I have to admit, I’m excited.
I haven’t been to a Star City event before, and this has been predicted to be the largest proxy event in the Midwest for at least a year.
Whew.
It’s going to be amazing.
Guaranteed.
But what to play?
The obvious answer is GAT. It’s the widely recognized “best deck” in the format, which means it’s not only very powerful but also fairly consistent. It can change roles quickly from combo to control to aggro and back again and it kills with the attack step. Sounds pretty good, right? Plus, I could use my own modification of running four Repeals and a Tendrils of Agony in place of one of the Quirion Dryads; it’s pretty good.
Unfortunately, GAT is the widely recognized “best deck” in the format. Some of the best players in Vintage will be playing the deck, including Stephen Menendian and (it’s been rumored) Rich Shay, who went one and two with the deck at GenCon. It’s not entirely unlikely that they’d do something similar here.
Not to mention that the people who aren’t playing GAT will surely be gunning for it—Stax, Magus of the Moon, Goblins, Ichorid, whatever.
This means that not only would I have to pilot GAT through all the hate successfully, but I’d then have to square off against some excellent Vintage players who are more practiced with the deck than I could be in week or two.
Ugh. I think I’ll go with what I know.
As such, I’ll be playing Fish—UW Moxie Fish to be exact.
3x Tundra
3x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Plains
2x Island
5x Moxen
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
4x Aven Mindcensor
4x Meddling Mage
4x Martyr of Frost
4x Ninja of the Deep Hours
3x Jotun Grunt
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
4x Stifle
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall
(As an aside, I’ve been doing a lot of testing with Nam Tran’s five-color Stax list this past week as the epitome of five-color Stax lists. It’s really good. Really, really good. I used to think I didn’t like Stax that much, but wow. Nice job, Nam! I look forward to meeting you in the top eight.)
Moxie Fish has so far proven to be competitive against most other decks. It even went three rounds against Goblins before drawing and at the end of the same tournament went on a 6-0 run.
With 20 creatures it can quickly overwhelm an opponent, especially backed by the mighty Jotun Grunt. While Aven Mindcensor and Meddling Mage hold the badguy down and Marty McFrost keeps watch, Jotun Grunt lays into the head and groin of the enemy with a vengeance. Vengeance for what, I’m not sure, but he’s real big and mad regardless. Oh, and I guess Ninja of the Deep Hours is, like, out getting beer or something. Everybody appreciates that.
I’m still unsure of some cards, but I won’t have a significant amount of time to test between now and Saturday morning. Here’s a quick list if you want to look it over and give me some suggestions.
1. Aether Vial – This came up earlier this afternoon since my cousin and I were discussing the new Vintage-viable hoser from Lorwyn, Gaddock Teeg:
Gaddock TeegThat guy’s pretty good, but he’s inconveniently colored, so it’s a fair cop to pair him with Vial in the disruptive, Fish-like creature decks he’ll no doubt appear.
WG
Creature – Kithkin Advisor
Noncreature spells with converted mana cost 4 or greater can’t be played.
Noncreature spells with X in their mana costs can’t be played.
2/2
Anyway, by including Vial, I can save my mana for disruption and digging. Unfortunately, to include at least three Vials, I’d likely have to cut some disruption and digging. Vial is a powerful card, but I’m not sure if it will make the cut.
2. Stifle vs. Spell Snare vs. Daze vs. something else – I’m not sure what the ideal backup to Force of Will is.
Stifle pairs up really well with Wastelands to keep the typical fetchland manabase in check along with countering lots of random stuff like Protean Hulk, Goblin tricks (Matron, Ringleader, etc.), Stax upkeeps, and Memory Jar.
Spell Snare, like Stifle, is a limited counter that happens to hit some of the more powerful spells in the format right now: Quirion Dryad, Merchant Scroll, Flash, fish creatures (like Tarmogoyf!) and, like, Sphere of Resistance I guess. It also knocks out some other random powerful cards like Demonic Tutor.
Daze is what Dave Feinstein of course recommended to me when I showed him my list from the RIW tournament. Daze is sometimes amazing, sometimes sucky. It would be a little better with full Moxes, but I’ve never been really impressed with it.
As far as “something else” goes, the door is wide open. There’s the split options of the above nominees plus some other cards like Echoing Truth and Misdirection. Or this could be the slot that Aether Vial takes.
I don’t know.
3. Martyr of Frost vs. Stormscape Apprentice – Believe me, I see the power of one-drops like Savannah Lions and Isamaru, but all they do is speed the clock a little bit. Marty and Stormy both help disrupt my opponent as well.
Marty McFrost is, effectively, like my Daze. He’s a backup counter that can swing for one or block in a pinch. I’ve been a big advocate of his power since he came out as a sometimes uncounterable counter and excellent Ninja skills.
Stormy is also a Ninja at times and has the added benefit of really slowing down a GAT offensive if he hits play and sticks around for a while. Plus, he’s an open source of damage if I find Mox Jet at the same time, which has happened, though rarely.
Probably neither wins me the game outright, but they’re solid and I’ll need four of at least one of them.
4. The sideboard – This is where things get really interesting… Here’s what I have now:
3x Kataki, War’s Wage
2x Waterfront Bouncer
2x Pithing Needle
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Control Magic
You might notice that there’s nothing in there in the way of graveyard hate—no Leylines, no Crypts, nothing. I will probably leave it that way. If I come across Ichorid, I will eat my loss and move on. The Bouncers, Needles and Explosives will help, but meh, nothing solid.
Also, something has to change, because I really don’t care for having that many two-ofs. I realize that Sword and Jitte are effectively a four-of against many decks, but I do bring them in separately at times. Sword might come in against Magus control, while Jitte generally comes in against Flash.
It’s rough. The sideboard needs work. It’s a priority despite having been listed last numerically.
Anyway, that’s it. Four issues going into the Power 9. I guess that makes 2.25 or something. We’ll find out.
If you’re interested in joining the Great Team Ohio Caravan, which will roll westward into the Hoosier State hellbent for Moxen, we’ll be meeting in Columbus at Thurman’s around 4 p.m. on Friday.
Thurman Café
183 Thurman Ave.
Columbus, OH 43206
The tournament itself starts Saturday morning at 10 a.m at the Indiana Convention Center. Registration starts at 9 and will cost you $30. It’s ten proxies, and like I said, it will be awesome.
Indiana Convention Center
100 S. Capitol Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46225
Yeah! I’ll see you there.
No comments:
Post a Comment