Standard

Summer of (Swinging for) 69

Ah release week. There’s really nothing like it. People scramble for cards and tech, all hoping to trump the completely unknown local meta and come out on top. With such a sweet FNM promo this month ([card]Forbidden Alchemy[/card] for the record), there’s an added incentive to do well. You might think that a brewer would have a natural advantage in this sort of environment, as we have experience in coming up with our own tech, but you’d probably be wrong. Brewers are at their best (normally) when they have a known meta to attack. What on earth am I going to play?

Weapon Selection

I was at a loss. I wasn’t buying a box of M13, the first set since my return to the game that I would make that assertion. It’s not because there are no good cards in it, but financially it isn’t worth it to me right now. With the amount of drafting I do and the fairly regular prizes I win, I should be able to get what I need. However, that’s likely to mean that my next couple of weeks of Standard will be challenging, to say the least.

I had the [card]Clock of Omens[/card] and [card]Chronomaton[/card]s to add to Unwinding Tezzeret, but I wasn’t really in the mood to troll people. Then Marshall from Limited Resources posted this screenshot:

Was that TWO [card]Soul of the Harvest[/card] I saw? AND Primetime? And and…[card]Somberwald Sage[/card]??? SOLD. I asked Marshall where he got the list, and he referred me to Travis Woo, the progenitor of [card]Living End[/card] and a noted brewer. I asked him for the list and he directed me to his article with the list. I read through the article and found the combo-aggro nature of the main deck to be very appealing. Then he asked the question I was asking: What about Bonfire? What about sweepers? My meta is often full of both. Then he introduced the sideboard tech.

Mind: blown. That’s…yeah. That’s a card. Mark had been gushing (and I mean Cytherea-level gushing [Editor note: Googling that is NSFW]) over Elves all week. I suggested [card]Fresh Meat[/card] to him as a hedge against Bonfire. Grime doesn’t have the “EOT ruin your life” factor that Meat has, but it makes bigger dudes and either gives them dead cards in hand or makes them have to spend two removal spells to sweep your board. That gives you more time to refill your hand.

For the first time in I don’t know how long, I was taking someone’s exact 75 to FNM. What on earth was going on here? Wait, I can’t track down a third [card]Thragtusk[/card], and I don’t like the [card]Gut Shot[/card]s in the board. OK, let’s try this:

[deck title=Green Summer, Lansdelled]
[Land]
15 Forest
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Gavony Township
[/Land]
[Creatures]
4 Arbor Elf
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Palladium Myr
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Somberwald Sage
4 Soul of the Harvest
1 Primeval Titan
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
2 Gavony Township
2 Thragtusk
2 Plummet
1 Acidic Slime
3 Gutter Grime
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Rancor
1 Sword of War and Peace
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

I wasn’t too concerned about Delver so [card]Plummet[/card] seemed like plenty of flying hate. I knew at least one person would be on Infect so I added a second Melira, and [card]Rancor[/card] would allow me to race heavy counter decks. Hopefully.

How Did I Do?

There was a real buzz at Midgard. Lots of players who hadn’t been to FNM before, which is always heartwarming. A returning player (Paul) had bought a case of M13 and had quite the assortment of mythics. He was putting together Mono-black Control, which seemed like something I would enjoy, but he had [card]Demonic Rising[/card]. That would become the basis for a steak dinner bet that I don’t believe went to well for Paul: he had to win a game off the back of the enchantment.

[card]Thragtusk[/card]s were in high demand, and a cursory glance around the room revealed several players on aggro strategies. Well at least we would have some fast rounds! I always like to help set up the tables before the event starts, but not out of any particular altruistic sentiment. I prefer to have a fixed seat all night, and as I’m the judge at the store I like it to be somewhere that allows me to get to any match in the least time. I established my spot for the evening and chatted it up with some of the crew. Freshly-married Steve was around, and after congratulating him I said we’d end up paired in round one. Pairings went up, and I was right! Spooky. Oh, re-pair?

Round 1 – Alex Martin with UB Mill

I had seen Alex at the other store in town, but since I don’t go there any more I had no idea what his skill level was like now or what he would be running. When he went turn one Island, [card]Dream Twist[/card] I entirely dismissed anything he was going to do. He had no idea what my deck was about to do to him, and when Craterhoof came down on turn four and smashed his face I didn’t even bother sideboarding.

Arrogance in a match of Magic is a dangerous thing, and also something from which I rarely suffer. I knew he was on UB mill but I had no board for that, and in my mind I didn’t think it was worth figuring out what he could be playing. That is always a mistake. I also decided that because he was young he was also bad, which is less often a mistake but still stupid. Always take the time to think. I didn’t, and in game two I got demolished when he slowed down his play and blew me out with [card]Mana Leak[/card] and [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card]…three times. [card]Mindshrieker[/card] finished me off, and I was left worrying. Zenith hoses me, so in came the [card]Gutter Grime[/card]s. I also knew I had to be more conservative with my threats. I’m still mad that I didn’t bring in Melira for game three, she completely hoses Zenith.

Game three was a grind. He landed a Jace at 12 life, when I had an Archdruid and an [card]Arbor Elf[/card] in play, I was holding back a Zenith to reload, and when I took him down to eight I considered using it to get the second Archdruid. Then I remembered a lesson Alex Hayne taught me: think clock. Getting a second Archdruid even pre-combat did nothing to increase the clock on him, as it would still take another attack to kill him. On the other hand if he rips a Zenith, I have a way to reload immediately. He drew nothing and I managed to get there. Totally didn’t deserve it.

I gave Alex some tips after the game: play [card]Dream Twist[/card] end of turn, think about how you can win a game and play as if you will draw it and so on. He was very receptive, which I love to see. I don’t know everything but what little I know, I share. When people are willing and able to take it, it makes the effort that much more enjoyable.

Round 2 – Jon Finn with UW Miracle Control

Oh joy, freaking Finn again. I still have a losing record against the guy, and I was expecting Delver. Mainly because Finn always plays Delver. Except tonight apparently, as he was on a control-ish UW build that just hosed me. Since Rise of the Eldrazi, one of the biggest deterrents to playing aggro has been the combination of [card]Gideon Jura[/card] and [card]Day of Judgment[/card]. Either you hold back threats making Gideon much better or you extend to kill Gideon and get abused by Day. This is what happened to me in game one after I got him to single digits, and I couldn’t get a big threat through his countermagic. Ever since I beat him a couple of weeks ago with Craterhoof dancing on his face, the card has given Finn nightmares. Well, that and [card]Banners Raised[/card] (which owned him in a draft). Every play he made in game one revolved around making sure I couldn’t resolve Behemoth, which would have been funny if I wasn’t sitting on one!

I knew in game two I needed [card]Thragtusk[/card]s and [card]Gutter Grime[/card]s, but I’m pretty sure I messed up by siding out the Behemoths. I figured he would sit on a counter waiting for it, which would allow me to resolve other things. I probably next-levelled myself in trying to next-level him, but I never saw a single sideboard card and lost handily in game two. Losing so early is never good, though it is somewhat mitigated somewhat in a six-round FNM.

I had been beaten fairly quickly so I looked around the room. Both Shug and Ludwig were on Goblins, which is not a shock for Sugar Shane but was for Ludwig. Goblins…with [card]Rancor[/card]. Yes sir. The room was saturated with aggro, from Elves to Goblins to a [card]Sublime Archangel[/card] build that looked terrifying.

Round 3 – Ryan Caines with BW Control

I think this might just be a terrible matchup for him. Ryan is fairly new to Midgard but clearly knows what he is doing and had a pretty sweet build. Unfortunately, he never had the removal he needed and he got ‘hoofed pretty hard in game one. Game two I found the one-of [card]Primeval Titan[/card] and had to think hard about which lands to search up. Clearly at least one of the lands should be [card]Gavony Township[/card], but with only one Razorverge in play did I also get the second and risk getting a Thicket when I needed a topdecked land?

As it turned out, I didn’t need them. [card]Soul of the Harvest[/card], which did a ton of work all night and drew SO MANY cards, joined his Primeval brother for some tramplicious beatdown to put me back above 50% at 2-1.

Draws cards, smashes faces, slices, dices

Round 4 – Kyle Allen with RUGPod

Kyle’s a funny dude. I played him at the M13 prerelease when he opened two [card]Silklash Spider[/card] along with a [card]Sentinel Spider[/card] AND a [card]Deadly Recluse[/card]…and still lost to me. He ended up scooping in one game with me at 92 life and gaining about 15 net a turn despite being hit for 17. I do so love [card]Rhox Faithmender[/card]. However it did cause me to christen him Spider-Man, and so shall he be known in perpetuity.

Kyle came out swinging in game one with a Huntmaster on turn three and a [card]Thragtusk[/card] on turn four. Not a bad start, but my turn four involved a Craterhoof and a swing for 21. If I do play this deck again, it will be because of things like that. If they can’t disrupt your start, you do ridiculously unfair things before they can have any sort of answer to said unfair things.

That being said, it’s very hard to do unfair things on a four-card hand. My seven-carder was decent, with two Archdruids but no one-drop. I didn’t want to risk it so I shipped it back. I come firmly down on the side of “never check the top of your deck after a mulligan” but for some reason I did this time and my first two draws were Llanowar and [card]Arbor Elf[/card]. It was still probably correct to mulligan but it kinda stung a little when I went down to four cards. Never stood a chance.

In game three I finally got the [card]Gutter Grime[/card] tech in play, and the Shatter-pause was glorious. Kyle picked it up, read it, picked his jaw up off the table, shook his head and put it back down again. I decided to go for the sick rub-ins and every draw step I would ask “Bonfire for four? You drew Bonfire right? Why not Bonfire?” With my team safe I knew I could dump dudes on the board with reckless abandon, and when I finally found a Zenith and went to find my Behemoth, the attack was for something approaching 60. That’s game boys!

It was about this time that the snacks arrived: bacon cheesecake brownies courtesy of Roxanna, wife of the TO/store owner. As if playing Magic in a store with a dozen gaming PCs wasn’t enough. The fact that an ice cream parlour AND a Tim’s are a three minute walk away and we also get bacon baked goods on a semi-regular basis just pushes thing over the top.

Round 5 – Flemming Hansen with Human Reanimator

Aww man, now I have to crush her husband? Flemming is the store owner and hadn’t played a Magic tournament until about two months ago. To say he has improved would be a massive understatement, but of course he’s still learning. He built the [card]Angel of Glory’s Rise[/card] Reanimator deck from the Pro Tour, tweaked for Standard, and it has been doing fairly well. I didn’t really know how the match would play out but I couldn’t interact with his game plan, so race mode was engaged.

Of course when you can attack through two creatures on turn five to take him down to one, racing isn’t exactly hard. [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card] is probably fairly costed at eight mana but when you can reliably cast him on turn four with no disruption there is absolutely nothing fair about him. You have 16 one-drop accelerators and 12  three drops. Chances of a six-drop on turn three are very high, and from there an eight drop isn’t far off. Your sixes either draw you stupid amounts of cards or get you [card]Gavony Township[/card] and make you even more dangerous.

In game two I got flooded, and Flemming showed how much he had improved by essentially skipping his turn to flip Huntmaster and take out an Archdruid. A couple of weeks ago he would have missed that play, as a lot of new players would. I wasn’t coming back from a transformed Huntmaster, as any amount of pressure would flip it back and then he just had to pass the turn again to set me right back to square one. Game three it is then!

Until now I had not been able to get much use out of [card]Gavony Township[/card]. This game was a strange one, as I ended up with a lot of guys pout and Gavony likely being lethal if I attacked correctly. It was after 10:30 though, and I had been in a training course all day, so I just Zenithed up a Behemoth and crushed. It wasn’t until after the match that I remembered: Flemming runs [card]Blasphemous Act[/card] and could have blown me out at any time had he found it. Lucky Lansdell is lucky.

Round 6 – Josh Blanchard with NayaPod

Due to some people dropping the breakers were all messed up. We had one undefeated player going to round six, and five others at 4-1. My breakers were the worst of the lot but with a win in the last round I would be guaranteed at least third. Blanchard is a member of the Ingram-Crocker-Blair-Blanchard team and is pretty damn good. Last time I remember playing him, I was on TurboFog and he was on Zombies. I had him dead, and thought his only out was to draw a [card]Diregraf Captain[/card]. Except he also had [card]Zombie Apocalypse[/card] and blew me out. I still say it’s not a card.

I wish I could say this was a good or a close match. It wasn’t. Game one he got the Bonfire when he needed it, and game two despite landing the [card]Gutter Grime[/card] I got trampled by beef. People complain about Delver and how it’s boring and annoying to play against, but I hate Naya now more than I ever hated Delver. There’s no variety in the lists and for some illogical reason I just detest it. It’s weak to [card]Massacre Wurm[/card], maybe I need to play something with those guys again…

What Did I Learn?

Once a combo player, always a combo player. This deck reminded me of that.

Ramp strategies have been the story of Standard for almost a full year, along with Delver of course. We have never had access to this much crazy ramp. Well not since Academy, anyway. Any deck that accelerates into the crazy high-end we have right now is going to be a legitimate threat.

Never underestimate your opponent or their deck.

[card]Somberwald Sage[/card] is either incredible or awful. If he was an elf, he’d be amazing. As it is he helps accelerate you as long as you have the creature in hand. He can’t attack without a Craterhoof encouraging him either.

I never needed Gavony. Maybe red for Bonfire and Kessig would have been a better plan?

What’s On Deck?

I wish I knew. The format is still being defined, but I know I have to be able to beat insanely fast aggro as well as mono-black and BW Control. Naya isn’t going anywhere either. Something with [card]Mirran Crusader[/card] seems pretty appealing right now, so maybe I should look down that alley. I think that I need another combo deck soon, and I really want to play mill. Yes, I know I’m awful.

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