stifle and a well-timed Echoing Truth. One turn from his death (I had Bob and Withered Wretch poised to finish him off) he said, “Jeez, I hate to do this to you.”

“Is it Balance?!”

“Balance.”

Game over. I lost my team of attackers, all my lands but one, and all but one card in my hand—Withered Wretch, I believe. Next turn I lose my last land to Smokey. Pacman set up Cruci-Strip hardlock for the win.

I sideboarded like the previous match against Pacman, Black Knights and all.

This game went similarly to the previous one. I had creature and permanent superiority, and managed to strand his Welders with an early game Planar Void. I was casting Ancestral on myself every turn with Bob Confident and Ninja, but I saw no counterspells, just bounce and Stifles. He played Mana Crypt again and won an unseemly amount of rolls. At one life, he found Balance.

Oh. Em. Gee.

So, like I said, no counterspells. Balance resolved. Luckily, he had to find an answer to his own Mana Crypt before it kills him—Gorilla Shaman, Smokestack, or Tinker would do.

“Evens all day,” I said.

He went one nerve-wracking turn before getting Bolted by his own artifact. Thank goodness. It was about time.

Whew.

Oh, wait, we’ve still got game three. I had to go on to the second page for this one.

I mulliganed twice in this one. If I hadn’t, he probably wouldn’t have won because he wouldn’t have attempted his second-turn play of Demonic Tutor for Lotus, Lotus, Chalice for zero, Tinker for Sundering Titan. I had Bob to find answers, and by answers I mean chump blockers. I was getting in hits when I could, eventually getting him down to 10 life, but he sent me from 13 life to six by Darkblasting my Blocker of Frost. Withered Wretch came to remove the Darkblast, and threw himself bravely in front of the Titan while Bob helped me dig for answers. Then, it was all over, Sundered by a Titan.

At least it wasn’t Balance.

Nah, Pacman seemed like a cool guy, and both matches we played were a lot of fun, despite me losing in some of the worst ways possible. My hat goes off to him, though I did not actually wear one.

Once I was done, everyone in our car was ready to go except Steve, who was still embroiled in the final match of the Mana Drain side tournament. Granted, I didn’t get to see the whole thing, but what I saw was pretty bad. Going into the second or third game playing Ichorid, Steve had two Leylines of the Void dropped on him turn-zero by Pitch Long.

That’s bad news.

He stuck with it, though, played his Bazaar and dug, played his hand disruption (Unmasking for Dark Ritual) and dropping Chalice of the Void for zero. His opponent was stymied and forced into topdeck mode. Steve kept digging, scrambling to find the Chains of Vapor he needed to bounce the Leyline. No dice. After a few turns, he had the opportunity to Unmask again and his opponent revealed this:

Black Lotus, Mox Sapphire, Lotus Petal, Cabal Ritual, Necropotence, Chain of Vapor, and something else, Memory Jar?

Everyone except the Pitchlong player saw it, the win, right there, in his hand, at this point even pretty much assured despite the Unmask. If Steve took Chain, he would lose as soon as his opponent found a mana source to play Necropotence. If he took Necro, his opponent would play Chain and win with another bomb or tutor, which should be coming up soon, as he was also digging.

[cue voiceover narration by Daniel Stern]

Once Steve explained to his opponent how to win, things were over pretty quickly and we were back on the road. A little tired, hungry, and disappointed. I know none of us made it quite as far as we wanted that day, but I think we all learned something. Magic is a funny game, and no matter who you are or what you do, there are still elements that are out of your control.

The drive back may have been long, dark, and snowy, but the conversation remained light and we remained warm in the company of friends.

[end narration]

Anyway, I gleaned some cool new ideas from this tournament about UB Fish. Unfortunately they could all be thrown out the window once Planar Chaos becomes legal and, with it, Extirpate. We’ll see. I’ll try to get those written up soon.