No, I don’t mean my recent GPs, thank you. Though I will quickly touch on the tournaments I’ve been to this year. Being the new year, it’s a good time to look back on the past 12 months and make some new resolutions. This year has been more downs than ups, but one good result typically leads to another, and things can turn around very quickly.
Around this time last year I couldn’t lose. I won Nationals, then came in second at Provincials, then top-eighted a PTQ, then top-16’d the pro tour. I ended off the year at Level 4 and very pleased with myself.
Then starting January 1, 2012 I got a promotion of sorts; I entered into partnership with a senior advisor at work and went from working 35 hours a week to 55 hours a week. I no longer had time to test or read articles, but I negotiated the hours such that I would have all the Pro Tour weeks off so I wouldn’t have to miss any. This meant that the entirety of my magic year was PT Hawaii, PT Barcelona, WMCQ Toronto, WMCQ Calgary, The World Magic Cup, GP San Jose, PT Seattle, GP Chicago, GP Toronto, MDSS Toronto and two random PTQs (one live and one Gold MODO). Of those, the only ones I did well in were the two WMCQs, though San Jose and the World Magic Cup were both close to being reasonable (but not due to my efforts).
Overall, I’d give this year a 3/10. In terms of efforts, I went to more GPs than ever before, I built an excellent network of both local and international players, and I’m still on the train. However, despite all these great opportunities, I have kind of wasted a lot of them and feel like I am playing worse than last year (and also not getting as lucky). With that in mind, I’m going to list some goals for 2013:
Travel to more events. I’ve never been to any 2Ks or 5Ks, and I’d also like to hit up a number of GPs. This also coincides with a more personal goal, which is to find a job working closer to 40 hours a week instead of this grind, and hopefully one that is also lenient with travel.
Cash another GP. This one should be easy if goal #1 is completed. I’d say I should be able to cash about 20% of the GPs I play in if I’m playing properly. I also need the pro points.
Play better and take advantage of my network.
Stay on the train. I’m only 1/5 of the way to where I need to be with half the season done. Now there are still two Pro Tours, so there’s a lot of points up for grabs, but it will by no means be easy.
I don’t think any of those goals are unrealistic or unattainable. Another mini-goal of mine is to be more personal in my articles. The vast majority of the stuff I write is theory or analysis, but I’ve never really gotten in to decks I’ve been working on. This has actually been to my detriment since a lot of the decks ended up hitting the back shelf, missing something that an extra set of eyes might have been able to pick up.
In that vein, I bring forth the true meaning of my title of “Modern Day Failures”: a list of decks I worked on in 2012 that ultimately were all found to be too weak, too inconsistent, or just missing something.
Grixis Delver
4 [card]Delver of Secrets[/card]
4 [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]
4 [card]Dark Confidant[/card]
3 [card]Vendilion Clique[/card]
1 [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card]
4 [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card]
3 [card]Serum Visions[/card]
4 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]
2 [card]Spell Snare[/card]
2 [card]Spell Pierce[/card]
1 [card]Dismember[/card]
2 [card]Mana Leak[/card]
1 [card]Remand[/card]
2 Rise/Fall
3 [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card]
2 [card]Thoughtseize[/card]
18 lands
BUG Delver
4 [card]Delver of Secrets[/card]
4 [card]Dark Confidant[/card]
3 [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]
4 [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]
4 [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card]
4 [card]Thoughtseize[/card]
2 [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card]
3 [card]Serum Visions[/card]
2 [card]Spell Pierce[/card]
2 [card]Spell Snare[/card]
2 [card]Vapor Snag[/card]
1 [card]Dismember[/card]
2 [card]Mana Leak[/card]
1 [card]Remand[/card]
4 [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]
18 lands
For the Pro Tour, I started off knowing Modern was a turn-four format, so I figured if I could both play at mostly instant speed and not tap out after turn three, I’d be able to control the game. I decided to build Grixis after seeing a video Gavin Verhey made about underplayed cards in Modern; then once the full Ravnica spoiler was up, I also built BUG to try to take advantage of [card]Abrupt Decay[/card], which I figured would be fantastic since it dealt with stuff like ‘Goyf, Delver, [card]Cranial Plating[/card], [card]Prismatic Omen[/card], and [card]Pyromancer Ascension[/card]. I ended up building the Grixis list and running the gauntlet, but it had problems closing out games and dealt itself a LOT of damage between Bobs, [card]Thoughtseize[/card]s, and the manabase. One thing I was really pleased with was the Rise/Fall and [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card] interaction. A month or two later, I did see a BUG Delver list make top-eight of a European GP, so I can’t say this was a horrible idea, but it never panned out for me.
4 [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card]
1 [card]Figure of Destiny[/card]
4 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]
4 [card]Path to Exile[/card]
2 [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card]
4 [card]Dark Confidant[/card]
4 [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]
4 [card]Tribal Flames[/card]
4 [card]Lightning Helix[/card]
3 [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]
1 Rise/Fall
1 [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]
3 [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card]
1 [card]Ranger of Eos[/card]
For GP Chicago I built a 5C Zoo list without the bad one-drops (Kird Ape, [card]Loam Lion[/card], and [card]Steppe Lynx[/card]). The idea was that turn-two Geist backed up with a bunch of burn and [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] for reach. The concept worked well but still didn’t have a great Jund matchup since Geist wasn’t really able to hit multiple times through their [card]Kitchen Finks[/card], Goyfs, and Bloodbraid Elves. It wasn’t possible to just burn all their creatures and let Geist hit them for six them every turn. A could of weeks later in Toronto, once Jund with [card]Lingering Souls[/card] was discovered, I saw a number of players playing a similar list to this with Souls, but I still don’t think it was a good choice for Toronto. [card]Ranger of Eos[/card] for two Deathrites felt really good though.
4 [card]Ornithopter[/card]
4 [card]Memnite[/card]
4 [card]Mox Opal[/card]
3 [card]Quest for the Holy Relic[/card]
4 [card]Glint Hawk[/card]
3 [card]Faerie Impostor[/card]
4 [card]Signal Pest[/card]
3 [card]Vault Skirge[/card]
3 [card]Springleaf Drum[/card]
4 [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card]
4 [card]Cranial Plating[/card]
4 [card]Thoughtcast[/card]
1 [card]Argentum Armor[/card]
4 [card]Darksteel Citadel[/card]
4 [card]Blinkmoth Nexus[/card]
4 [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card]
3 [card]Glimmervoid[/card]
Finally, for GP Toronto, I remembered that Jamie Blanchette, our teammate for the World Magic Cup, had mentioned that he was working on a Quest list. I hadn’t seen it (turns out his list had fewer artifacts, was more focused on Quest, and included [card]Erayo, Soratami Ascendant[/card]), but my thoughts were that [card]Glint Hawk[/card] and Impostor were good at dodging the hate, and an early Quest would give some free wins. It turned out to be too inconsistent though.
Overall, I don’t think the ideas were horrible, but none of them were tier one. I think the important thing was that I didn’t waste too much time working on them once I saw they didn’t pan out.
Happy new year to everyone, and happy brewing!
Marc Anderson
Marc Anderson is the current Canadian National champion. At the most recent World Championship, he was able to add a 12th place finish to his resume.