by Dan Kramer

Dan Kramer went into GP Toronto looking to make some noise.  He succesfully made Day 2, but after a bad beat and a dismal 2nd draft, he came home with nothing.  Well, almost nothing.  During the first draft, he discovered a new SOM draft archetype (RG Infect) that he thinks everyone should be opening their minds to.

This isn’t exactly the article I was hoping to be writing the week following Grand Prix Toronto.  But the good news is, one of Ontario’s own, Jon Smithers, took down the whole thing.  Congratulations to Jon for keeping the Grand Prix title on Canadian soil through a weekend of strong Magic.  Coming off Top 4 losses in both a Magic Online PTQ and the last PTQ in Montreal, Jon finally secured his spot for Pro Tour Paris in style.  Well deserved.

Since Jon took care of the winning, I was freed up to do some… well… losing.  My finish at the Grand Prix was certainly disappointing, so without getting into a detailed tournament report, let me take you through it.  The focus of the article will be on the underpublicized draft archetype I wound up with in my first Sunday pod.

But to begin, flashback to Grand Prix Friday.  I drove out to Toronto in a car with the #1 Constructed Player in the World (friend of ManaDeprived.com and back-to-back Canadian National Champion, Jay Elarar) and Grand Prix New Jersey 2006 Champion Guillaume Cardin (who unfortunately doesn’t have as much time for the game due to work commitments).  Jay being #1 in the World would go on to be one of the running gags over the weekend as he is somewhat embarrassed about the fact.  Come on Jay…  you should be proud!

Arriving at the site, we were immersed in my favourite part of attending large events: seeing the whole Magic community together at once.  Playing in tournaments on a regular basis means meeting a lot of people from all over the country (and even the world!), and since man has yet to master teleportation, though you can keep in touch, you only get to see each other once in a while.  So the chit-chatting, sealed pool building, drafting, and general chilling commenced, and we met up with our other roommates Dan Lanthier and Jon Stern to head over to our hotel.  There, Kyle Duncan (of 60-man GPT winning fame) and myself hopped into separate Magic Online 8-4 queues, with me opening a Masticore (how lucky!) and winning the draft without ever drawing it.

I don’t know how many of you have ever had a guy ask you to take off his shirt.  If this is your kind of thing, then great, but even though my girlfriend sometimes doubts it (“no straight guy is THAT perfect,” haha), it isn’t mine.  However, when the #1 Constructed Player in the World makes that request of you, the chain of command indicates you can’t turn him down.  With Jay suffering from a painful separated shoulder, I assisted him with bed preparation, before turning in for the evening.

A night of reasonable sleep behind us, we were woken to the booming sound of “… Join me in the middle of ecstasy!”  Thinking Chris Brown’s Forever was actually someone in the room’s cell phone alarm had me nearly in tears, while Jay and Dan were quick to assure me it was the hotel room clock radio that just happened to kick in right at the start of said lyric.  Apparently they hit Snooze instead of Off as some 10 minutes later, we were delighted with “Said I’m tryin’ get your clothes off” from Usher’s Hot Tottie.  What a perfectly appropriate way to begin a day of card-tapping!

My sealed pool was reasonable at best.  A good mix of blue and white flyers with 3 on-coloured Myrs, but lacking any bombs.  The only rare in the deck was Indomitable Archangel, but she was “just” a 4/4 flyer for 4.  It would be a challenge to Day 2 with the pile, but fortunately I had 3 byes to help me out at the start of my day.  What disappointed me a little was not keeping the sealed pool I had in my hands right before the final pass of the deck swap.  Amongst the most broken pools I’d seen on the day, it was monowhite splashing Shatter, Arc Trail, and Galvanic Blast, and featuring Elspeth, Wurmcoil Engine, and Strata Scythe as bombs.  The white cards included 2 Glint Hawk, 2 Glint Hawk Idol, 2 Kemba’s Skyguard, 2 Myrsmith, Glimmerpoint Stag, Razor Hippogriff, and more.  Fortunately, the player piloting it showed signs of inexperience, and ended up making questionable decisions such as running not one, not two, but THREE copies of Strider Harness.

Losing two of my first three matches, I really wanted to drop at 4-2, notably because of just how demoralizing the losses had been.  It felt like my team was getting Plague Winded every single turn in all games, first by combination of Contagion Engine and a pair of Trygon of Corruptions, and then by my opponent following up an early Arc Trail with a mid-game Cerebral Eruption that hit for 4 and 5 respectively in both contests.

But I didn’t drop.  Mostly, honestly, because I knew that Jay would be angered with me for dropping while I could still get there.  And get there I did, 4-0ing the remainder of the day and thus moving on to Sunday’s play with an 8-2 record, still in contention. 

As a note here, Wizards really must change the timing structure of Grand Prix.  With huge turnouts at most events (Toronto nearly hit 1,400 players), Grand Prix Saturday runs much too late.  Finishing play at about 12:30 meant only eight and a half hours till we sat down to draft Sunday morning.  Since Grand Prix are so much about the social aspect to me, it was unfortunate not having more evening time to hang out with friends.  I would recommend imposing a Saturday start time at 8:30 AM.  I realize many players can’t register till that morning, but if they really want to play, they should be willing to get up early. 

Sunday, Sunday… not so good to me.  But let’s get into the meat and discuss this unorthodox first deck I drafted.

It was rather commonly held coming into the event that GB Poison was the best archetype.  That presented a risk, however, as an 8-man draft could generally only support 2 reasonable copies of such a deck.  Thus, it was my strategy to look for it to be open, or to settle into white-based Metalcraft if it was not.

The first booster I cracked delivered a Spikeshot Elder to my pile, followed up by a Revoke Existance.  “Ok, no problem,” I thought.  “Red-White.  I like RW.”  Then the third booster showed me a Corpse Cur, and my mind began doubting.  Keeping my options open, I watched as the White dried up, but a Tel-Jilad Fallen, Ichorclaw Myr, and Trygon of Rage joined the ranks.  With packs containing few Black Infect cards, a lightbulb switched on late in the first booster when I saw a Vulshok Heartstoker.  Maybe I could run that Spikeshot Elder after all.  And so, Green-Red Infect was born.

Here was the deck I ended up drafting:

4 Ichorclaw Myr
3 Vulshok Heartstoker
2 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Tangle Angler
1 Blight Mamba
1 Corpse Cur
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Bloodshot Trainee
1 Copper Myr
1 Embersmith
1 Oxida Scrapmelter

1 Trygon of Rage
1 Strider Harness
1 Arc Trail
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Mimic Vat
1 Cerebral Euroption

17 lands

Looking at this list, you can see I got a little lucky with some of the cards opened, but then there are a number of key archetype cards that I was not fortunate enough to draft as well (e.g. Cystbearer, Untamed Might, Carrion Call, Darksteel Axe, Trigon of Infestation).  The fact of the matter is, there are SO MANY cards you want in your deck due to the archetype’s depth that you’ll find stuff you can play in many boosters.  The good thing is the cards this archetype wants are mostly all very powerful in it.

Despite all the Infect cards being Green or Artifacts, there are a lot of synergies with them in Red as well.  Like the poisonous men, Spikeshot Elder and Bloodshot Trainee love to see their power boosted.  The Red Trygon is always good in Infect decks, but being able to use it more than three times if needed gives you extra value.

And then there’s the removal package.  Infect creatures like to connect with players, and red has the most removal in the format.  Seems like a natural fit.  It can also give you an edge in the Poison mirrors if you end up with cards like Arc Trail and Embersmith to take out the large amount of one toughness dudes that characterize the deck type. 

There is also one strong card I didn’t end up with in Panic Spellbomb that can greatly help getting in the last few points.  Given that you may end up with more non-Infect guys than in GB and don’t benefit from Tainted Strike, Grafted Exoskeleton becomes a valued addition to your pile as well.

The Heartstoker is a key card to the synergies in the archetype, but don’t take him too early.  He is oft-overlooked by other Red players, so you should be able to snap some up later on.

The archetype was a lot of fun to play, so I do recommend trying it out. 

How did the deck end up faring in my hands?  Well, at 2-0 (10-2 on the tournament), my record went south following a game 3 bad beat.  With me having complete board control and a decent clock, my opponent ripped his Skithiryx followed by his sixth land in successive turns, able to equip it immediately with Strider Harness and put me on a 1 turn window.  I had Bloodshot Trainee and Spikeshot Elder in play, but with no pumps to go along with my 7 mana.  I had plenty of outs though, and Cerebral Eruption in hand, having seen a pair of 5-mana Vampires and a Ghalma Warden earlier in the match.  But I drew a Forest, and then Eruption hit a basic land, allowing my shocked opponent to steal the match out of nowhere.

I guess we learned that weekend (see: Finals coverage) just how good Skithiryx is.  My last draft deck didn’t pan out as I got into Blue-White Metalcraft, but the key cards just weren’t in the boosters, leading to a dismal finish.

Oh well, still another couple of chances to qualify for Paris, and I’m not gonna go down without a fight!

I hope everyone that attended the GP had a good time.  I know I did, and I look forward to there being a Grand Prix in my hometown of Montreal in just under a year.

Until next time,

D.K.