It's strange how sometimes even when we are successful we still feel like we have failed. I can remember countless chess tournaments where despite the fact that I scored well, a loss in the final round would ruin my mood for the entire week. Last night was similar; I played in the usual Tuesday Standard tournament at Ancient Wonders, scoring 3 wins and 1 loss and taking second place, but despite this solid performance, I still feel like I lost.

Some background information may be necessary. I don't often purchase vintage Magic cards. They're expensive, and there are no local vintage tournaments, so you can't really use them. Nevertheless, I appreciate Vintage cards for their value and history and I have been known to buy one on occassion. This weekend was one of those occassions, as I purchased one copy of a Mishra's Workshop in decent condition. The Workshop is definitely one of the best lands in Magic, and probably one of the strongest cards in Magic overall. Unfortunately, the card costs quite a bit of scrilla---$250---and so I felt compelled afterwards to tighten my wallet a bit and not buy any Magic cards until my birthday in July. This meant that if I wanted any new cards, I'd have to win tournaments.

So I entered the tournament at Ancient Wonders really hoping to win. Usually, I don't care that much whether I win or lose (although obviously I prefer to win) and usually I'd be quite pleased with a second place result. This time however, I wanted to take down the whole thing. With that in mind, I ran R/G Wolf Run, my best deck.

In the first round I faced U/B aggro. My opponent was definitely a noob, as at one point he attempted to place Skinrender counters on my Thrun, the Last Troll. I won the match without much trouble, 2-0.
In the second round I faced Alec Baker, who was running the new U/G Infect deck. The deck combines cards like Spellskite, Inkmoth Nexus, Wild Defiance, Livewire Lash, and various instants to try and either deal lethal poison damage with an infect creature, or lethal life damage with a giant Spellskite. Alec's deck did not perform well and the match was over relatively quickly in my favor, 2-0. I made a comment afterwards about how the games seemed particularly one-sided and I felt bad afterwards. It was one of those moments where you realize you've made a comment that kind of makes you sound like a jerk. I didn't mean to brag----it was just objective evaluation of a match against a worthy opponent. Afterwards Alec and I played a couple fun games and I lost them both, so clearly the few games we played in this tournament were not indicative of his deck's strength. Neverthless, Alec did finish 1-3 (with the 1 win coming from a bye), so clearly his deck needs refinement. Personally, I don't think the deck is that good, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Round three was definitely the decisive match of the tournament. I was paired against Ryan Engbrecht who was running U/W Delver---widely considered the best deck in the format. Adam Brown, the other veteran of the tournament, had already lost to MonoGreen aggro the round before, so Ryan and I were the only undefeated players. I won the first game on the back of a Thrun, the Last Troll. Game 2 I had to mulligan down to 5 cards, so I lost that game in short order. I did however, make a sideboarding mistake. I sideboarded in 2 copies of Cavern of Souls and sideboarded out 2 copies of Glimmerpost. I realize now that against UW Delver I should still sideboard in the 2 copies of Cavern of Souls, but I should sideboard out 1 copy of Inkmoth Nexus and 1 Kessig Wolf Run instead. Anyways, I corrected the error in Game 3 but still lost to a twice cloned Restoration Angel. That card is pretty good against my deck.

Round 4 was fairly anti-climactic. I played against Ruben again, having just faced him at the Game Day tournament earlier in the week. Ruben was running R/W Humans (again), and having beaten that deck out of my last 5 tries, I now believe R/W Humans is terrible against my deck. Slagstorm, Whipflare, Bonfire of the Damned, and Galvanic Blasts are simply too much for R/W Humans to overcome. And by the time R/W casts a Hero of Bladehold, I usually have a Beast Within or a Titan. Ruben did get seriously land screwed in Game 2 though; he was stuck on two lands the entire game. Anyways, I won the match, 2-0.

So that's it. With a record of 3-1, I tied with Adam for second through third. Fortunately, my tiebreaks were best because I played Ryan, the eventual winner. Hope you enjoyed reading. See you Friday!

Who the hell runs FOUR copies of Surgical Extraction in their sideboard?














Played in another Game Day tournament Sunday at Guardian Games. I went 2-2 after 4 rounds taking eight place after tiebreaks. Although this obviously does not sound like the most impressive result, I consider the tournament a sucess for the following reasons:

First, I tried something other than R/G Wolf Run! As many of you know, I have played R/G Wolf Run in almost every tournament, so it was nice to play something different.

Second, I tried my own home brew! It always gives you a special feeling to play something you came up with on your own. Now.....I'm not so pompous as to believe my deck idea was 100% original, but I can assure you, I thought up the idea for my deck independent of any online decklist.  The deck has apparently been named "Grites" by others. My decklist was the following:

Main Deck:
4 Griselbrand
2 Sun Titan
4 Lingering Souls
4 Faithless Looting
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Doom Blade
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Day of Judgment
4 Timely Reinforcements
4 Shriekhorn
1 Ghoulcaller's Bell
3 Unburial Rites

7 Plains
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Dragonskull Summit
1 Mountain
5 Swamp

Sideboard:
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Memoricide
2 Manic Vandal
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Go for the Throat
1 Divine Offering
4 Mental Misstep
1 Revoke Existence
1 Day of Judgment
1 Oblivion Ring

I also believe the tournament was a success for a third reason: I scored 2-2 which was my realistic goal going in. I just wanted to be in the top 8 so that I would win another full art Killing Wave. I played tough opponents and did reasonably well on tiebreaks, gaining just enough points to place eighth---so I am happy with my result. I will now describe the games and end with some reflections on the deck and changes I would make.

I don't remember what or who I played against in the first round, but I won 2-0.

In round 2 I was paired against Esper tokens. I probably would have won this match, but for some reason my opponent had FOUR Surgical Extractions in his sideboard. Who runs 4 of that card? Obviously my deck had a pronounced weakness against Surgical Extraction, as my opponent was able to remove all of my Griselbrands, Unburial Rites, and Sun Titans, thereby ensuring that I could not win the game with creatures. I tried to "mill" my opponent with Shriekhorns, but it just wasn't fast enough. I lost the match 1-2.

In round 3 I was paired against David Stroud, who was running U/W Delver. David's deck is one of the strongest in the format, and I thought I was definitely unfavored in the match. The Mental Missteps did help against Delver of Secrets and Vapor Snag, but it wasn't enough. I got land screwed in game 1 and lost the match quickly, 0-2.

In round 4 I was paired against a MonoRed player, who had a very difficult matchup because I ran 4 copies of Timely Reinforcements and Griselbrand. I won the match 2-1.

So there are the results. I would make the following changes to the deck: I'd probably take out one Griselbrand to make room for the Elesh in the sideboard. It's important to be less vulnerable to Surgical Extraction. I'd also consider replacing the Ghoulcaller's Bell with Elixir of Immortality, since my deck sometimes seems in danger of being milled. So there you have it. Obviously, the deck isn't as strong as R/G Wolf Run, U/W Delver, or any of the other tier one decks in the format, but I just wanted to play a fun deck and have a good time. And a good time I had. Thanks for reading.

Time to blog. This weekend has been a busy one. With FNM on Friday and Game Day on Saturday, I've hardly had time to sit down and write about the tournament experiences. Both tournaments went relatively well for my R/G Wolf Run deck. I scored 3-1 at FNM, taking third place, and 3-0-1 at Game Day, placing clear first.

I made some minor changes to my R/G Wolf Run deck based on various versions that I've seen online. Most notably, I think the addition of extra copies of Thrun, the Last Troll really helps the deck against the current metagame, and is a better addition than Owen Turtenwald states in his article (you can read the article here). Thrun can act as a blocker against Strangleroot Geist, Wolfir Avenger, and provides some defense against Zealous Conscripts. I've always been a fan of the card and I think it provides a much needed defensive presence in the deck.

I disagree with Owen's recommendation about Huntmaster of the Fells. I've never liked Huntmaster in the deck because he often just dies to my own Slagstorm or Whipflare, and I have no time to wait to flip him. Nevertheless, I do run 2 copies of Huntmaster right now, because he is good against both aggro decks and Delver decks and speeds the deck up slightly.

I did add a copy of Bonfire of the Damned to my deck, based on Owen's recommendation. I just thought I'd try it. So far, it hasn't really done much.

I did however, love Owen's recommendation of adding 4 Glimmerposts to the maindeck and removing the Cavern of Souls to the sideboard. In the current aggro-heavy metagame, Glimmerpost is just bad ass.

Finally, I also don't agree with Owen's recommendation to add Pillar of Flame. The fact that Pillar of Flame is a sorcery seriously influences its playability in Wolf Run. Consider this; if I'm on the draw, then Pillar of Flame makes some sense: On the first turn, I draw, play a land, and then I can cast Pillar and kill the Birds of Paradise (or the Doomed Traveler). However, on the play Pillar of Flame is less useful, since the soonest I could kill something with it is on turn 2, and I often simply want to ramp on that turn. If one recognizes that Pillar is best used on Strangleroot Geist, then there is simply no convenient time to cast it where it doesn't disrupt the usual ramp plan.

Now on to the games.

FNM

On Friday night I played at Guardian Games, scoring 3 wins and 1 loss (for third place).

In round 1, I faced off against R/G Aggro run by Molly, who surprisingly, was a girl! It's not often that you get to play Magic against women and that made this round kind of special. The games were pretty close. Molly was able to win Game 2 on the back of a Strangleroot Geist equipped with a Sword of Feast and Famine. I won games 1 and 3 though, and the match thus ended 2-1 in my favor.

In rounds 2 (and 3!) I played against Mono Blue Architect. This list is also described in Owen's article (again, see the article here) and I can tell you that despite Owen's advice, the list is pretty good. Yes, it does rely on Wurmcoil Engine quite a bit, but my deck doesn't have good answers for Wurmcoil Engine so that's not a knock on the deck. In addition, the 8 clone effects in the deck are actually kind of a problem, since the blue player is often just cloning my Titans like crazy. Finally, the deck runs a full complement of Vapor Snags and Snapcasters, which has always been a problem for the R/G Wolf Run player. I won the first match, but lost the second, and so entered the fourth and final round of the tournament 2-1.

In round 4, I was paired against Ryan, who conceded to me in exchange for a prize split and the use of some blue cards to try the mono-blue deck. He's supposed to get back to me regarding his thoughts on how the deck runs.

And so that was FNM this week. I think I scored like $15 in prizes, which i used to partially pay for a foil Darkslick Shores. Go me.

GAME DAY

Game Day went even better than FNM. I decided to play at Otherworlds Games (which I generally don't like), because I thought the competition would be easier and because it's close to my house. Jonathan Chu, Nathan Doyle, and Austin showed up, but otherwise the tournament was relatively free of veterans. I ended up scoring 3-0-1 to take clear first.

In round 1 I faced off against B/W tokens. My opponent never really got the anthem effects he needed, and I won the match easily, 2-0.

In round 2, I played against Jonathan Chu, who was running BUG Pod. Jonathan is a good player, a veteran with good deck building skills, and I thought the match could go either way. He got land screwed in game 1 and I killed his only Birds of Paradise, thereby leaving him with 2 mana the rest of the game. Game 2 was closer, but Jonathan land flooded and was unable to draw any action. Just like that, the match was over. I now have 2 wins in a row against Jonathan, and his previous win streak against me has been erased---so that's one good takeaway from this tournament.

In round 3 I played against Nathan Doyle running U/B Control. Strangely, I won game one, which almost never happens against U/B control because my deck just has a terrible matchup. I lost game 2 to a Grave Titan and a Phyrexian Metamorph copying the Grave Titan. Needless to say, there were a lot of zombies on the board in game 2. I won game 3 on the back of a third turn Thrun, the Last Troll, who delivered 16 points of damage before dying to a Phrexian Metamorph. Unforunately, Nathan had to spend 2 life to cast the Metamorph, which put him at 2. I resolved an Inferno Titan on the subsequent turn for the win. I won the match 2-1.

In the last round I intentionally drew with Ruben who was running R/W Humans. We played the match out just for fun and I won, 2-1.

So that was Game Day. As prize for first place I received 9 packs, which I traded in for another Sword of War and Peace. Why crack 9 packs and game when i can just get a guaranteed $35 mythic rare? 



Definitely the hero of this tournament!

I was able to beat Adam in round 2 only because I drew the singleton copy of....Batterskull!







Today I played in another Standard tournament at Ancient Wonders, finishing 2-0-1 and tying for first place. The tournout tonight was rather small; only 8 players showed up; but the tournament did have pretty good competition. Ryan Engbrecht, Adam Brown, Tony Adamson, Jared, and Brad were all present. I ran my usual R/G Wolf Run, even though I knew it might be a bad choice, because I just didn't have time to think of a playable aternative before the tournament (I am currently playtesting alternative ideas).

The tournament started off well for me as I was able to beat Brad running Naya Pod. Naya Pod generally has a bad matchup against R/G Wolf Run, as its creatures are vulnerable to Slagstorm and Whipflare. I lost game 2 to a serious mana flood, but I won games 1 and 3 on the back of Primeval Titans, a timely Blasphemous Act, and Garruk, Primal Hunter.

Round 2 was perhaps the most rewarding round of the tournament. I was able to beat Adam Brown, who was running R/W Humans. Adam had a slight win streak going, having beaten me several times in a row (twice with G/W Aggro and once with Esper Friends), so it felt good to finally break the streak and take one back. The first game Adam mana flooded, and a quick Primeval Titan won the game easily. Game 2 took much longer, as I was constantly afraid any creature I cast would be stolen by Zealous Conscripts (I hate this card!). Adam was able to do a significant amount of damage early on with a Champion of the Parish that just seemed to keep getting bigger (at one point reaching 9/9!). Eventually however, a Thrun, the Last Troll was able to act as a blocker, and when the Thrun was equipped with a Batterskull, the game was basically over (Conscripts were useless). I won the match, 2-0, but not without the usual Adam insinuation about how I could have played better, killed him faster, etc. etc.

In round three I was paired against Ryan Engbrecht, and we intentionally drew, though we decided to play the match out for fun. Ryan was running Bant aggro, which I recently condemned as kind of a crappy deck. I was wondering if Ryan would make me eat my words. I ended up winning the match 2-1, though the games were reasonably close when neither player had to mulligan.

So there it is. Another tournament in the bag. I was given $12 for my trouble, which I used to acquire another Sigarda, Host of Herons. Until next time, readers.

Time for an update. I have no MTG tournaments to report because I haven't been playing lately. As many of you may know, my family flew into Portland a few days ago to celebrate my law school graduation, so I haven't had much time to playtest or event think about MTG. Not that my family's presence really matters though, because the creation of Zealous Conscripts has drastically influenced my desire to play MTG---Simply put, I don't know what deck to play.

General Reflections About Zealous Conscripts

First, I am still feeling dejected about the viability of R/G Wolf Run, and about ramp strategies in general. Although I realize Zealous Conscripts aren't in every deck, the card's presence in the current metagame makes running any kind of ramp strategy inherently dangerous. It's just not fun when you wait 4-5 turns to cast a Titan (or any creature), just to have it stolen and deal damage to you. R/G Wolf Run already has trouble dealing with early aggression---relying on Slagstorm and Whipflare to sweep away armies---and it's completely viable that a Zealous Conscripts stealing a Titan will result in lethal damage. In addition, cards like Strangleroot Geist and Wolfir Avenger are extremely hard for R/G Wolf Run to kill, and such creatures are often able to deal quite a bit of damage before I'm able to cast a Titan to block. If my opponent then has a Zealous Conscripts, he simply steals the Titan for a turn and kills me with it.

Zealous Conscripts also appears to mess with any sort of Unburial Rites strategies. Casting Unburial Rites to animate a creature from the graveyard is a kind of ramp strategy on its own---the idea is to get a fatty into play as soon as possible. And just as ramp decks are now weak to Zealous Conscripts, decks based around Unburial Rites are too. I mean, what's the use of cheating a fat creature into play if my opponent can just steal it and kill me with it? Decks based around Unburial Rites lack the bomb creature (i.e., Inkwell Leviathan) that exists in other formats. For example, casting Unburial Rites on Sigarda, Host of Herons makes little sense; she costs 5 anyway and dies to easily to the clone effects which run rampant in the current metagame. Cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, while effective at removal, are easily killed with spot removal, clone effects, Day of Judgment effects, and once again, Zealous Conscripts.

There are obviously cards that help against Conscripts. I've thought about adding white and running Naya Wolf Run, for the addition of Cloudshift (and Day of Judgment). Cloudshift is an excellent card in Wolf Run, as it often allows you to blink your Titans, Solemns, and Huntmasters, protecting them from targeted removal like Go for the Throat. In addition, after my opponent casts Zealous Conscripts and chooses a (creature) target, I can use Cloudshift to protect the creature. The problem is that the card is sort of useless on its own, and it may just sit in my hand without a good target the entire game. Also, it would delay a Titan an extra turn, since you need to have the additional one white mana ready to Cloudshift when you play the Titan.

Another choice is Spellskite. Spellskite survives Slagstorm and Whipflare, and can stymie early attackers like Wolfir Avenger. The problem is---aside from the fact that Spellskite's ability costs 2 life to use every time---most decks will sideboard in artifact hate in the second and third games to deal with Inkmoth Nexii, Solemn Simulacrum, and Sphere of the Suns. A Spellskite will only present an additional target and will be unlikely to live long enough to prevent the Conscripts from doing its job.

There are other creatures and strategies who are more Conscript resistant. I like Grave Titan because the zombies can act as blockers. I also like token strategies because the various anthem effects make the tokens quite large, but only while they are under your control. To a lesser extent, Batterskull and Consecrated Sphinx are also good.

The real question is: Am I too paranoid about Zealous Conscripts? Is R/G Wolf Run still viable, or is it time for a change? The more I play online, the more I realize that Zealous Conscripts are a serious threat.

So, I'm trading decks. Still not sure what to play though. Any suggestions?

Steal Ryan's Shit and Kill Him With It.

Dread Marit Lage lies dreaming, not dead.


Cool art. Decent flavor text. Terrible card.









On Sunday I played in a standard tournament at Guardian Games, scoring 3 wins and 1 loss to take 5th place after tiebreaks. Although the tournament was generally enjoyable and I made the prize pool, there were only a few card interactions worth noting.
In round 1 I played against a noob Bant Humans deck (for those who may not know, Bant refers to the U/W/G color combination). My opponent's deck failed to cast anything really dangerous, and I won the match 2-1.
In round 2 I faced a RUG control deck, which I'm beginning to believe presents a terrible matchup for R/G Wolf Run (more on the expiration of Wolf Run Ramp in previous articles). I lost the first game after 40 minutes and had only 10 minutes to sideboard and attempt to win. In game 2, I managed to cast Garruk, Primal Hunter, and even managed to produce several beasts and get him to 6 loyalty before my opponent cast Zealous Conscripts, stole Garruk, and used his ultimate ability to destroy me with a bunch of 6/6 Wurms that should have been mine. Not cool dude. Not cool at all. I lost the match, 0-2.

In round 3 I faced Steve Empey running B/G Glissa Pod. I won the first game by casting an Inferno Titan, which was apparently unanswerable for just long enough to reduce Steve's life to 6. Steve topdecked a Go for the Throat, but by then it was too late: I double Slagstormed players on the subsequent turn, winning the first game.

Game two of this match was kind of hilarious. It reinforced the theme of the day, which appeared to be "Steal Ryan's shit and kill him with it." Steve drew nothing but artifacts, but they happened to be some of the most dangerous artifacts in the game. Over the course of the first 7 turns, Steve cast Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Feast and Famine, Mimic Vat, and Birthing Pod. Although I was killing Steve with two Solemn Simulacrums because he had no creatures out, I still felt like I was losing. It became clear that as soon as Steve drew any other creature, if he had the mana he could (1)cast the creature, (2) pod it into a whatever, (3) place the sacrificed creature under the Mimic Vat, (4)make a token with the Mimic Vat, (5) double equip the swords to the token, and (6) bash me with a ridiculous haste token beatstick. A similarly "broken" outcome would result if Steve ever killed a Solemn. If the token hit me the effect would be ridiculous; he'd untap all his lands, I'd discard a card, I'd take damage equal to the number of cards in my hand, and he'd gain life equal to the number of cards in his. I started leaving Solemns untapped because I was scared he'd be able to kill one at the end of my turn and be able to hit me while I was wide open. I remedied the sitaution by casting a Karn Liberated ,and decided that instead of trying to remove all the artifacts in play, which was slow and probably impossible, I was just going to restart the game. After Karn hit the board, I made Steve exile a card from his hand. He choose Black Sun's Zenith---fine, whatever. The next turn (he again failed to draw a creature), I ticked Karn up again, this time choosing the Primeval Titan in my own hand. "Hahahaha, I'm so smart," I thought. "I'm going to restart this game and just be in an epic position." Imagine this for a moment: I use Karn's ultimate with a Primeval Titan exiled. The game restarts. I get to go first (says the card errata). The Primeval Titan comes into play, so I fetch two lands. He doesn't have summoning sickness, so I attack and fetch two more. In this beautiful hypothetical, by the end of my first turn, I'd have 4-5 lands out, a 6/6 trampling Giant, and my opponent would be at 14 life. Fucking awesome. Unfortunately, I botched the whole thing by (right after exiling the Primeval Titan from my hand) casting an Inferno Titan and dealing 3 damage to Steve. At the end of the turn, Steve cast Go for the Throat on my titan and placed it under the Mimic Vat (Steal Ryan's shit and......well....I should have died). On Steve's turn, he could have made an Inferno Titan token with the Mimic Vat, double equipped it, attacked, and basically won the game, but he misplayed, failed to kill Karn, and I was able to exile the Mimic Vat and cast another Titan on the subsequent turn. I won the match, 2-0.

Go for the Throat was useless against the Solemns, but perfect against the Inferno Titan. I played foolishly because I gave Steve a target. There was no need to cast the Inferno Titan. Lesson learned.

In round 4 I played against a Grixis control deck (Grixis refers to the color combination B/R/U) with Heartless Summoning. The deck never really presented a challenge, and I won the match 2-0.

I received only two packs for my fifth place finish, but lo and behold, I pulled a Cavern of Souls from one of them, which has recently been added to my trade binder. All in all, a pretty sucessful tournament.

"He knows he has a short span of life, that the day will come when he must pass through the wall of oblivion...."

---William Faulkner










Epic. Insane.

Those are the only words I can use to describe the recent tournament experience I had on Friday. As many of you may know, Knightfall Games closed a couple weeks ago, which meant that Ryan, Abi, and I had to find another place to play Magic on Fridays. We decided to play at Guardian Games, and it did not disappoint.

Now, I've mentioned before, Guardian hosts some of the more difficult tournaments around. The venue attracts some of the top rated players in Portland, including David Stroud, Ryan Bemrose, Henry Romero, and others. Some of these players were top rated players (back when Wizards still used the rating system), and even now, they have a gazillion planeswalker points. Although most of these tough players weren't at the tournament on Friday, David Stroud still showed up; so the tournament was fixing to be difficult.

I decided before the tournament to try R/G Wolf Run again, with minor alterations to the main deck and sideboard based on my perception of the metagame. As far as the main deck changes, I removed 2 Green Sun's Zenith, 1 Bird of Paradise, and 1 Inferno Titan from the main deck to add 3 Huntmaster of the Fells and 1 Whipflare. I thought R/W Humans and other aggro strategies would be popular at the moment and the added cards were meant to give my deck more ways to cope. Despite playing five rounds however, I never drew a Huntmaster.

That is not to say the tournament went poorly. I scored clear first! Five wins and zero losses was my final record, beating several strong players on my way to the finish. Now for the matches:
In round 1 I played against a noob running B/R Vampires. My opponent's deck was basically all commons; the games were fairly easy and I won 2-0.

In round 2 I was once again paired against Ryan Engbrecht, who was running RUG Control. Ryan has made a few alterations to the deck he played on Tuesday, abandoning the Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves for a more solid ramp strategy involving Rampant Growth and Sphere of the Suns. He also added board sweepers like Whipflare and Blasphemous Act, to go alongside Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. He also considered cards like Strangleroot Geist and Wolfir Avenger, but for the moment those cards were left in the sideboard.

The match with Ryan was extremely close. Every single game seemed to dangle on whether I would have enough threats to overcome the Tamiyo lock. I won game 1, but in game 2 Ryan came back with a vengance, casting Zealous Conscripts on my titan and killing me with it before I could kill him on the subsequent turn. As I've mentioned before, I absolutely love (and hate) Zealous Conscripts. I find it to be the perfect anti-Wolf Run card because it takes whatever fatty titan you cast and beats you with it. Zealous Conscripts and Sigarda, Host of Herons are the reasons why Wolf Run Ramp may no longer be a particularly viable strategy.

Anyway, the match needed a third game to decide it, and Game 3 did not disappoint. I don't remember any specifics about the game except to say that Inkmoth Nexus and Karn Liberated were crucial to my success. About half-way through the game the tournament director announced that time for the round had expired, and that players have five turns to finish their matches. I killed Ryan on the fifth turn :-P    2-1.

In round 3 I was paired against another ramp deck. My opponent played W/G/R and included cards like Terminus, Solemn Simulacrum, and Gideon Jura. I never saw much of my of my opponent's deck because he was land flooded in both games. One hilarious event did occur in this match: My opponent played Gideon Jura and ticked him up 2, causing all my creatures to attack Gideon next turn. All I had out was an Inkmoth Nexus and a Kessig Wolf Run, and a bunch of lands in my hand. Fortunately, my opponent had nothing but sorcery speed removal and I was able to slowly kill Gideon while trying to draw out of the land flood. After several turns I finally killed the Gideon and my opponent just played another! Nevertheless, by this time I had drawn a Beast Within and I killed my opponent with poison damage soon thereafter.

In round 4 I played David Stroud, one of the higher ranked Portland players mentioned above. David was playing a home brew dredge deck, combining cards like Sun Titan, Unburial Rites, Faithless Looting, and Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded. Although David is an excellent player the games felt a little one-sided, as he seemed to have little creature removal and his Phantasmal Images could be quickly disposed of with Kessig Wolf Run. I won the match, 2-0.

Round 5 was by far the most epic round of the tournament. My opponent was playing NayaPod, which I usually have a great matchup against.  This time however, my opponent had made excellent changes to the deck, adding cards like Sigarda, Host of Herons and Slayers' Stronghold, which gave him a much better game against Wolf Run. At the beginning of the round I offered my opponent a draw. Since I was in clear first a draw would have guaranteed I receive first place, but it would also have ensured that my opponent placed like 6th. He rightly refused the draw, but hey, it was worth a shot.

Game 1 I again mana flooded and I lost the game quickly to a couple Strangleroot Geists backed by Slayers' Stronghold. In game 2, I boarded in two copies of Ancient Grudge to try and kill the Birthing Pod and Blade Splicer tokens. The game was very back and forth. I resolved an Inferno Titan, and placed myself in a situation where I either won or lost the match (and probably the tournament) based on whether my opponent could draw a creature. With over 30 creatures in the deck, my opponent top decked a land, and I won game 2.

Little did I realize, game 3 would be even more intense. I failed to stabalize the board until I was at 7 life and then, as if right on cue, my opponent played a Manabarbs. I looked down at my hand---three titans---wonderful. As I've said before, Manabarbs is so damn good against me. I was lucky I had a Sphere of the Suns out. I cast the Inferno Titan, went down to 2 life, and killed a Strangleroot Geist. The crazy thing was, my opponent wasnt able to play another creature on the next turn, and after drawing Ancient Grudge on my turn, I attacked him for 9 damage, placing him at 9 life. On my opponent's next turn, he played a Huntmaster of the Fells (placing him at 7 life--he took 4 damage from Manabarbs), but before he could use Birthing Pod on it (to fetch a Zealous Conscripts for the win) I cast Ancient Grudge on the Birthing Pod (tapping the Sphere of the Suns and going to 1 life). The next turn, I attacked with the Inferno Titan, killing the Huntmaster and dealing 1 to my opponent (placing him at 6 life and forcing him to block with the Huntmaster's wolf token. I said "done." If my opponent drew a Strangleroot Geist, I was dead. He failed to draw a Geist or any other creature that could survive as a blocker, and I won the match 2-1.

So there it is. I won the tournament with five straight match victories, earning 17 Planeswalker points, a foil promo Ancient Grudge, and $24 of store credit for my trouble, which I used to purchase a Vexing Devil and a Sigarda, Host of Herons. Quite a fun Friday evening!

On Tuesday I played in the Standard Magic Tournament at Ancient Wonders. Before the tournament I was very unsure what I was going to play. As many of you know I have grown a bit tired of R/G Wolf Run, and also a bit uncertain regarding its future in the post-Avacyn environment. I decided before the tournament to try something different, and I ran a U/B Zombie list similar to the one recently suggested by Josh Silvestri (see this article). I hoped that no matter what result I achieved, the deck would be fun to play. Of course, I should have realized, losing is rarely fun. My deck scored 2 wins and 2 losses, placing 6th out of 13 participants.  I added a whopping 7 planeswalker points to my total. I consider this result below average for me, and I felt like U/B Zombies was weak in too many areas to try again. More on this below, but first, to the matches!

In round 1 I was paird against some noob (I've never seen him at AW before and his deck was all commons and unsleeved) running a terrible version of R/W humans. I won the match, 2-0

In round 2 I was paired against Adam Brown, running Esper Planeswalkers (aka W/U/B control). Despite possessing 4 copies of Cavern of Souls in my main deck, I never drew one, and Adam was able to counter all of my relevant creatures in the first game. He eventually slammed down a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and won by simply making a lifelink token every turn. I think Tamiyo, the Moon Sage also did some work against me in the first game. In the next game, I ran into mana issues, drawing all three Caverns and finding myself unable to cast Geralf's Messenger or Blood Artist on the appropriate turns. I lost the match 0-2.

A note about U/B Zombies: I now realize that U/B Zombies is just bad against control decks when the control player is able to stabilize the game (duh). Therefore, because U/B has relatively few "fast hands," the deck does not have much reach against control (Silvestri is just wrong to suggest otherwise) decks. After all, if my opponent is able to slam down a Sorin (or a Garruk, Relentless) on turn 3 or 4, and I have no way of killing it on the subsequent turn, then all of a sudden I'm faced with a situation where the opponent is gaining life and/or blockers every turn (or, in the case of Garruk, the opponent has gained the ability to kill your creatures easily). In addition, if the game started slowly and you find yourself on turn 8 or 9 in a situation where your opponent has more than 10 life, then you are probably just losing. Finally, the deck tends to spend its hand quickly, which I always hate. For the preceding reasons, I do not think the U/B Zombies deck has much reach, and I don't intend to play it again. Okay, note over, now back to the tournament.

In round 3 I faced Alec Baker, who was running his usual Doran Pod. I haven't played Alec in a some time, but I was glad to see him back at a Magic tournament. Alec had made minor alterations to his Birthing Pod deck, adding in multiple copies of Restoration Angel. I am not sold on this card in Pod yet; in my opinion the 4 slot is already jam packed with goodies and Pod only seems to leave mana untapped (thereby benefitting from the Angel's flash ability) when it is already winning (the deck is usually casting a creature or two per turn). Strangely, my games against Alec were the most one-sided of the tournament, as nothing in his deck seemed to be able to deal with multiple copies of Blood Artist. Once the Blood Artists were out, I would simply attack with Gravecrawlers, and if the Gravecrawlers were blocked and killed, Alec would lose life and the Gravecrawlers would return from the graveyard. Killing Wave eventually finished the game. My deck seemed to function perfectly in this matchup (and sideboarding in multiple copies of Torpor Orb against Pod never hurts) and I won the match, 2-0.

In round 4 I faced Ryan Engbrech who was running RUG Aggro Control. Ryan's deck utilized cards like Bird of Paradise, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Strangleroot Geist, Green Sun's Zenith, Garruk, Relentless and Wolfrir Silverheart to attack quickly and remove blockers. Once again, U/B Zombies appeared unable to deal enough damage early, or to disrupt my opponent's plan of getting Tamiyo or Garruk out as early as possible. If I remember correctly, Ryan won this match 2-0.

And so readers, there you have it. A so-so tournament for the record books. I'm glad I tried something different, even if I think the result was ultimately disappointing. It was nice to play Black again. Until next time readers....

From an era when MTG designers knew how to write flavor text.....


"Some fiendish mage had created a horrifying wall of living flesh, patched together from a jumble of non-recognizable body parts. As we sought to hew our way through it, some unknown power healed the gaping wounds we cut, denying us passage."




On Sunday afternoon I decided to enter the usual Standard tournament at Guardian Games. I ran R/G Wolf Run yet again, choosing a variant of the list that Iyunaga had success with at the 2011 Magic the Gathering World Championships (the list can be found here). I did not have nearly as much success on Sunday as Iyunaga did. The metagame has changed dramatically from the list he ran in 2011, perhaps the most drastic changes coming with the new release of Avacyn Restored. On Sunday, I found my deck was simply unprepared for the recent chages, and I scored 1 win and 2 losses before dropping out of the race.

In the first round, I faced Ryan Bemrose who was running a Grixis control deck. Ryan used cards like Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Black Sun's Zenith, Mana Leak, Dissipate, and Doom Blade to control the board, while he proceeded to "mill" me (a term of art based on Millstone) with cards like Nephalia Drownyard, and Jace, Memory Adept. I won game one with a resolved Primeval Titan on turn 4. Ryan did not have anything to deal with the Titan and he simply scooped his cards---the game was quick. Games 2 and 3 did not go as well. Ryan was able to resolve Tamiyo and keep her out long enough to completely lock down a Solemn Simulacrum, while any Titan I tried to cast was quickly countered. Oh how I wish I had had a Cavern of Souls! I made one play mistake in this game, which I think cost me the victory. It basically involved a decision to play a Rootbound Crag instead of a Copperline Gorge on move 16ish, thereby giving me 13 mana on both the current turn and next turn, instead of doing it the other way around and having 12 mana this turn and 14 mana next. The extra mana would have meant that Inkmoth Nexus could have swung for lethal poison damage after being inflated with a Kessig Wolf Run. Game 3 also went poorly with Ryan establishing control before I could resolve any threats. I lost the match 1-2.

I should note here, that several times throughout this match I caught Ryan attempting to "cheat." ALthough I cannot be 100% sure that his actions were designed to cheat, I think he is too good a player not to realize when he does not have 3 blue mana untapped, or to forget when he has already played a land this turn. When I called him on his errors it became obvious (to me at least) that he already knew the error and that he had tried purposefully to deceive me. Enough said about that.

In round 2 I faced W/R humans, a new aggro build that several players have expressed excitement about. I am not sold on the deck, although I like the use of Zealous Conscripts. Nevertheless, Slagstorm proved too much for the deck, and I won the match 2-0.

In round 3 I faced David Stroud, who was running Solar Flare (I think) with no counterspells. My deck functioned terribly. My draws were awful and I got mana screwed both games, missing crucial land drops. At one interesting point in the game, David had a Sun Titan out. I cast an Inferno Titan (as a blocker) dealing 3 damage to David and passing the turn. David cast two Phantasmal Images, each copying the Inferno Titan and each dealing 3 damage to it. The Inferno Titan died and David was left with three titans! GG yo, 0-2.

So the tournament went poorly. I realize now that I really need to change decks. This R/G deck has been great, but it is time for a change. We'll see what I come up with for Tuesday. Until then....

P.S. I would like to sidenote about something Melanie thought of. Why is there no Legendary Wall in magic? There are tons of legendary creatures but no legendary walls. Something should be done about this. Okay, sidenote over.

On Tuesday night I played in a Standard MTG tournament at Ancient Wonders. I ran R/G Wolf Run one more time---winning three matches and losing one to take third place. The tournament was won by Ryan Engbrecht, followed closely by Adam Brown.

The first round did not go well. I was once again paired against Adam Brown who ran his G/W aggro-control deck. We split the first two games and thus the match needed a third game to determine a winner. I mulliganned down to six and ended up having to keep a hand with nothing but lands and some Beast Withins. While Beast Within is an excellent card to draw late, it is actually not that great when drawn early. Adam kept a particularly fast and aggressive hand and was able to win the game quickly. I lost the match 1-2.

The next round, I faced Steve Empey who was running a W/B aggro-control deck. Steve's deck included cards like Sphere of the Suns, Lingering Souls, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Grave Titan, Massacre Wurm, Solemn Simulacrum, Day of Judgment, and Oblivion Ring. The games were close but it seemed like Steve's hand emptied quickly and I was able to meet most of his threats. Furthermore, I felt his deck was a little light on copies of Go for the Throat (he only ran 2). Finally, after the game Steve revealed that he chose not to sideboard in three copies of Hero of Bladehold, which is actually a strong card against my deck (because her toughness of 4 survives Slagstorm). I won the match 2-0.

In round 3 I was paired against Tempered Steel. Tempered Steel seems to be making a slight resurgence these days, as there were two Tempered Steel players in this tournament. I've always thought my deck has a good matchup against Tempered Steel, and this tournament simply confirmed my suspicions. I won the match, 2-0. The funnest part of the match was game two, where every card I played I got two-for-one. First, I casted Slagstorm on turn 3 and killed two creatures, then I cast Ancient Grudge and flashed it back to kill two more, and then, I used Karn Liberated to kill an Etched Champion enchanted with Angelic Destiny (this was actually more like two-for-zero since Karn survived). G fucking G.

In round 4 I played against NayaPod. My opponent was a good player; I could tell; but his deck was just outmatched. NayaPod has a terrible matchup against Wolf Run because so many of NayaPod's threats are easily answered by Slagstorm, Whipflare, and Galvanic Blast. The games were ridiculously one-sided and I won the match 2-0. The best part of this match was admiring my opponent's deck; fe also used a lot of "bling" cards in his deck.

After 4 rounds, Adam and I were tied with 3-1 records, and of course, I lost on tie-breaks. I suppose 3rd place out of 16 or so players is nothing to be ashamed of, but somehow the result still irks me. Also, it's strange to me that Ryan has had such success with Solar Flare, since the deck has been out of the spotlight for so long. In a way, it's like the format has come full circle. Solar Flare was at the height of its popularity just after the release of Innistrad, and now it makes a "resurgence" just before the Avacyn Restored release.

Avacyn Restored rotates into Standard on Friday, which means the format will have to shift to make room for new strategies. Analysts are predicting a resurgence of Wolf Run decks, based on the release of Cavern of Souls, which already has a $25 price tag. I'm not convinced, but I'm considering playing U/B control to try and outmaneuver the new rotation. We'll see. Until next time, readers!