Hello, Dear Reader, and welcome back.  I apologize for missing my article last week, there was a bit of a scramble to prepare for the trip to Nebraska and I couldn’t find time to write anything.  So, today I want to fill you in on how things went at GP: Lincoln (Hoth).  The format for this tournament was Modern, and I LOVE Modern.  If Wild Nacatl was legal this would easily be my favorite format, as it is really shaping up to be a more aggressive version of Legacy.  Hopefully once Modern has truly taken on its own identity WotC will unban my cat-buddy.  So, what DID I play since Nacatl is banned?

25 Creatures:

4 Noble Hierarch

3 Grim Lavamancer

3 Qasali Pridemage

4 Tarmogoyf

3 Kitchen Finks

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Bloodbraid Elf

12 Spells:

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Lightning Helix

4 Path to Exile

23 Lands:

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Arid Mesa

2 Scalding Tarn

2 Temple Garden

2 Stomping Grounds

1 Sacred Foundry

2 Horizon Canopy

1 Treetop Village

1 Stirring Wildwood

1 Forest

1 Plains

1 Mountain

1 Kessig Wolf Run (Super-Secret Tech!)

As you can see, Dear Reader, this beast is just dudes, removal, and as few lands as I can get away with playing.  I did manage to pack some value into this manabase though.  Horizon Canopy is an all-star in the late game when I just need a bit more gas.  The man-lands are great for any kind of attrition match.  Kessig Wolf Run is my main win condition against Jund.  I really only had 2 problems with the mana base all weekend, I took a bit too much damage off my lands, and there was one too many red fetch-lands.

What about the spells, how did they fare, you ask?  Grim Lavamancer was unimpressive.  He is a good card in this format, but only against certain decks.  Those decks are typically other decks with Lavamancer.  This means that he is a dead card when they have an active Lavamancer on table.  He is often fairly easy to play around, he has summoning sickness, and he dies to literally every removal spell in the format.  I will be cutting him from the list soon.

The rest of my creatures were great!  Bloodbraid Elf is the best card in the deck now (go figure…) but just edging out Knight of the Reliquary for the title.  Bloodbraid is the best possible draw for a stalled board or against decks with counter spells.  The value you get off the card is insane, especially with this much removal.  That being said, there were a lot of games which simply ended if I got to untap with KotR.  Needless to say, there was no opponent all weekend that enjoyed seeing me flip KotR with Bloodbraid on the stack.  Cascading into non-creature spells was pretty nice too…

The spells might be my favorite part of the deck.  Getting to play the two best 1 mana removal spells AND the best 2 mana removal spell in the format makes the core of this deck very powerful.  The versatility of damage based removal makes it very desirable in a format where most opponents start the game at 15.  I won easily half my games by casting Lightning Bolt to finish my opponents.  Lightning Helix is one of my favorite cards to draw late, as it is often a blowout.  My opponents regularly made bad attacks because I was dead on board.  Helix can single handedly turn a sure loss into a harrowing victory in these situations.  So, those are the cards, what about the matches?

I still have 2 byes at every Grand Prix, so I started off 2-0.  Having these free wins is great for an eternal format.  Many casual players still come to constructed Grand Prix to see just how good their elephants deck that smashes all their friends really is.  Having byes lets you dodge the random decks that aren’t really part of the meta-game but could easily trip you up.

Round 3: (Evil) Ben with Merfolk

Ben was running U/W fish, and that is an insanely good matchup for me.  I killed every creature he played game 1.  I got stuck on land and died with Ben at 2 in game 2.  We had a fairly close game 3, but he was forced into some awkward plays because of mana issues and I took it down.

Also, I have him labeled as Evil Ben here because his friend was sitting next to him and told me that he was Evil.  Seemed like a nice enough guy to me, but who am I to argue with experience?

3-0

Round 4: Elliot with Caw

Now the pros were in the mix, but I was feeling good after knocking the jitters off with a solid first round of play.  This round I got to play a fellow Hoosier who had made the trip with his girlfriend.  Elliot was a very nice guy and a punctual player.  It is nice to play against other players who clearly announce steps and phases.  Our games were tight and clean.

In game 1 I killed every Squadron Hawk I saw and burned Elliot out from 6 life.  Game 2 Elliot came out of the games fast and smashed me very quickly (he took 1 point of damage the entire game).  Game 3 was a doozie!  We took turns with dominant board positions before he slammed down a Sun Titan to gun things up for me.  My next play was Bloodbraid Elf cascading into Qasali Pridemage (…and not the Path to Exile that I wanted).  Here is where things went wrong for Elliot.  He decided to swing with his Sun Titan (which was basically a giant wall that I wouldn’t deal with) instead of his Celestial Colonnade.  I double blocked the Titan with BBE and Kitchen Finks and proceeded to beat him down.

4-0

Round 5: Ivan Flock with RUG Delver

Ivan is part of the Czech National Team and top 50ed PT Dark Ascension.  He was also a really nice guy, and a tight player (as you would expect).  That being said, I have no fear of this matchup.  I have more removal then they have threats, I just have to use it right.  Ivan and I traded games by burning each other out.  I double Lightning Bolted him game 1, and he double kicked (!) Burst Lightninged be game 2 (I had a bolt in hand and was tapped out, too).

Game 3 had couple of interesting lines.  The first was a dance between my Knight of the Reliquary and his Vedalken Shackles.  He had bounced this Knight once with Cryptic Command and had 6 Islands in play for Shackles.  I had 4 lands in the graveyard but needed this Knight to win the game.  So, I just had to sit on the card until I drew another fetch land, then hope he didn’t rip an island off the top.  After I played the Knight he went for it and I cracked my land in response, making the Knight and illegal target.

Game 3 ended because I got him low enough for my 4 burn spells to win through a Deprive.  That was a fun match, and I was happy with my play.

5-0

Round 6: Hans with Jund

Hans was a nice guy, but these games weren’t close or interesting.  This match is 100% attrition, with both of us killing every creature the other plays.  It often comes down to who top decks more Bloodbraid Elfs in the late game.  My one advantage: Kessig Wolf Run.  I run 25 creatures, they can’t possible kill them all.  This means Wolf Run WILL kill them eventually.  I won this match in 2 games because he didn’t have removal for KotR and I got to untap with it both games.

6-0

Round 7: Gerry Thompson with U/W Tron

Gerry is a very nice guy to play against.  He and I joked throughout the match and chatted a bit about his SCG content before it.  Class Act.  All this makes getting completely rolled by him a bit better.  He cast turn 3 Gifts Ungiven, turn 4 Unburial Rights Iona, Shield of Emeria (naming white) games 1 and 3.  I didn’t have him low enough to burn him out, and I lost.  I took the 2^nd game with a hoard of creatures over-running a Wurmcoil Engine though, which was fun.

This matchup isn’t too bad, it isn’t great though.  And Gerry having a literal nut-draw 2 out of 3 games didn’t help me out.

6-1

Round 8: Darin Minard with Jund

Darin is part of our traveling group and I have spent a lot of time with him going to events over the past 6 months.  I like Darin, he is a good guy, and easily trolled.  But we put our serious faces on and played this one out.

Again, this is a total attrition war and I got an active Wolf Run in game 1 (I also played 3 Bloodbraids) so I took that one.  He took game 2 since I drew all the lands in my deck.  Game 3 was no different, we both killed every creature we saw, but we were playing pretty quick since time was an issue.  This led to a bad removal call on Darins part and a bad attack on my part at the end of the game.  Unfortunately neither of us wanted to concede to the other and we took a draw (which is as bad as a loss in day 1 of a GP).

This left a sour taste in both our mouths, but we should have had a plan for determining concessions before the game.  Since we didn’t, it worked out poorly for both of us.

6-1-1 Since 7 wins is the cut off for making day 2 I was on my win-and-in round to finish the day.

Round 9: Tanner with Storm

I have no idea how a storm player drew a match, but here we were.  Since I am aggro I am pretty obviously at a disadvantage vs combo in game 1.  So, I got comboed out on turn 3 in game 1.  We both mulliganed to 5 in game 2 and I took it down seeing only Grafdigger’s Cage for hate (I board in 7(!) cards in this matchup).  Game 3 he keeps a 1 land hand and misses on lands for the first 3 turns.  I see only Grafdigger’s Cage again and he combos off with Empty the Warrens for 18 goblin tokens and wipes my board when he hits his 2^nd land on turn 4.  WotC really needs to ban that mechanic…

6-2-1

So, I started the day very well, but managed to miss day 2.  Those last 3 rounds made the trip a real disappointment, Magic wise.  I still had fun with my friends and did some sweet trading over the weekend.  I also got my playset of Knight of the Reliquary signed by Brian Kibler.  So, the weekend wasn’t a wash, but I feel like I should have made day 2 after that start.

I am glad the current PTQ format is Modern, as I am still in love with the format.  I will continue rocking this archetype with some tweeks here and there.  This deck definitely has what it takes, I just need to hit the right run to make it happen.  Hopefully I will be showing off a picture of my blue envelope in one of these articles soon.

So, Dear Reader, thank you for reading and for your patience.  Make sure to let me know what you want me to write about next week.  You can contact me directly via twitter (@CapnTopDeck) or through the comments right here.  I hope you all run well this weekend at Game Day!

“Do you know how hard it is for a goblin to kill a dragon?!?”

Hello again, Dear Reader.  I hope my advice from last week served you well in your Release Events and drafts!  This week I will be heading back to more familiar territory (for me anyway), constructed.  This is a very exciting time for constructed players.  We are in the middle of a PTQ season featuring a constructed format that is still in its infancy, Modern.  Not only do we get to brew for a brand new eternal format, we now have a brand new standard format, thanks to Dark Ascension!  It really is a brewer’s paradise right now.

I have already talked about the deck I am playing in Modern (though I have made some changes) and will likely bring you some wacky brews next week.  For this week though, I am going to tell you about a brand new deck for Standard!  The list features everyone’s favorite new planeswalker, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

So, what exactly should we be doing with Sorin?  This question comes up for every planeswalker when it’s first printed.  The vampire lord seems to naturally fit into an aggressive deck with his -2 ability.  So, our next question is, “why should I devote cards in my precious 4 drop slot to this guy?”  The answer is, “because he is a good planeswalker.”  Now, this may sound obvious, but there are a certain set of traits which make a planeswalker “good.”  Those traits are 1) being able to protect itself and 2) being able to win the game if left unchecked.  Sorin does both of these things.  He can create an army no his own, and builds toward a potentially game winning ultimate while doing it!

Ok, he is good enough to play and works best in aggro deck.  What does that deck look like?  With very little testing I would say it looks like this:

Artifacts

2 Sword of War and Peace

Creatures

4 Hero of Bladehold

4 Grand Abolisher

4 Champion of the Parish

3 Fiend Hunter

Enchantments

4 Honor of the Pure

4 Oblivion Ring

Land

4 Evolving Wilds

11 Plains

2 Swamp

4 Isolated Chapel

3 Vault of the Archangel

Planeswalkers

3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Spells

4 Gather the Townsfolk

4 Lingering Souls

Sorin is a much better Intangible Virtue in a deck with some token producers.  Every time I see a list running 8 anthem enchantments I cringe a bit…those cards are such awful topdecks late in the game if you have no creatures.  Sorin is a hell of a lot better in that situation.  In this deck I think it’s best to use Sorin’s -2 ability every time it’s possible.  This may mean that the deck needs a 4^th copy, since you will likely run through them quickly.  That won’t be true in every situation though.

Playing Sorin onto an empty board will allow you to begin repopulating.  We have a couple of other options for that though.  Lingering Souls is 5 mana for 4 1/1 fliers (!) and Gather the Townsfolk gives us 2 dudes for 2 mana.  With anthem effects out these efficient spells become broken pretty quick.  What about the other spells?

Sword of War and Peace gives us an edge in the mirror or near mirror.  Oblivion Ring is our answer to our opponents swords, since we couldn’t beat that card without removal for it.  The creatures are pretty standard for a white aggro deck.  Fiend Hunter removes problem creatures, Grand Arbiter removes counterspells, and Hero of Bladehold removes your opponent.  That leaves Champion of the Parish.  This is the one creature that I am not sure about.  They work well with all of our creatures and very well with Gather the Townsfolk.  Unfortunately I can’t shake the feeling that there will be a lot of games where it is just a 2/2.  Only testing will tell.

Now, Dear Reader, I dare each of you to go find a card you think is constructed playable and build a deck around it!  Building decks for yourself helps you think about what the cards do and how the interact with other cards.  So, fool around with what you like in the new set and make sure to let me know what you come up with!  You can get ahold of me on twitter (@CapnTopDeck) or right here in the comments.  Until next week, Dear Reader.

PS: Make sure to tune into the Pro Tour on justin.tv this weekend!  Coverage starts today at 1 pm CST and concludes Sunday morning with the top 8.  The constructed format for this PT is Standard so we will see some sweet new tech from the best deck builders in the game!

“What the hell did I do to deserve the jerk award?!”

Greetings, Dear Reader.  Today I am bringing you a tournament report.  The tournament in question is the first PTQ (Pro Tour Qualifier) that our group of Oklahoma grinders could attend.  This PTQ was held in Lubbock, Texas at a local store called Mad Hatter Games.  The store itself was a quaint little shop, so small, in fact, that our group doubted its ability to hold a PTQ without overflow issues.  The store held up, to our surprise, as 84 players showed up for the tournament and the shop had room for 100.  Before I move on to the spellslinging I want to say a few words about the owner/operator of this store.

I found the gentleman to be a very nice (if a bit aloof) man, but half of our group described his as “creepy.”  I never noticed any “creeping,” and I think those two just aren’t used to anyone being nice to them…  Everyone else in the car had small stories about odd interactions they had with the storeowner but, honestly, I would expect a person who legally changed their name to Mad Hatter to act a bit odd.  This is a prime example of the excellent personalized stories that each of our Grinding Weekends usually has. I highly suggest that you, Dear Reader, get out and start traveling to more events with your friends.  The stories and fun with your Magic buddies is worth *almost* as much as taking down a tournament   Enough asides, you are reading this to hear about Magic, so let’s get to it!

Now, if you read my last tournament report you will remember that I do things a bit differently than a simple rundown of what plays I can remember making in each round.  I feel that it is more useful to talk about the match-ups in general and recite which cards were good, which were less good, and what I wished I had had in the moment.  I will, however, write out any particular plays or lines that I took which I believe are entertaining enough to warrant it.  Let’s begin!  First thing’s first though, what did I play?

This PTQ season Wizards wants to show off the new format Modern.  I have been brewing and testing this format for a while, but overall I enjoy Modern as “Legacy Lite.”  You can read about my deck of choice and how I chose it in my article from last week (here).  The list in that article is 69 of the 75 that I piloted at the PTQ, so, what cards did I change?  My friend Kyle (who top 8ed this PTQ) suggested that I add Tarmogoyf to the list to make the curve smoother.  I took out Steelshaper’s Gift and the Bloodbraid Elf to accommodate these undercosted beaters.  Without the ability to tutor equipment I took out the Sword of Feast and Famine and replaced it with another Sword of War and Peace (to assist my game 1 against Martyr Proc).  The last change came in the sideboard.  I don’t know if you know this, Dear Reader, but it is insanely hard to find Thorn of Amethyst at local trade tables.  In 2 days of pestering strangers I could only come up with 1 copy of this Storm hating artifact.  So, I had to replace the 2^nd copy of Thorn with the 4^th copy of Ethersworn Canonist (All of this was irrelevant, mind you, as I never played against Storm).  Now you know my decklist, to the battles!!!

Round 1: Jared with Affinity

This should be a favorable matchup for me as I have 15 maindeck removal spells against Red Robots.  Thinking in terms of “Who’s the Beatdown?” I am 100% the control deck in this matchup.  My deck did exactly what it was supposed to in game 1, kill all his threats then beat him down.  From the sideboard I bring in 2 Ancient Grudge (for obvious reasons) and 2 Suppression Field (this card slows them down A LOT).  I didn’t see a Suppression Field game 2, but I did find an Ancient Grudge (and 4 other removal spells) and I took the match.

All-stars in this match: Qasali Pridemage (Just as good against a deck full of artifacts as you would expect him to be)

Underperformers in this match: Mirran Crusader (Etched Champion makes this creature terrible. You can’t swing into the Champion with Crusader even if you have other threats to attack with.)

Cards I wanted more of: Elspeth, Knight-Errant (Her jump ability gets around the Etched Champion problem)

Important note: If they do play Blood Moon against you (and they 100% should not) Darksteel Citadel loses Indestructible (but is still an artifact).  So, if they are depending on those lands to retain Metalcraft you can start picking them off with artifact destruction spells.

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2: Aaron with Red Deck Wins

This build of Mono Red was definitely a favorable matchup for me.  He was all creatures, with very little burn.  Sword of War and Peace won me both games.  Game 1 I ended the game in 2 turns after equipping it to a Tarmogoyf.  Game 2 I played it on turn 2 and raced his mono-Ball Lightning draw with a Noble Hierarch.

All-stars in this match: Sword of War and Peace, Path to Exile (Tagging Unearth creatures with Path is a good feeling)

Underperformers in this match: None to note

Cards I wanted more of: None, my draws were solid.

2-0 (4-0)

Round 3: Will Craddock with Splinter Twin

This was my first round of playing “Real Magic” and unfortunately it was against someone I had ridden to Lubbock with.  Will is a great player and I don’t expect him to make any mistakes.  Here is a piece of advice for everyone: regardless of whether you expect your opponent to make mistakes or not, ALWAYS give them the option to make mistakes when they could.  One such situation came up for me in game 1 of this match.

I had a Qasali Pridemage equipped with a Sword of War and Peace which had taken Will to 3.  Will had one Island open with 2 Spellskites, one had a Splintertwin attached to it (giving him a fresh blocker every turn).  I had 5 mana open and 2 copies of Lightning Helix in my hand.  Knowing that I had to eliminate the Twin’ed Spellskite to have any chance to win, I saw the line of play that would let me wipe his board for sure, or win the game if Will made a mistake.  I led by aiming Helix at his face, which he obviously redirected to the non-Twin Spellskite by tapping his Island.  I then attacked with the Pridemage. Will made a copy of his Spellskite and blocked, killing the token.  After damage I activated Pridemage, destroying the Spellskite with Twin attached.  Here is where I needed Will to make the mistake.  If he had paid 2 life to activate the other Spellskite I could have targeted him with Helix again and killed him (since he would be at 1 and wouldn’t be able to activate the other Spellskite’s ability).  But Will is a good player and let the ability resolve.  I still cast Helix targeting him to force him to pay 2 life and kill his last Spellskite.  Unfortunately he drew his 2 combo pieces in the next 2 draw steps and I didn’t draw a burn spell.  Game 2 was not nearly as interesting.  I mulliganed to 6 and didn’t draw any sideboard hate, Will went off with a Dispel on turn 5.

All-stars: Tarmogoyf, Qasali Pridemage

Cards the underperformed: None really, my entire plan in the match is to apply early pressure and play disruptive spells to slow them down.  I had early pressure both games, just not enough disruption.

Cards I wanted more of: Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Price of Progress, Fireblast, Lava Spike, Rift Bolt, Shard Volley, etc, etc, etc…

2-1 (4-2)

Round 4: Cody (aka: Rage Guy) with Splintertwin (Again.)

I was not surprised to play against Twin again.  I wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t surprised.  My opponent earned 2 nicknames from me during this match, Rage Guy and Punts McGee.  Cody should have beaten me.  I should have taken my second loss this round.  But Punts McGee showed his true colors in both games 1 and 3.

Game 1 I landed a turn 2 Goyf and beat him down for 2 turns with Exalted before he tried to go off.  This time I had plenty of removal spells, but he had Dispel mana up.  Unfortunately he tapped all his blue mana (without needing to) to cast his Pestermite.  That fairie got Lightning Helixed.  Game one also held the interaction that brought him to straight up calling me a dick to my face, which earned him his other nickname, Rage Guy.

Two turns after his first punt Rage Guy played a Pestermite at the end of my turn while I had a Plains and a Sacred Foundry untapped (with 2 Path to Exile in hand).  It resolved and I asked him what permanent he was targeting with tap/untap trigger.  He said “Your white source” (which I confirmed with spectators afterward).  So, without my opponent being descriptive I chose to use the Plains as the land he targeted and used it to play one of the Path to Exile from my hand.  After the spell resolves he says “No, I meant your Sacred Foundry” (which was still untapped).  I politely reminded him that he just said “white source” which he protested.  So, to avoid an argument I untapped the Plains and tapped the Sacred Foundry, to which he also protested but didn’t argue much further.  In this situation there was one thing that my opponent was fishing for (and coincidentally one thing that I wasn’t going to let my opponent get away with) and that was to get me to tap both of my remaining hands for a 1 mana removal spell.  That wasn’t going to happen.  We didn’t call a judge, but if we had he would have ruled in my favor but given us both a warning for a Player Communication Violation.  The moral of this story is, if you think your opponent might be trying to cheat you, realize what they are trying to do and DON’T LET THEM DO IT.  So, after that cleared up, he lost game 1.

Game 2 featured a massive punt on my part, and I lost because of it.  Remember from round one when I told you that no one should bring in Blood Moon against this deck?  Yea, bad players still will.  And they might beat you if you don’t play around it.  I didn’t fetch a basic forest with my first 2 green fetch lands and he played a Blood Moon on turn 3.  He couldn’t combo through my hate cards, but he beat me down with Pestermites while I stared at 7 game-winning green monsters.  If I had fetched a basic Forest I would have easily won that game.

Game 3 was a war of attrition.  I punted again by playing into his terrible sideboard tech (this time I overextended into Firespout, which no Twin player in his right mind plays in this meta).  Fortunately he was at 10 when this happened.  I also had both a Torpor Orb AND a Suppression Field on the table when Firespout resolved.  This gave me 4 more turns to find a threat while he was digging for TWO copies of Echoing Truth.  Eventually he found his Echoing Truths, at this point the board consisted of his Pestermite and 2 Deceiver Exarchs against my 5/6 Goyf and 2 hate permanents with him at 5.  I have a red and a white open at the end of my turn when he bounces both of my hate cards.  He has 2 cards in hand and untaps for his turn.  Here is where Punts McGee surfaces once again.  I find out the next turn that his 2 cards are Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, the Mirror Breaker.  I was bluffing all of my removal spells with that 2 mana, but 2 of those 3 are 100% useless if he slams Twin on the Exarch.  So, Punts decides to make the play that makes all of my removal live.  I kill Kiki-Jiki with my Lightning Bolt in response to the first token’s ETB (enters the battlefield) ability.  That wasn’t even the last punt he made!

So, I untap and instantly slam down my 2 hate permanents (which he has literally no outs to at this point).  At this point we are actually racing as I am at 8 with him beating me down with his Pestermite.  But he had an extra Exarch to block with.  I play a Treetop Village and swing for 5, he chump blocks.  He then attacks me for 2 and puts his Splinter Twin on the Exarch.  I untap and do the math (he can only activate his Exarch once a turn) and swing with Goyf and Village, putting him on a 2 turn clock (since he dies if he doesn’t block Goyf).  Punts McGee now makes his 3^rd appearance of the match.  He blocks the Treetop Village, then activates his Exarch and tries to block Goyf with the token.  I inform him that he can’t do that, since all blocks need to be declared at the same time.  I also inform him that he loses since he didn’t use his one blocker on Tarmogoyf.  He gets very upset, we call a judge, the judge upholds the rules correctly, and I win the match.  Afterwards he brings up the incident from game 1 again and calls me a dick for it, with the judge standing right there.  I admit that I very well might be a dick and the judge yells at him for unsportsmanlike conduct.

3-1 (6-3)

Round 5: James with Twin…………..again……………

This match was much less interesting as James was a much better player (and a much nicer person).  There were 3 interesting parts of this match:

1)      We get deck-checked and James offers me some home-made snacks that his wife made (score!)

2)      In game 2 (after he combed on turn 5 in game 1) I played a turn 2 Suppression Field.  He had only fetch lands in hand and scooped 2 turns later when he was still stuck on one land.

3)      I finally pull the trigger and board in Choke against Twin.  I slam choke on turn 3 while he is tapped out.  He flails around for a few more turns without being able to untap his lands.

New All-star: Choke

4-1 (8-4)

Round 6: Michael with Merfolk

This matchup is very close to unwinnable for Fish, just like against Zoo in Legacy.  I mulliganed to 5 in game 1 and crushed him.  Turn 2 Mirran Crusader into turn 3 Elspeth is an easy win when your opponent taps out every turn…  Game 2 I killed the first 4 creatures he played, and then slammed Choke on the table as soon as he tapped out.

All-Stars: 12 removal spells, Choke

Underperformers: None that I could see

Cards I wanted more of: None, this is the matchup I want to play all day.

5-1 (10-4)

Final Round!!!

We drew into top 8.  Interesting note: I could have dream crushed my opponent to get my friend Will (who beat me in round 3) into top 8.  I thought my opponent was on Twin and couldn’t risk it.  I found out later that my opponent was actually on Affinity…I definitely could, and maybe should have crushed here.  That matchup is very good for me, I wanted more of us to be in top 8, and I would have taken the #1 seed and had an even better matchup in top 8 if I had won.  Oh well, Will told me later that he didn’t want me to risk it anyway.

5-1-1 (10-4-2) I’m in top 8!

Quarterfinals: Ty with Boros

Ty was the only player to go undefeated in the swiss, so I know the deck is good and that he knows how to pilot it.  I apologize, Dear Reader, but this match wasn’t nearly as interesting as some of my others.  We went to 3 games, but I lost the match.  I knew what he was playing, and given that information I kept a bad hand against him in game 1.  I only had 1 removal spell in game 1 and he had 3 creatures by turn 2.  Game 2 I crushed him with Sword of War and Peace on a Tarmogoyf.  In game 3 I mulliganed to 5 and drew mostly lands.  I slowed him down in game 3 with a Suppression Field but I simply didn’t draw enough removal or creatures to keep up with Ty’s draw.

All-Stars: 12 removal spells, Sword of War and Peace

Underperformers: My sideboard. Suppression Field is ok against them, but not good enough.

Cards I wanted more of: Sword of War and Peace, 1 Sejiri Steppe (I could have saved a Knight of the Reliquary in game 3 if I had had this utility land in my deck.  It may not have won me the game, but it couldn’t have hurt)

So, overall it was a good outing for me, my deck, and Oklahoma Magic in general.  Kyle Roen (@kyle2plowshares on twitter) and I made top 8.  Will Craddock (@willthedefiler) ended in 9^th and Tyler Lytle (@tlytle123) was 11^th.  The 4^th player in our car Darin Minard also won the SCG Invitational that night after dropping from the PTQ.  I am still pretty disappointed, as I feel like that Boros matchup should be pretty good for me, but I now know how good my deck is and I am hungry!  I love Modern as a format (even if I am still angry about Nacatl…) and I am very much looking forward to the next PTQ and GP Lincoln!

This ended up being really long!  I hope it was both entertaining and informative (but I will settle for just entertaining).  Please shoot me some feedback here in the comments or on twitter (@CapnTopDeck).  I look forward to seeing any and all of you at the pre-releases this weekend, or at bigger events in the future!

“…Ok, here is my problem with you…In game one I said ‘Tap down your Sacred Foundry’ then you untapped the Plains after tapping it.”

“You didn’t specify the land, you just said ‘white source,’ but it didn’t matter, you couldn’t go off on your turn and I had another Path in hand”

“…yea, but you’re a dick!”

Enjoy the pre-releases everyone! (And don’t be a dick!)

Greetings, Dear Reader!  I start this article in the throes of Brain Freeze (thanks to my delicious watermelon slush). Don’t worry though, I will persevere.  Let’s deal with your first thoughts: No, that was not a clever way of introducing a sweet deck with Frost Titan, Frost Breath, or even Ice Storm.  Sixty-seven percent of those things cost blue mana, and I am here today to talk about a deck that is the literal opposite of blue.  That’s right: Naya!

If you have been paying attention to my articles you will not be surprised by what I am about to say: I want to play beatdown in Modern (the brain freeze is gone now, by the way).  So, given the fact that I fancy myself a green mage with a taste for creature heavy decks, what should I be playing?  I started with Jund.  I built, tweaked, and tested that deck for literal weeks.  This Monday night, with a Saturday PTQ looming, I (obviously) decided that I hated Jund and couldn’t possibly play it for 7-9 rounds and win.  But there was hope!

While randomly cruising the MTGO Daily results I found a Maverick list from Caleb Durward that played a lot of my Green and White friends.  His deck was a Fauna Shaman build that ran Lotus Cobra for fast mana, a battery of Vengevines for hasty beats, and some planeswalkers at the top of the curve (you can watch that DE over on CFB).  I tried this deck out, but sadly it is too slow to contend with Twin and too light on removal to beat Affinity.  Those are the two matchups you absolutely cannot afford to give up early in this PTQ season.  So, I laid the deck out and cut the slow cards.  At the end of this process I had dropped the Fauna Shamans, Vengevines, and the enabling Squadron Hawks.

With that many open slots I could really tailor the deck to my own tastes.  The first thing I did was add more Qasali Pridemages, as they are one of my favorite creatures ever.  A super-useful hate ability on a bear, PLUS Exalted?  Yea, that’s my kind of value.  Next came the Mirran Crusaders.  Last extended season we found out just how good the combination of double strike and exalted is on turn 2 (spoilers, it’s stupid good).  I started with 3 Crusaders and 3 Pridemage, leaving the Baneslayer, Cobras, and Elspeths but adding more Path to Exile.  This build didn’t quite make the cut either.

So, there I was with the deck laid out again.  I still wanted more removal for creature matchups (since depending on the Big Bad BSA was still too slow).  Dismember was out of the question, as the pain of fetching and shocking is already a format wide issue.  This left me with one option that fit my play style: Add Lightning Bolts.  Just like that 2 of the best removal spells ever made it into the deck.  Now armed with Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix I was MUCH happier with my creature matchups.

At this point the deck had morphed into something with a plan: play a mana dork on turn 1, play a 3 drop on turn 2, then kill everything they play or burn them out.  So, realizing that, all I had to do was tweak  the mana base, and nail down the last few cards.  I finally settled on my 23 lands with a Birds of Paradise acting as a 5^th Noble Hierarch.  I needed to finalize those last 2 cards in the main and tried a lot of different plans.  They were originally 2 Scryb Ranger (I love this card but it loses a lot of utility without Fauna Shaman), then it became 2 Ajani Vengeant (Powerful, but typically a 4 mana Helix), and finally I settled on taking value above all else.  Those final 2 slots are now Bloodbraid Elf.

Now you know the line of thinking that took me from a Shaman Maverick deck to this:

Exalted Naya

Artifacts:

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Sword of Fire and Ice

1 Sword of War and Peace

Creatures:

1 Birds of Paradise

2 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Mirran Crusader

4 Noble Hierarch

3 Qasali Pridemage

Planeswalkers:

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Spells:

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Lightning Helix

4 Path to Exile

2 Steelshaper’s Gift

Lands:

2 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Plains

1 Rugged Prairie

2 Horizon Canopy

4 Arid Mesa

4 Misty Rainforest

2 Scalding Tarn

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Stomping Ground

2 Temple Garden

2 Treetop Village

Sideboard:

2 Ancient Grudge

3 Choke

3 Ethersword Canonist

2 Suppression Field

2 Thorn of Amethyst

3 Torpor Orb

Let’s talk about the maindeck and the primary plan.  The ideal curve is T1 Hierarch, T2 Crusader, T3 Elspeth: swing for 12 with flying.  Playing a dork on turn 1 into a sword or a Knight is almost as good, sometimes better depending on the matchup.  Following a turn 2 Crusader with a turn 3 Exalted creature is also solid…swinging for 8 on your first go it not usually a bad thing.  Once you have established a beater you can move into phase 2: Eliminating blockers/threats and burning their dome.

The plan is established; let’s talk about the sword package, as it may be the most controversial.  Needless to say, I miss Stoneforge Mystic.  I suppose I found the “next best thing” in Steelshaper’s Gift.  The thinking here is that I can effectively run 3 copies of the 3 best swords by simply running 2 Gifts.  Each sword can help end the game quickly but each has a best matchup.  War and Peace in the hands of a Mirran Crusader will race even the highest life totals against Martyr Proc (it’s not too shabby against a control player with a hand full of black removal either…).  Feast and Famine will push damage against combo while stripping their hand (also useful against control decks).  Fire and Ice simply brutalizes creature decks (especially blue ones) and pulls you very far ahead.  This plan may need reworked, but we will see what happens.

How about the sideboard, what’s that about?  Well, I’m not going to be so cliché as to give you a SB guide but I will fill you in on the thinking for each choice.  I agonized over the cards and numbers of them, so much so that I ended up shifting some tech in the maindeck to make the sideboard more manageable.

Ancient Grudge:  This one is obvious, but the number might not be.  I dropped to 2 of these gems after upping the removal in the main.  If you count Pridemage I have 15 maindeck removal spells against Affinity, all instant speed.  I didn’t need much more help there.

Choke:  This one is a true treasure for us green mages, especially since I don’t think a lot of people know it’s legal in this format.  If they play Cryptic Command you want to Choke them out.

Ethersworn Canonist:  She stops storm by herself and can beat for 2.  Hate Bears are my favorite species (Ursus suckonitus)

Suppression Field:  This card flat out stops Twin from going off and slows Arcbound Ravager to a crawl.  I had to balance this with Torpor Orb and decided on 2 of Field since it hurts my swords and Knights.

Thorn of Amethyst: I have a lot of sub-optimal cards against Storm and needed more hate.  This card is instantly changed to Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in 2 weeks.

Torpor Orb: An obvious choice to fight Twin, but it hoses a good variety of decks in this format.  It stops any deck with Birthing Pod and keeps Martyr from auto-winning (Ranger of Eos)/grinding you out (Squadron Hawk).

There you have it, a monument to 3 drops for those of us that want to turn dudes sideways.  Shoot me some feedback in the comments or on twitter (@CapnTopDeck).  I will likely be running something very close to this at GP Lincoln next month and I want to optimize it before then.  If you decide to sleeve this beast up for a PTQ let me know how it goes!  I am leaving for a PTQ weekend in Texas tomorrow, so expect a report on what did and didn’t work next week (hopefully with a picture of a nice blue envelope).

“Do you think BBE is a good card for your deck now?!?”  “F-you man, you know I’m going to agree to anything that puts a Mirran Crusader into play for free…” – Playtesting chatter shortly after cascading into a Crusader the first time I cast BBE in this list.

Greeting, Dear Reader. I write this note to you in the middle of spoiler season for Dark Ascension.  At this point only about 1/5th of the set is spoil but my favorite card has already been spoiled.  I already know that Sorin, Lord of Innistrad will be in virtually every deck I play for the next year and a half.

This card has all the trademarks of a quality planeswalker:converted mana cost less that 5, ability to protect itself, and can win the game on its own.  Now, is Sorin on the same power level as Jace, the Mind Sculptor, or Elspeth, Knight-Errant? No. He is close to Elspeth though.  If you resolve Sorin on an empty board your opponent will soon be frantically searching for an answer to his ultimate (or not playing threats to dodge it).  And if they don’t play a threat to steal you can just overrun them with an army of lifelinking vampires!

These excellent abilities make Sorin a potent threat in 2 possible roles.  The first is at the top of the curve (or near the top) in an aggressive deck.  In these decks Sorin will either help you keep the pressure on, increase the pressure, or recover from a board wipe.  His other role will be as a midgame threat in a control deck.  If you can stick him early he will take over the game, against any archetype.  He will force your opponent to either spend resources dealing with him or over-extend into a board wipe.

So, now that I have highlighted Sorin’s uses lets look at a couple of early brews for Standard.  This first one is a planeswalker control/beatdown list that I have lovingly named Junkyard Gang.

Artifacts: 7

4 Sphere of the Suns

3 Mortarpod

Planeswalkers: 9

3 Garruk Relentless

3 Sorrin, Lord of Innistrad

1 Gideon Jura

2 Elspeth Tirel

Creatures: 5

2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

3 Bloodline Keeper

Spells: 14

4 Rampant Growth

3 Oblivion ring

2 Dismember

2 Doom Blade

3 Day of Judgment

Lands: 25

4 Razorverge Thicket

4 Isolated Chapel

3 Woodland Cemetery

4 Forest

4 Plains

4 Swamp

2 Gavony Township

All that this deck wants to do is play a planeswalker on turn 3 and then kill all of their creatures while pumping out tokens.  The list is a bit heavy on 4 drops, which is why we have 8 ways to ramp on turn 2.  This kind of strategy can lead to some dead draws in the later game, though.  That is why we include 2 copies of Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.  She does that our deck is trying to do in one card, and she makes sure that we actually want to get to 7 mana.

This next list is a more dedicated tokens build.  It wants to make as many tokens as possible while pumping them up in various ways.

Artifacts: 7

3 Mortarpod

4 Shrine of Loyal Legions

Planeswalkers: 6

3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

3 Elspeth Tirel

Creatures: 11

3 Bloodline Keeper

4 Blade Splicer

4 Doomed Traveler

Spells: 11

3 Oblivion Ring

4 Intangible Virtue

4 Midnight Haunting

Lands: 25

4 Ghost Quarter

4 Isolated Chapel

10 Plains

7 Swamp

In this list we are basically splashing black for Sorin and Bloodline Keeper.  That may lead you to ask, “why have both of these lists been showing love for the vampire factory that is Bloodline Keeper?”  This simple answer, Dear Reader, is because the card does everything that our deck does, all in one package.  It both creates tokens AND provides an anthem for the tokens that it (and Sorin) create. If your curve is Turn 4 Bloodline Keeper, Turn 5 Sorin your Keeper can flip on turn 6 and crush your opponent right there.  I believe we will be seeing quite a bit of the big bad BLK (Bloodline Keeper :p) in post Dark Ascension standard.

So, there you have it, my first take on decks including the new Lord of standard. You will be seeing a lot of Sorin in the next year, so keep your Oblivion Rings handy.  This guy is moving standard in a direction that I can get behind.  I love beatdown and Sorin not only allows me to be the beatdown, but he can just plain win the game after a few turns of bringing the beats.  THAT is the kind of ally I want to be calling in a magic-fueled trans-planar fight.

That’s it for this week Dear Reader.  Make sure to let me know what you think of these lists and the articles in general!  You can comment here or reach me on twitter (@CapnTopDeck).  Also, be sure to check out Planeswalker Asylum, the podcast that I lend my voice to!  You can find it over at couchpirates.com.

“Daniel, what are you walking so funny? You look like you’re pregnant.”  “Dude, I just ate nothing but meat for 45 minutes straight, how should I be walking?” Conversation after eating Fogo de Chao on Friday night in Austin.

Wait! I do have one more sweet list for you, as a bonus.  This one is my first take on a Modern Black/White tokens build.  Enjoy!

Planeswalkers:

2 Ajani Goldmane

3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Creatures:

4 Tidehollow Sculler

4 Bloodline Keeper

3 Geist-Honored Monk

Spells:

4 Intagible Virtue

4 Raise the Alarm

4 Spectral Procession

4 Midnight Haunting

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

Lands:

4 Windbrisk Heights

3 Isolated Chapel

4 Godless Shrine

3 Mutavault

4 Marsh Flats

2 Plains

1 Swamp