by Jake "the Professor" Meszaros
Dubbed the Professor by KYT, Jake Meszaros is a young high school kid looking to break through on the MTG tournament scene. His nickname is an ironic one as he exudes characteristics not seen in a methodical professor. He is one of the most nervous players that you will ever meet, but he is always looking to improve his game. One day, he hopes to live up to the name bestowed to him by KYT. Splitting first place of a 1k was step number one.
For the last few PTQs and 1ks, I’ve played everyone’s least favourite deck, Jund. However, at the PTQ during Canadian Nationals, I decided I would pilot anything but Jund just to play something different. After bashing my head against a wall looking for a list, I played a badly made Boros list with 3 Mountains, which led to me to put out a miserable 3-5 result. After failing like a boss, I was determined to find a list that suited my playing style. Since I used to play the old Boss Naya deck back in Worldwake, I figured Fauna Naya wouldn’t be too much different. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The deck has so many interactions that need to be memorised, which led me to flounder with it for the first 50-100 games tested on Magic Workstation. After spending a good week learning the interactions and attempting not to play like myself, I finally felt prepared to play the deck. After going 4-0 at the FNM at our local store, I felt confident going into the day.
On the way to the tournament, I realised that Pyromancer’s Ascension was a matchup I had barely tested as Michael Lambert, a member of the same team as me, told me he was probably going to play it. Mike felt that the matchup is incredible difficult for the Naya player as his Lightning Bolts eliminate the majority of my field, which paves the way for him to go off with Time Warp and eventually kill me. When I finally arrived to the tournament, I saw that the metagame was almost purely Blue/White Control and Ascension decks (there was actually more Ascension than U/W, is it just me of is that weird?). Seeing this, I made some modifications to my sideboard to suit the metagame. Here’s the list I played:
1 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Basilisk Collar
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Vengevine
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Realm Razer
1 Sun Titan
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Raging Ravine
4 Arid Mesa
2 Sejiri Steppe
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Evolving Wilds
2 Ancient Ziggurat
1 Sunpetal Grove
2 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
Sideboard
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Gaea’s Revenge
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3 Path to Exile
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Dauntless Escort
2 Qasali Pridemage
Ok, so before anyone asks why Gaea’s Revenge is in the sideboard, I’ll explain. First off, I’m a moron. Second, over the last few days I had been testing Terra Stomper as a 1 of for the U/W matchup. However, I realised how favourable the matchup is so I took it out and replaced it with Gaea’s Revenge for the Pyromancer’s Ascension matchup. Luckily, Alexander “Insayne” Hayne pointed out that by the time I could play him, I’ve either put him in a hole or I’m trapped in a seemingly endless Time Warp loop. Oh well, I guess I’m not an innovative genius, but if Gaea’s Revenge ever becomes tech against Ascension, that was me!
Enough with the talk about my lack of ability to tech, onto the rounds!
Round 1: Sebastien Alaire with Dredgevine
Since the field was so small, I knew I’d be playing good players throughout the tournament and seeing Sebastian on the other side of the table was not what I was hoping for, but nonetheless expected. Luckily for me though, game 1 didn’t last too long due to a Cunning Sparkmage/Basilisk Collar combo practically locking the game, with Realm Razer hitting the board to boot! Game two was the exact opposite, with 2 Vengevines and a Renegade Doppelganger hitting me for 12 on turn 4! Seeing that, I draw my card and we head to game three. Game three wasn’t very fun; I played consecutive Bloodbraid Elves and got enough Path to Exile to win the game.
As for sideboarding, I didn’t test this matchup at all so I kind of winged it. I believe I brought in 3 Path to Exile and 1 Linvala and took out Sun Titan, Realm Razer, and 2 other cards (not sure what).
1-0 in rounds, 2-1 in matches
Round 2: Jon Stern with Pyromancer’s Ascension
When I saw the name John Stern, I was sure I had seen it somewhere before, to which I realised later that he was an extremely high rated player who was playing a deck I apparently have a hard time beating. Game one forced me to make a tricky play which I never realised I could make, I have a 6/6 Knight of the Reliquary in play with a Noble Hierarch and he’s at 9. I draw my card and it’s not a Vengevine or a Bloodbraid Elf, which would have won me the game. My land base was 4 basics, a Sunpetal Grove, and a Tectonic Edge and he had no nonbasic lands. Since he was tapped out and could not bounce my Knight, he asks “can you get there?”. Hoping my play doesn’t suck, I tap my Sunpetal Grove and my Tectonic Edge and blow up the grove, giving me exactly enough power to swing for the win with the Knight.
Game two had a different spin to it, I mulled to 5 and drew no lands and was Time Warp looped to force a third game. Finally in game 3, I see the MVP of this matchup, Qasali Pridemage, through a cascade which brings back a Vengevine to lock the game. As there were 5 rounds, I knew I only needed one more win to advance to the top 8.
My sideboard plan is simple, remove Pyromancer’s Ascension. I brought in 2 Qasali Pridemage and 2 Oblivion Ring as well as a Gaea’s Revenge and Dauntless Escort and side out the Cunning Sparkmage package and a Sun Titan. However, this would be the last time that Gaea’s Revenge would see play for the day. In Montreal Canadiens terms, he was my Carey Price during this year’s playoff run.
2-0, 4-2 in matches
Round 3: Adrian Davidian with U/W Control
I looked the sheet and froze for a second, I really didn’t want to play this game. Throughout my tournaments, I have never beaten Adrian and at the last 1k, I lost to myself as I began to freak when I needed one more win to advance to top 8. Since then, Adrian has yelled at me for that blunder and I was sure it wouldn’t happen again. In the FNM the previous day, I told him that I felt the U/W matchup was a bye, so this was my chance to prove it. Game one was long and uninteresting with me drawing a Bloodbraid Elf late to seal the deal. However, I knew that Adrian’s sideboard had a lot of things to deal with my Vengevines (we discussed his list the night before).
Game 2 started very fast for me with a turn 1 Noble Hierarch and a turn 2 Fauna Shaman. The Shaman only untapped once, which still allowed me to discard a Vengvine and go get a Vengeliane (yeah, it’s a French Vengevine, how badass is that?). The turn 3 Vengeliane got through and was followed by a Bloodbraid the following turn, it was too much for Adrian to handle, he extended his hand and congratulated me for keeping my composure this time around. Finally, I had a top 8 appearance.
The Naya sideboard is full of nice goodies that can be useful versus the U/W matchup. I was fairly sure he was playing Journey to Nowhere just for this matchup, so Qasali Pridemage became a must, I brought in 2 Pridemage, 3 Path, 2 Oblivion Ring, and a Dauntless Escort while removing the Sparkmage package, a Realm Razer, a Birds of Paradise, and a Knight of the Reliquary
3-0, 6-2 in matches
Round 4: Alexander Hayne with a pen to sign the slip
This was the dialogue of my fourth round:
Hayne: “Hello Professor, I propose a draw.”
Me: “I accept.”
Hayne + Me: “YAY!”
Hayne: “Wow, that was extremely manly.”
We then proceeded to talk about the matchups and play EDH. The weirdest part about this round is that my DCI rating went up 4 points for a draw, hooray for Hayne’s high rating!
3-0-1, 6-2-2 in matches
Round 5: Étienne Ponton-Bouchard with yet another pen (I think this one was red though)
I had a dilemma in this round as a friend of mine was looking to grab the last spot, which meant if I draw I would eliminate a friend, damn ethical questions! Luckily, I saw that there was a match where they had to play it out and one person wouldn’t make it, so I signed the slip and played some more EDH. Unfortunately, this guy only got me 1 point for the draw (why couldn’t I draw Hayne again?).
At this point I figured some fresh air would do me some good, so I went outside and got some fresh air and put on my Ipod. Hopefully I’d take advantage of my top 8 and maybe make the final.
3-0-2, 6-2-4 in matches
Quarters: Sebastien Alaire with Dredgevine
When I saw that I was the first seed, I was sure I’d be playing my friend Mike Lambert. However, his tiebreakers were worse by 1% so I got to play Sebastien Alaire again, which I wasn’t too worried about. His two losses on the day were both to Naya and I knew I could beat him again if I keep my composure. Well, I didn’t keep my composure to say the least, but I’ll explain why at the end. Game one was exactly like game one in the Swiss, I lock with Collar/Sparkmage combo and beat face with two 10/10 Knight of the Reliquary in a marathon game that went for almost 40 minutes! The second game was also a long game which finally led to me having enough creatures to beat through his creatures with Path to Exile in hand. Alaire picked up his cards and wished me luck for the semis.
Semis: Jonathan Dery with Pyromancer’s Ascension
I thought I would be playing against Adrian Davidian again but he lost, meaning I would have to beat another Ascension deck. Game one was quite short; my opponent began to chain Time Warps and killed me with the Lightning Bolt. Game 2 I had a blazing start with turn 1 Noble and turn 2 Dauntless Escort to prevent the Pyroclasm from devastating my board on turn 3. I brought out more Vengevines and he didn’t have enough draw to pull it out. There was one thing that I wasn’t too fond of though. My opponent Preordained and tried to put a card from his hand on the bottom, claiming afterwards that he didn’t know the rule even though he had played Preordain many times before. Either way, we were off to game 3.
As I was shuffling my deck in between rounds, I realised that I had the majority of my team standing around me watching, which gave me some added confidence. Game three I stuck a Knight of the Reliquary that was already a 4/4 and I Sac an Evolving Wilds end of turn, to which my opponent attempts to Burst Lightning it, to which I thought that the ruling worked, but a bystander explained the ruling and it survived, which allowed me to go online with a giant Knight and a Vengevine and beat his face in for the win. With a sigh of relief, I had finally made a final (ha! It’s funny because it’s a bad pun). I was pretty sure I would split with my opponent but just in case I knew I had to be ready. Luckily, I saw my opponent wanted to split so we did, hooray for avoiding a headache!
Afterthoughts
Well, I learned a lot from this experience which I feel will benefit me in larger tournaments in the future. First off, I need to calm the hell down when I’m playing a big match. I guess the stress of my first top 8 really got to me and it showed in my plays, good thing I am “good at Magic” and can topdeck like a boss. However, I do feel I did come into the tournament a lot more prepared than usual and felt the plays I made were more educated than in previous tournaments. For those of you who care, the prize went towards Titans and Cobras mainly, maybe now I won’t have to borrow so many cards!
Props
Étienne Ponton-Bouchard and the rest of the top 8: Yay, we were half of the players there!
Julien Laterreur, Ivan Wong, Pierre Calvez, Matthew Poirier: Thanks for the cards, I’ll give them back eventually!
Team Chex: You guys are always there for moral support and playtesting, I couldn’t have done it without you (except maybe for KYT, that guy’s a traitor, stupid manadeprived…).
Nicholis Rahill: You were right; sometimes you do just find a list that suits you, thanks for all the insight buddy, I really appreciate all you’ve done to help my game.
Special Thanks
Adrian Davidian: After yelling at me for the errors and teaching me how to be a better player, I think it helped a lot. After the tournament when you explained some errors in both the mental and real life aspects of the game and that will really help me push my game to the next level, a huge thank you.
Well until next time,
Jake “Professor” Meszaros
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.
