I Never Liked Megaman Anyway

Goodbye Gifts. We hardly knew ye.

Actually, it seems like some of us have already forgotten about ye. In more than 20 decks at the Meandeck Open, was there anyone playing Gifts in more than one copy? I didn't see it.

Long story short, the tournament this past Sunday was awesome. Everyone who was anyone (except for Twaun and Geoff and Jeff) was there, and two Cleveland players made it to the top four split—congratulations to Nam Tran and Juan Rodriguez.

Juan stayed at my house on Saturday night after Regionals, bought my Mana Drains, and borrowed an Aether Spellbomb and a Trinket Mage, so I feel like I had some positive effect on his playing that day. He also gave me a few tips about playing the Sullivan Solution, having played it the previous weekend in Cleveland.

Actually, until Sunday morning, I don’t think I was quite set on a deck. I had SS put together, of course, and had a sideboard for it, but I spent all of Saturday night and most of my time before the tournament goldfishing Belcher. I had put Serum Powders in it and wanted to see how it reacted. Pretty good, but that’s a story for another day.

So after a quality and greasy breakfast at Tee Jay’s Country Place with the rest of the Cleveland gamers (I had the cornmeal pancakes—they’re pretty good and they stayed with me a good long time), and then a brief reunion with Guhstin, the Late JC, and Randal Cunningham, I sat down and registered my deck.

For a long time I played UB Fish, insisting that it is indeed UB Fish and not SS, which of course it’s not. The theory and playstyles that back them up are decidedly different—SS is control-aggro; UB is aggro-control. And believe me, there is a difference.

4x Force of Will
4x Stifle
4x Duress
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

This is the same control base I used in UB Fish. Force of Will is pretty much a given—it’s the one wall that has a 40% chance of standing between you and a first-turn win. Stifle, Wasteland, and Strip Mine are part of the standard Vintage mana disruption package that hits fetchlands and duals. Oh, also, Stifle counters storm and a host of other things and is probably my favorite card, like, ever. Duress is pretty good all-around; it nabs those one-of bombs if your lucky, keeps your opponent from countering your stuff, and can slow down their development.

Regular SS only runs three Wastelands, but, what can I say I’m a rogue. Plus, that fourth one came in handy.

4x Dark Confidant
4x Dimir Cutpurse
3x Erayo, Soratami Ascendant

That’s the standard SS creature pack. With the amount of disruption I wanted to play in Fish, I kept waffling between creatures and spells, wanting to have better spells but wanting to run more creatures for a steady stream of threats. Dark Confidant is a huge advantage—there was a definite link between having first or second turn Bob in UB Fish, and I expected it to be no different here. Dimir Cutpurse and Erayo’s Essence make a mini lock that can kick an opponent to the curb. Plus, every time I hit with Cutpurse, I giggle.

4x Leyline of the Void

That’s right, they’re maindecked. I wanted one more piece of early disruption for Flash, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Ichorid, and it doesn’t get much earlier than turn zero. For the record, my average casting cost for Bob was still only 1.33. It was never gamebreaking, but I still feel Leyline was a positive choice. I wanted to run them in Fish but never felt I had the mana support for them.

1x Echoing Truth
1x Shadow of Doubt

Generally, lists of SS I’ve seen have a number of seemingly random one- and two-ofs that are both randomly good and tutorable answers: Truth, Shadow, Hymn, Explosives, Chain, Rod, Needle, whatever. By running four Leylines, I shut myself out of some of those answers and had to choose my particular two wisely. I can’t say these were bad for me, but I didn’t use them much either.

1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
4x Brainstorm
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor

These are the fairly broken things that allow me to run Erayo and flip her with some regularity. I got to play Ancestral Recall and Black Lotus a lot in this tournament thanks to some aggressive tutoring, and I think I kind of liked it. Also playing Time Walk with Dark Confidant or Dimir Cutpurse (or both!) is fantastic.

1x Black Lotus
5x Moxen

These were another reason to play SS over Fish. Having the extra fast mana theoretically makes it easier for me to run hate that’s a bit more expensive out of the sideboard. Plus, a first turn Dark Confidant is a beautiful thing.

3x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
4x Underground Sea
1x Island
1x Swamp

And we end our tour with the colored mana. I had 22 mana sources, which is what I have in Fish. Plus, between Brainstorms and the tutors, I was fairly likely to have enough at any given time. I did, though, mull to five twice, I think, based mostly on not having enough mana or mana of the wrong color. Do I blame the fourth Wasteland? Yes. Will I change? Probably not.

Here’s the sideboard I used.

4x Yixlid Jailer
3x Arcane Laboratory
3x Energy Flux
2x Pithing Needle
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice

The sideboard I played was supposed to be good against the decks I expected to be popular: Flash and Ichorid. Unfortunately, I didn’t play either of those. Yixlid Jailer does double duty against Fish and other creature decks as an extra body and equipment carrier. Arcane Lab is awesome; it’s a hard lock with Erayo’s Essence, and even though it prevents Erayo from flipping, who cares? Pithing Needle was the most commonly sided in card of the day, followed, I think, by the equipment.

I guess I’ll have to figure out the Ohio metagame again, because I certainly wasn’t prepared for it with this sideboard stack.

Anyway, that’s the deck and the explanations. Long story short, I broke down and played SS over UB fish because I realized UB Fish was heading in that direction anyway. Might as well make the developmental leap and keep going from a few steps forward, right?

Right.

Round 1 – Randal Cunningham [not his real name] – 1-Land Belcher

I guess I kind of helped develop this guy’s deck. Randal seems like a pretty cool guy from the few times I’ve hung out with him at the Legacy GP and in Columbus. Plus, when I played Belcher at the GP side-event, he let me borrow Living Wishes, so he’s okay in my book. I told him, though, “I guess your deck is why I decided to play this one.” Seriously, I pretty much played SS because in my testing it always beat Belcher pretty soundly.

Anyway, he won the die roll and elected to go first, showing me Pyroblast, Simian Spirit Guide, Belcher, Living Wish, and Welder with a Land Grant. I let the Grant go through and he played Welder. The beats began next turn with Welder as I focused on keeping his big winners off the table. He was actually in a pretty good situation, seeing as how if he got Belcher into the graveyard, he’d be good to go at the drop of a Mox. I Duressed his Pyroblast and started the return push by casting Ancestral and Bob, finding Dimir Cutpurse soon after. He couldn’t keep both mana and threats against the Cutpurse and lost.

In game two I kept a hand without Force of Will and he had first turn Belcher with Taiga and a Mox in play. That seemed pretty good—one mana away from instant death. Unfortunately, I followed his strong first turn with this: Underground Sea, Black Lotus, Erayo, Brainstorm, Mox (flipping Erayo), Demonic Tutor for Pithing Needle. His hand, however, was just a second Belcher at this point, so he would have to draw another land or a Spirit Guide to win the game or his spell would be countered. He didn’t, and Belcher got Needled next turn.

He found Welder eventually and waited for a good moment to weld Needle for the Lotus in my graveyard (he was still missing a mana, eventually two after a Wasteland). While waiting for that, I found and hardcast Leyline to prevent him from doing too many tricks with his own yard. After that, it was mostly academic as I was able to attack with Cutpurse and Bob with enough card advantage to win the game.

Afterwards, I suggested that he could have won before I played Leyline by welding out his Mox for his spent Grim Monolith for activation mana, and hitting my Needle next turn. I did have Stifles, though, but not enough to jam the gun for long.

Oh well. It’s always easier to see another person’s play than your own.

For me, it’s not a bad start.

Matches – 1-0-0
Games – 2-0-0

Round 2 – Juangamer – Bomberman

Everybody knows Juan. He’s a gamer. He put Bomberman together the night before the tournament, sitting at my dining room table, so I knew everything in his deck too. Unfortunately for me, Bomberman has a terrific game against Fish because its creatures (namely Auriok Salvagers) are freaking gigundus. I’ve only beaten Bomberman once, against JR at the Hero Zone, which gives him a huge handicap for some reason. Either way, this round would be an uphill battle.

In game one, he plays a first turn Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall. Okay. He ACalled on turn two, following it up with Aether Spellbomb and Black Lotus for Auriok Salvagers.

Juan: “Auriok Salvagers.”
Me: “Jeez. Yeah, it’s good.”
Juan: “He’s a big blocker.”
Me: “Yeah. Plus, you have combo pieces in your graveyard.”
Juan: “What? Oh, yeah!”

Yeah, that’s right, thoroughly embarrassed, he didn’t realize he had everything he needed to win the game except untapped starter mana. I Stifled his first Salvagers activation (off his lone white-mana-producing Tundra) and slowed him down a turn as I Wastelanded. Next turn he played a Plains, and that was it.

Call me crazy, but I have a feeling that I should have made him run through the combo.

In game two he mulliganed, while I had Underground Sea, Mox, Mox, first turn Dimir Cutpurse. He tried to Force, but I matched him and my dude sticks. And what’s even better than an Ancestral on Legs? Ancestral on Legs carrying a huge freaking sword! I drew Sword of Fire and Ice on turn three and had the mana to play it and equip. Suddenly I was swinging for six damage and drawing four cards a turn. His Aven Mindcensor was naught but a speedbump.

After that thrashing, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I opened game three with Leylines, shutting off the combo. Unfortunately, that was pretty much it. He Drained my Erayo into Trinket Mage for Lotus into Auriok Salvagers. Ugh. I was playing desperation blockers, but it really didn’t matter. Two Salvagers and a Trinket Mage beat me down with a quickness.

If this Bomberman deck stays as popular as it has been since Aven Mindcensor came out, we Fish players could be in trouble. Actually, a lot of players could be in trouble.

Also, Juan was playing Plagiarize because I didn’t want to convince him to run something better.

Match – 1-1-0
Games – 3-2-0

Round 3 – Stephen Menendian – Mean Deck

I’ve playtested against this deck lots of times and have a demoralizingly losing record against it. As this is the deck that his team is planning on debuting at Star City Roanoke, I’ll try to uphold his wishes by not revealing too much about it. Steve’s a good player, and the deck has some pop, so I was not confident going in.

I open game one with a Leyline, though, as he won the die roll and Duressed me, taking Brainstorm. I Wastelanded his Underground Sea, and it was huge as he kept a one-lander against me. I Shadow of Doubt his next fetch, and played two more Wastelands. It was a crushing amount of mana denial and he conceded at 15 life in the face of two Dimir Cutpurses.

Game two was fantastic. After more Wastelands and Stifles, he was again without mana, but the only pressure I could muster was Bob and an attacking Erayo. This clock was not fast enough, however, as he comboed me out with no lands at five life. Lotus Petal, Brainstorm, Duress (taking my Force), Mox, Mox, Black Lotus, Yawgmoth’s Will, Tutor for Tendrils. It was amazing, but a big misplay on my part. With him down so far, I should have Forced his first sign of life, the Brainstorm. Maybe even the Lotus Petal.

Maybe next time.

In game one, I again opened with Leyline and was able to play a Black Lotus into Brainstorm and Erayo, which was countered. I followed with Arcane lab on turn two, though, and an all but unflippable Erayo on turn Three. Cutpurse entered the fray amid a firestorm of mana denial and took the game home for me.

I think I played eight or nine Wastelands and Stifled four or five fetchlands this match. Even Shadow of Doubt got in there. Against decks that need mana, that seems pretty good.

Of course, Steve still managed to beat me with just a Lotus Petal in game two.

Also, I really need to apologize to Steve. I was doing a horrendous job of keeping track of my life and his and the gamestate throughout the entire match. When I thought I had game two firmly in hand and it was just a matter of time before he conceded, he asked what life I had and I reported 16, when it was much closer to 10, if not lower. I missed a number of reveals to Dark Confidant, at least one Force of Will, and multiple fetchlands. It was not only extremely rude, but also a punishable offense had he chosen to enforce the rules.

I’m sorry.

Match – 2-1-0
Games – 5-3-0

Round 4 – Joe Bushman – Slaverless Slaver

I met Joe playtesting at Menendian’s house early last week. He’s a fun opponent, and he’s clearly one of those people who’s been playing Slaver forever and has done well with it just because he knows it better than most people know their decks. I have a feeling he’s looking forward to Gush being unrestricted so he can play Gro-a-Tog again.

Truth be told, I want to play that deck too.

Anyway, whichever of us wins can draw into the Top 8.

In game one, I took a quick upper hand by playing Dark Confidant and Forcing his Ancestral Recall. He plays Goblin Welder and we trade beats for a while. Then Bob finds me a Force of Will. Thanks, Bob! A turn later, Bob finds me Leyline of the Void. Omigosh, Bob, you rule!

Yeah, so with nine extra damage on me and the pesky Welder, I’m down to four life with a Bob on the table. So he finds and discards Triskelion, welding it in. He can’t kill me because he knows I have a Stifle, and I take another damage from Bob, revealing another Stifle, so he still can’t kill me. And he can’t weld Trike infinitely because, hey, Bob found me that Leyline. I play another Dark Confidant because, hey, what the heck? At two life, they reveal Echoing Truth and Leyline next turn.

Rats. I guess I lose a game every tournament to Bob.

Game two I mulligan to five. Again I have the Force of Will for his Ancestral, but he has the backup this time. Thus putting him at eight cards to my three. That’s probably explanation enough, eh? Erayo gets in a couple of hits, but he gets to weld in Platinum Angel and sic an Old Man on my Moonfolk.

Quite a beating from Slaver.

Match – 2-2-0
Games – 5-5-0

At this point, if I win, I have an off chance to make top 8. JR got paired down to me, though, and I figure to scoop him in regardless of the outcome. I owe him for Sandusky and I have a terrible chance against Bomberman anyway.

It seems like whenever JR and I square off in Vintage, one of us has it all and the other has nothing. Last time, I got to play Control-Belcher against his Intuition Tendrils and countered Timetwister twice with red blasts. He’s due.

Game one goes much like my first game against Juan except JR actually sees the combo when he gets it. I open with Erayo and get it through Force of Will with a Force of my own. Unfortunately, my Force was the fourth spell, so Erayo did not flip until JR comboed a few turns later. We still had plenty of time, and he didn’t get flustered when I made him kill me.

The second game was like my third game against Juan except the dual Auriok Salvagers were replaced with dual Aven Mind Censors. It was 20, 19, 17, 13, 12, 6, 0 for me, and I don’t know what I could have done about it.

Where was my Sword wielding Cutpurse!? I missed the dominant game two completely.

Crap.

Match – 2-3-0
Game – 5-7-0

Ugh, and things started out so well.

Oh well.

The Late JC and I got in at least a dozen test games between SS and Belcher, from both sides of the match. Having built both decks, I’m pretty sure I had the advantage.

And I think it convinced me that Serum Powder belongs in Belcher. With a little testing to learn how to use it, it will be insanely good. I know this because after Serum Powdering three times to Chapple’s comment, “What a neat card!” I found a nearly unstoppable turn one kill.

It’s really good. Like I said, though, Belcher will come later.

We waited around for Juan and Nam to collect their cash before hopping in our respective cars and taking 15 people to Thurman’s. We took up three tables, completely. It was awesome.

I decided to eat light and went with the hot roast beef sandwich, which was insanely good. Put a little hot sauce on that thing, mm-mmm. I have yet to have something bad there. Plus, we had pretzel bites and I got to split some pitchers of the worst tasting water ever, Miller Lite.

Guhstin told the now infamous Poop Story once again, now to some new friends from State College, Pennsylvania. I think the differences this time were the desperate grasping of the towel rack and the metaphor that now I can’t remember.

The major topic of discussion though is everyone’s new favorite bloodsport (Hah! Oh, I guess you had to be there), Sandwich Punch. We even got to see an example of the game, albeit an illegal one, as Juan pounded JR’s Thurmanburger into a dented, mangled, hot beef manhole cover even though it was clearly covered by a potato chip. It was hilarious, though, and brought the bar-wenches over to find out exactly what was going on.

Juan conceded immediately that the punch was illegal and accepted the punishment. JR ate the sandwich anyway. Juan paid for it. It was a touching moment.

And I think the Pennsylvanians were impressed. One of them even bought a Thurman’s t-shirt. What can I say? We aim to please in Columbus, Ohio.

Good times, good times.

And next time I win.