by Brendan Hurst (doesn’t that guy up there ever smile?)
Brendan Hurst here. I’ve been playing Magic casually for years, but didn’t start trying to win until last summer, right before M10. This is going to be a regular ol’ tournament report, so let’s get started. I apologize in advance for the 2500+ word count; you have been warned. I had been scrubbing with Turboland since a PTQ the weekend LSV was winning with it, and now, after two PTQs and two more weeks of experience, I was hoping to turn it into a victory here in Philadelphia.
The Deck:
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Oracle of Mul-Daya
4 Time Warp
2 Ponder
2 Mind Spring
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Khalni
Garden
4 Halimar Depths
3 Tectonic Edge
5 Forest
5 Island
The Sideboard:
3 Roil Elemental
3 Deprive
1 Mind Spring
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
3 Narcolepsy
2 All is Dust
2 Fog
The land count might not be perfect – I cut a Tec Edge for another basic as I was tired of being in a late game and being unable to fetch. Tectonic Edge is pretty amazing, however.
The sideboard was mostly taken from a friend who borrowed the deck for the FNM the night before. The maindeck is really tight, and it’s usually hard to sideboard in good things without diluting your combo ability. I’m pretty sure this isn’t totally correct, so I won’t have exact sideboarding notes. Roil Elemental is insane versus Mythic, as it forces them to leave in otherwise pretty terrible cards in the matchup. Deprive is great against control, and lets you vomit your hand early in the game without worrying about losing everything to a turn 4/5 wrath. It also stops them from fogging with Gideon, etc. The extra Mind Spring is basically just for Blightning, and could probably be another Sphinx or something. Sphinx is incredible against Jund, and sometimes good versus UW. Narcolepsy is also great, and can be multiple Time Walks against some Jund draws. All is Dust is also for Mythic and sometimes Planeswalkers, as against Mythic you want 7 mana to mean Roil + fetch, or wipe the board, and not just make some 0/1’s. The Fogs are to try and make your unwinnable matchups (RDW) more winnable.
I got to the tournament site early, and lots of people from the local (Redcap’s Corner) crew were already there, probably 15 or so in total. No matter what happened today, we would have people to talk to. We were all excited that Jacob, who had just started playing in big Standard events, had decided to pick up Dredgevine on a lark, as that deck is always exciting to watch.
Round 1 – Joseph with Jund
G1 – I keep an okay hand, and a turn 1 Halimar Depths reveals the nuts. I have Cobra + Oracle that he doesn't kill, so I let him Leech himself down to 14, and then attack for 4, Time Warp, attack for 4, Cobra, Time Warp, attack for 6.
G2 – He has removal this game, and he stops me from stabilizing by adding a 3rd Leech. I pick up my first Game Play Error of the season for Failure to Maintain Game State when my opponent taps Verdant Catacombs for mana for Bloodbraid Elf.
G3 – He removes my threats, and I Narcolepsy his Leech. I go to 2 cards in hand, and pray for no Blightning. Instead, he Duresses me, seeing Time Warp and Narcolepsy. He takes the Time Warp. I don’t have a lot of pressure on the board, so Time Warp is just a cantrip whereas Narcolepsy gains me lots of life, so I assume he has Pulse in hand and wants to blow me out. He Bloodbraids into Duress anyway to take my Narcolepsy, but I get out both Sphinx and Avenger + fetch land. He Pulses…my Avenger, so I fetch in response, making eight 2/3s. He then attacks into them with a second Leech and a Bloodbraid, reads the Avenger in my graveyard, and concedes. I’m not sure what happened here- there are so many optional triggers with this deck, and I’m very careful to announce every single one, and use actual token cards and dice to make sure there is no confusion.
Round 2 – Inigo with UW
G1 – He correctly realizes he’s the beatdown and Elspeths me to death.
G2 – I Sphinx him out…eventually.
G3 – I lament not calling a judge to watch our match for slow play earlier, as there are less than 10 minutes left in the round. Luckily, I get a pretty aggressive draw and slowly set up a plan to win in extra turns. Unluckily, I’m just terrible, and ignored my own plan. I don’t fetch away known bad cards on top when I Tec Edge his Colonnade, still don’t fetch when he tries to Wrath my tokens, I Deprive, and he plays Gideon to force me to attack him. I still don’t fetch, don’t brainstorm with Jace on turn 4 of extra turns, and basically throw away my only out of digging for Time Warp to take turns 4 and 5 to kill Gideon and then his controller.
What was I thinking? For some reason, I was thinking extra turns was an outside-the-game thing, and that Time Warp wouldn’t give me extra turn #5. Just terrible.
Draw bracket ho!
Round 3 – Sean with Monowhite…control?
(An aside: when shuffling, Sean flashes me a Day of Judgement. And by flashes me, I mean he starts shuffling with the bottom of his deck facing me. Learn how to shuffle so that neither you nor I can see your cards! If I’m casually watching your shuffle to make sure you’re not doing anything shady, I should not be able to see what your cards are.)
G1 – I keep a good hand versus UW control, and he plays a turn 1 Student of Warfare. Uh oh. Then he plays a turn 2 Dread Statuary and attacks for 1 before making a Chalice for 1. Whew, he is in fact playing an interesting Monowhite Control list, and Student is just an efficient body. Now that I know his deck is an incoherent mess, I feel better, but resolve to play tight, as whatever his deck does it probably was the deck that caused him to end up here. This matchup is pretty easy, as life totals in excess of thirty don’t really matter, and post board he’s like a UW deck without counterspells to actually interact.
G2 – He once again plays turn 1 Student into turn 2 colorless land, attack for 1. However, he gets a turn 3 Elspeth and the race starts to get interesting. I use Tectonic Edge and Jace to keep creatures off the board to not die to Elspeth pumps, and eventually piece together Avenger + Time Warp.
Round 4 – Bryan with Jund
G1 – He keeps a speculative hand that loses to double Tec Edge. I have double Tec Edge.
G2 – He mulls to five, and has 3 basic lands into Thrinax. I Narcolepsy his Thrinax, and pray that he spends the next two turns Blightninging me, as he has no pressure at all and I’m way ahead on board and in hand. He does, so I just draw Avenger and kill him. The great thing about Turboland is that Jund can’t stumble and hope to just get back in the game off of cascades most of the time.
Round 5 – Josh with Jund
Nothing interesting happened this match. The first game was good back and forth, and then I went runner runner on Time Warps to attack with Avenger 4 times in a row.
Round 6 – Stephen with UW
G1 – He mulls to 6, plays Plains, Plains, and concedes when I go to Jace him. At this point, it’s obvious what I’m playing, and I have no idea what he is. I remembered seeing a Boros deck at the top tables the round before, and realistically Stephen is either that or UW. I sideboard into my anti-aggro package, my thought being if he is Boros, I need two sideboarded games to beat him, and if he was actually UW, I only need game 3.
G2 – Turn 1 UW Borderpost. Still had all these Fogs.
G3 – He taps out, threatening Day of Judgment next turn. When he gets his turn back, I have Avenger in play and Deprive mana up.
Round 7 – Jacob with Dredgevine
ID. At this point, Jacob is X-0, and I am X-0-1, so if we ID, he is a Top 8 lock and I have to play out my last round. If we play it out and I lose, he’s still a lock but I’m out, and if he concedes to me or loses, he has to play his last round. I might still miss Top 8 on tiebreaks if we ID, but I’m willing to take that chance to lock him into Top 8 and get some sweet, sweet pastrami before the last swiss round.
Round 8 – Alexander with Mythic
I have 17 points, and he has 16, so I explain that most likely he has no shot to Top 8 whereas I do, and ask him to concede. He says he wants to play it out, as is his prerogative. I had already mentally prepared for playing this one out, so I don’t really mind. Hopefully he’s playing a good matchup…
G1 – He turn 3’s me on the draw. Ow. I actually have a chance of getting back in this game, where I have to piece together a turn 4 that finds me a Time Warp with enough mana in my pool to play it. I’m pretty sure I sequenced some Cobras and Explores wrong here, and end up with 4 in my pool and a Time Warp in hand.
G2 – I play an early Roil Elemental, steal all of his mana creatures, and Tec Edge all of his non-green sources. He sideboards some removal back in.
G3 – I survive to Roil Elemental off the back of using Jace as a Stone Rain. In this matchup, the important thing is always respecting how much mana Mythic can make each turn. Can they hardcast Conscription? Can they play both Sovereigns and another exalted creature to kill you exactly if you fetch? Thanks to Jace, he couldn’t, and I eventually Roil all his creatures and kill him.
At this point, I’m ecstatic! I’m pretty sure I’m in my first Top 8, and I had to beat one of my worst matchups to get there, after being nut drawn in game 1! I have enough time after the round to refocus, and get ready for the next three rounds. And…8th place! I’m in!
Top 8 – I know there is at least one Mythic, one Red, one Dredgevine (Jacob), one Jund, and one Planeswalkers in this Top 8…my dream of course would be Planeswalkers crushing RDW out of the quarters.
Quarterfinals – Josh with Planeswalkers
I'm starting to feel the fatigue from playing all day, and I Ponder on turn 2 and then fail to draw a card, as I also had Halimar Depths in hand and was thinking I had played it. Game Rule Violation ahoy.
Nothing very interesting happens this match, as it's ridiculously favorable for Turboland. I’m a little sad that he’s not on the other side of the bracket, though. I focus on what I’m doing right now, and it's on to the Semis.
Across the bracket, Jacob's Dredgevine gets paired up against Monored, to expected fiery results. I'm almost positive now that I will have to face Monored in the finals. But first, I have to get through the semis, and what I am pretty sure is Mythic.
Semifinals – Chris with Mythic
G1- I get a fast Lotus Cobra draw, he plays out 3(!) Lotus Cobras of his own and vomits guys onto the table. I use Jace to stall the Cobras, and I learn after the match that I was preventing him from hardcasting Conscription for several turns. It's not enough, however, and I die to many 3/3's attacking me.
G2- I keep a hand with what I think is a fantastic plan- infinite ramp and an All is Dust. He mulligans, and plays a tap land turn 1. I'm actively hoping he turn 4's me, as it would require him to dump everything into play, and I could All is Dust with six lands and two Roil Elementals in hand to his three lands no cards post-All is Dust. I wouldn't mind being at five to have that happen, as I can draw much better out of it. Instead, I don’t see my 'fourth' land, and by turn four, I need to draw any untapped land, or Explore into fetch, or Time Warp get up to All is Dust mana, as he actually does T4 me. I draw an Oracle, and that's game, match, and tournament.
Chris goes on to have to fight Monored in the finals, and the little red men get there.
I immediately canvass the room for anyone who will trade a Jace for my unopened box, and manage to get someone to trade 2 Vengevines for it. He proceeds to crack all of the packs- I’m actively hoping I get justiced by a foil Gideon or something, as I still think it was the correct EV play to make, but he only opens a Vengevine and dollar rares.
Tired from a day of Magic, a group of us decides to go unwind by Cubing, where I learn that the Reanimator cards in that particular Cube are a trap, as I draft the best possible Reanimator/Tinker deck and don’t win a game. I had fun going all in on turn 3 Sundering Titan, regardless.
My season is basically over, as almost every PTQ on the East Coast is on the same weekend in July, and I have a family commitment that weekend. Good luck to everyone else, and I guess I’ll see you next season!
Props:
Paper – For letting me take notes so I could reconstruct this tournament after the fact.
Lucas, Mike, Gil – For lending me about half my deck over the past month.
Jacob – For almost getting there with Dredgevine; you run so hot sometimes.
Reading Terminal – For so much meat on my sandwich I had to give the last of it to someone else.
Redcap’s Corner – For being a great store full of great people. I’m going to miss it when I move to DC.
Slops:
Most of my opponents – I feel like I was making 2-3 misplays that I
noticed on average per game, and many of my opponents managed to still
play worse.
One of my opponents – For dreamcrushing and then dropping
against one of my friends at Nats Qualifiers two years in a row. I had
to defeat you for great justice.
Myself – For bringing my lifetime
record in team cube drafts to something like 7-X, for arbitrarily large
X, and for not being smart enough for my deck when it counts.
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.
