Yet Another Michigan Massacre

I’d like to say—and this is open to some debate, for sure—that I am not as bad at Magic as my recent records have indicated.

The last two times I’ve played in Michigan, my match record in the main events is 1-6. Why did I play to go 0-4 in the first one? I don’t know. What else was I going to do? In the last side event, I played five rounds, despite losing at least at least three of them, and it was double elimination.

Needless to say, I was itching to have some success.

I miss the first time I went up there and top-eighted with UB Fish back when I was still running Withered Wretch. Even though I lost to Pac Man twice when he tutored for and then topdecked Balance, it was fun.

So my plan was to run the new-old best deck in the format, Gro-a-Tog. Why not? Even my girlfriend said that there was no sense in not playing the best deck, and she has a better two-headed giant limited rating than I do, so I value her advice.

Anyway, I had done some testing against GAT but only decided to put it together on MWS a couple of weeks ago. I only put a version of the deck together for real on Tuesday of last week. Here’s what I ran, eschewing Street Wraiths for more utility spells:

4x Quirion Dryad
1x Psychatog

4x Force of Will
4x Duress
2x Misdirection
2x Mana Drain
1x Repeal
1x Echoing Truth

4x Brainstorm
4x Gush
4x Merchant Scroll
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Cunning Wish
1x Regrowth
1x Fastbond
1x Yawgmoth’s Will

1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mana Crypt
3x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
3x Underground Sea
3x Tropical Island
2x Island

Sideboard
4x Leyline of the Void
2x Energy Flux
1x Hurkyl’s Recall
1x Darkblast
1x Diabolic Edict
2x Submerge
3x Disrupt
1x Improperly Worded Berserk

Originally, I had Disrupts in the Mana Drain slots because they’re cheaper and draw a card, even if they only counter a spell in limited situations. However, the few games I played against Stax showed that I didn’t want to have four dead cards between them and Misdirections, so they got cut in favor of the Drains, which are stronger.

It was the Stax and Fish matchup that kept me from using the red splash too. Even though Red Elemental Blasts are incredibly powerful additions to the sideboard, and even though Artifact Mutation and Fire & Ice are good, I didn’t want to end up rolling to Wastelands as I’ve seen happen so often. Plus, with Mana Crypt and some moxes, Energy Flux is an early, hopefully crippling play against Stax.

Like I said, I felt at the time and I still feel now that the deck I played was sufficiently powerful to succeed. It was my limited knowledge of the deck and its nuances that held me back. At the end of the day, though (to ruin a surprise), I was 1-1-1 against some very talented players.

Round one – Mark Biller – Control Slaver

Biller is a Michigan regular and a Control Slaver commando. I had heard his reputation before and seen him play a few hands, but we had never met face to face.

In game one, I opened on the play with a Brainstorm that did nothing too impressive. His turn one Library of Alexandria was way better, and he rode that card advantage to victory as my hand filtered through lots of draw and mana but no business that got used properly. Finally I got a Dryad on board, but it was too late. He took quick control of the game with a Thirst for Knowledge that I would have loved to counter, discarding Triskelavus to Weld in for blocking and machine-gunning fun.

A simple misplay on turn three cost me the game. I Merchant Scrolled for Force of Will on turn two (okay, it was a turn two misplay—sue me) to set up a Time Walk on turn three to four mana so I could play Dryad and follow up with Demonic Tutor with protection. Unfortunately I forgot to make the necessary land drop after attacking on turn three, thereby cutting off my own foot and throwing it in some nearby bushes to be gnawed at by squirrels.

This wasn’t even a “I don’t know how to play my deck” mistake; it was a “I don’t know how to play Magic” mistake.

Game one went long because I didn’t have the sense to scoop when I was in the throes of death, so game two was tight on time. When I opted to play first, he asked, “But what if I have Library again?”

“I guess I’ll just lose again. It’s okay. I’m just here to play Magic.”

I opened with Duress and took Demonic Tutor. I got Tog onto the table past a counter but had only Misdirection in hand when he shot it with REB in response to my Yawgmoth’s Will. Since I couldn’t Misdirect the REB without another blue permanent in play, I could counter the Force of Will he then aimed at Yawgmoth’s Will. I drew a bunch of cards and replayed Tog but left myself without a way to draw and play the Time Walk I Mystical Tutored to the top of my library. I passed. He passed, and I took the first two turns of the extra turns. On turn five, I had exactly enough cards between hand and graveyard to kill him.

I apologized for what I felt was my own slow play. I honestly could have had him at least one turn earlier had I played it correctly. He was cool about it, though, saying, “I’m just here to play Magic.”

0-0-1

Round 2 – Paul Nicolo – GATr

Nicolo is another player I know by name and reputation. He finished in the top eight at the Legacy Grand Prix in Columbus with UGR Threshold Gro and split the side event at the last RIW tournament with the deck he was playing again today. He consistently succeeds with well-constructed, well-metagamed aggro control.

In game one I played an early Dryad off of Lotus and hoped to Gush and Brainstorm into some protection for it, but found nothing. Dryad got Echoing Truthed to my hand after only a few damage. His Dryad fared much better thanks to Fastbond and grew to be quite large before I found anything to control it, and by then it was too late. My replayed Dryad sacrificed herself, and I died the next turn.

Game two was similar except that my draw spells were severely lacking. I managed to play Tog, but he Vamped for Ancestral and had REB for my Drain. Dryad hit play, bigger and better than ever and my hand of two lands wasn’t doing me any good at all. I topdecked Cunning Wish for Submerge that I thought would save me, but I neglected to check whether he had a Forest in play, so it was two more turns before I could cast it. By then he had multiple counters and a REB for my Tog, so Dryad ran me down and killed me.

I don’t remember what was keeping me from blocking with Tog earlier in that last game, but it must have been something because I know I thought about it.

Oh well. I know my opening hands were a little shaky, and I’m not sure I played the first one correctly. I should have broken Lotus for blue on turn one, game one and Brainstormed hopefully into a green source to play Dryad. In game two, I mulliganed a gassy hand that had Lotus as its only mana source, fearing that he might have a counter that would wreck me right there.

0-1-1

Round 3 – Patrick Chapin – Counterbalance Slaver?

I thought I’d round off my tournament with “The Innovator” Patrick Chapin. Apparently this was to be his first Vintage tournament since using Gro back in 2002, but still…

I played first in game one after rolling a five against his three. That was pretty much all it took. I played Lotus and Fastbond and comboed a little, getting a 6/6 Dryad into play. He played Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top (expect to see that combo a lot in the coming months) while I attacked and passed. He Merchant Scrolled for Echoing Truth and sent the Dryad back to my hand. I was able to replay my Dryad, and though my spells were being countered, it was large enough to finish the job after two swings.

I brought in three Disrupts and saw all of them within the first three turns.

He played land, go, and I matched him, Disrupting his Brainstorm at the end of my turn. He played land, Mox, go, and I Disrupted the resultant Thirst for Knowledge. He Merchant Scrolled for Ancestral and passed with mana up. I played Quirion Dryad and used Lotus to Merchant Scroll into my own Ancestral, drawing Duress. He Recalled in response to my Duress, but I Disrupted his Recall. I topdecked Yawgmoth’s Will on my next turn and he scooped.

1-1-1

At this point, I dropped to play in the side tournament. Had I realized that the side tournament was single elimination instead of the double elimination it was last time, though, I wouldn’t have. Either way, I have to win all the matches I play, and in the main tournament, I automatically get to play in three more matches.

Whatever. I played Belcher anyway.

Round 2 – Ben Perry – Belcher

Yeah, technically this was round two of the side tournament since with 17 players there was a one match playoff between Paul Kim and Anthony to make even brackets. That’s really crappy for them, but Anthony won, so I guess that’s good.

Oh yeah… the Belcher mirror. Better known as the Better Lucky than Good format. It wasn’t quite the mirror. Ben’s deck doesn’t have Street Wraiths or Serum Powders. It’s essentially the same as it was two months ago—Desperate Rituals, Empty the Warrens, and Regrowth. The only difference he could point out was that he was running Grim Monolith.

Game one, I mulliganed down to five and had first turn Belcher but no activation. He had first turn Belcher and activation, so I lost.

Game two, I mulliganed a lot again and passed my first turn with no plays. He played first turn Channel into Memory Jar (Double Kill!) with a red floating, then played Belcher (Head Shot!), then played Rite of Flame for Empty the Warrens (Domination!) and Empty the Warrens (God Like!). So yeah, 44 damage from the Belcher with 42 goblin tokens on board sounds pretty good.

Ben and I talked about the deck—like I said he hadn’t really had a chance to work on it.

He said he did try out Street Wraith, in place of the Desperate Rituals and Grim Monolith. He said they were never that good because they screwed up his mulligans. I said I could understand that. You can’t keep a hand that doesn’t have a win condition regardless, and if you want to draw into an accelerant, why not just run the accelerant.

The man makes a good point.

I talked to Jerry Yang about Belcher too. His issue was with the Serum Powders (as it has been for the past few months, actually). He says that since they’re all but uncastable they shouldn’t be in there. Drawing into them is terrible because you need every topdeck to be gas when you need to dig.

The man makes another good point.

Stax Master Nam Queue Tran ended up in the top four, along with three GAT of which he beat one and lost to another. (On the ride home Stephen Menendian cursed himself for not having a basic Island available to him in his Gro deck against Nam in the top eight). All in all the final rounds were made up of the three GAT, two five-color Stax, Counterbalance Slaver, UBr Long, and Gush Fish with Goyfs (somewhere between GAT and UG Fish, I think).

Congratulations to Nam, Stephen, and everyone else who placed! Michigan is always filled with tough competitors (look who I faced!), so any wins are always hard-earned.

Anyway, I’ll try to have more frequent updates upcoming.

Gush is really good. Play it or make sure you beat it.

That’s all I’ve got for now.