Year in Review: 2022

Back in the days of the forums of TexasMagicZone.com, I would usually write a year-end recap of my Magic events. They never made it to the blog and now, like most of my other writing in that forum, they are lost forever. The closes I've come on this blog was a 2016 Resolutions post that I didn't achieve nor ever revisit.

I don't know if I will do these every year going forward, but this seemed like a good year to do it. For past years, I hope the ongoing PWP project will eventually include some year-by-year analysis, but that is not happening any time soon.

Some of the important non-Magic events of the year can provide context. First, I completed my Masters program and graduated in December of 2021. This meant I was no longer balancing work with school and had more free time. My wife and I moved from Texas to New Jersey. COVID is still out there, but with vaccines, boosters, and milder strains, it's not a hinderance to me personally enjoying things in a manner like the before times. 

I'm going to review this year format by format, as I think it paints the best picture of where I'm at currently with Magic.

Old School

This was the year I fully committed to playing Old School. This is because of a few factors. One, moving to New Jersey put me close to many more players and events than Bryan Texas. Two, the competitive play offerings for non Old School no longer had a sizeable advantage over Old School events. The "path to the Pro Tour" was maybe a bit more clear, but the value not the same as previous. The Star City Games circuit also no longer seemed worth travelling very far for. Finally, some fortunate travel plans meant I was going to be in Europe for the WinC0n Old School World Championships and I wanted to make sure I was prepared and doing it right.

The first event I played was an online event put on by the Canadian clubs. I played Atog as part of the non-Canadian Outsiders team. I went 4-1 and helped the team achieve 2nd (or 3rd?) place. I don't know why I didn't write this one up, but I'll put my deck photo here:

The next event I played was the Philly Tournament for Balance where I finished 3rd place. I went 4-2 with AtogShops. You can read the report from that here.

Because of fortunate travel plans, I ended up in Italy for the OS Championships. I played all three events and managed to top 8 the Scryings event. Read about it here.

Next up was the Buffalo Stampede at the end of October. I went 5-1 to finish in 3rd place. link

Simon and I teamed up for TwoHeaded Giant at JawnCon and once again finished in 3rd place.

Lastly, the NAOS Cup at Eternal Weekend, where I broke the 3rd place trend with a 2nd place finish.

So over those eight events and six-ish formats, my record was 32-14. I'd call that a solid showing, and I'm looking forward to improving on it if I can. Mano and Mason said I was the clear "Rookie of the Year" on All Tings Considered. I supposed I'm a rookie as I only played some local Texas events and only one a year from 2019-2021. So if that counts, I don't know who my competition would have been. The criteria of "Mano said so" is easier to understand than Major League Baseball eligibility rules. This feels much more like Dennis Quaid than Thomas Ian Nicholas to me though.

Middle School / Premodern

I played three Romancing the Stones Middle School leagues, one Philly Old School Premodern league, and one IRL Premodern event in New Jersey. I managed to finally top 8 the RTS league after two years of close (and not close) calls. I even made back to back top 8s and almost won one!

February - Dance Party - I played Mesa Enchantress. I thought I wrote about this, but it must have been overlooked in the move. I went 4-2 and lost in the top 8 to MasaH on Parallax Tide Replenish. Here's what I played:

August - Summer School - I played Abzan Aluren and finished in 2nd place. Read about it here

October - Fall Semester - 3-3 with Naya Zoo. link

For Premodern, I played NightmareWhale for both the Philly OS League and the local 1K in New Jersey. I went 1-4 at the local event, but I did win the league. I'll be playing something else in the new year.

I've been trying to withhold judgement, but I now feel like I'm close to forming an opinion on which is better. I'm going to probably focus on Premodern to prepare for Lobstercon and save my final verdict until then, but as of now I think Middle School is better in the areas that matter most.

Modern / Pioneer

In March, I did a blind deck swap with Collin Rountree at the Hunter Burton Memorial Open in DFW. He gave me Amulet Titan, which I had never played before. I killed myself with Summoner's Pact on turn two on camera in round one, and the rest of the event was not much better. Also involved in the blind deck swap was Will Lowry. I cost him a match by accidently swapping his lands for his sideboard so he played a game with no mana in his deck. Oh well, those are the perils of blind deck swap I guess.

The only other Modern event I played was the RCQ I won with Merfolk. I still think Merfolk is sweet and hope I can play it in the upcoming HBMO.

Pioneer was limited to two events, the RC in Atlanta and the side event the day after. If winning the RCQ was my Magic highlight of the year (I don't think it is, but it was the only event I won), then the 0-4 at Atlanta was the lowlight. The side event was fun enough to not turn me off of the competitive circuit play for good, but I'm less excited about future RCQs and RCs for now.

Vintage / Legacy

My only Vintage experience was playing a side event at the Hunter Burton event. I think I went 3-2, with Doomsday, missing out on top 8. I love that they offer sanctioned Vintage at this event every year, and will continue to bring my deck when I attend.

The only Legacy I played was the Legacy Championship at Eternal Weekend. Legacy used to be my favorite format, but now that seems like so long ago. It still looks like it could be fun, but there hasn't been any reason to play. Maybe I will check out the local scene.

Standard

L.O.L.

Other Events

Probably my favorite event of the year was the Invasion-Planeshift-Apocalypse draft that Andrew Webb hosted in Austin shortly before I moved away. The event also featured IPA Block Constructed, which was a great time as well. I went 3-0 in Draft (see below) and 2-1 in Constructed (with Naya Panther, an inspiration for the MS Zoo deck I played later in the year).

Loot

I believe these are all the fun cards acquired at these events:

Looking Ahead

2022 was a great year for me at finding new ways to enjoy the game I love. I played the least amount of MTGO of any year in probably decades, and almost zero MTG Arena, and still had a great time.  

For 2023, the only event I'm committed to attending is the Scry Hard 2 Scryings event in NJ in January. I am strongly considering both LobsterCon and the HBMO. I would like to plan on attending Eternal Weekend again, if only there was a date to save!

The rest of the schedule is still open. I probably won't be flying to Europe to play Old School, but I haven't ruled it out completely. I may try to play more online webcam Old School events starting with the Winter Derby, but beyond that it will depend on how much I enjoy that one.

Also the Gathering part was great! I met so many new people this year, and they were all great! Some are even greater, but the tier list is a secret.

Until next year,

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

-Ty

White Initiative at Eternal Weekend Legacy Championships

This is already a week later than I wanted, but I had match notes so going to still get it out. Not a lot of deep analysis here though.

As previously mentioned, the only events I got to play at Eternal Weekend were the Thursday Old School event and the Legacy Championships on Saturday. I hadn't played Legacy in over three years, but assumed I would still be playing whatever the current flavor of Blood Moon was. 

Turns out, the current flavor is White and doesn't involve Blood Moon at all.

The Deck

I ordered the Initiative white creatures early enough that I would have them, even though I still didn't know what they did. As the week of the event approached, I finally read all the rooms of the Undercity dungeon and printed out a copy to use. 

Collin Rountree and Jacob Nagro were advocating for a Once Upon a Time build with Mox Diamond and more lands instead of Chrome Mox and Emeria's Call. They also were less interested in the lock pieces of Chalice and Thalia and instead wanted to speed run the dungeon. At the time, this sounded reasonable, but I'm not sure it is the correct approach overall. I went with their advice and played this:

4 White Plume Adventurer

4 Seasoned Dungeoneer

4 Solitude

4 Anointed Peacekeeper

4 Elite Spellbinder

1 Palace Jailer

4 Once Upon a Time

4 Mox Diamond

4 Lotus Petal

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Touch the Spirit Realm

4 City of Traitors

4 Ancient Tomb

4 Cavern of Souls

2 Karakas

2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

6 Plains

Sideboard

1 Gemstone Caverns

3 Chalice of the Void

1 Containment Priest

2 Cathar Commando

1 Dismember

4 Faerie Macabre

3 Archon of Emeria

Just a few notes here:

Once Upon a Time is strong and lets you find the Cavern of Souls and Initiative creatures way more frequently. It also does the same with important sideboard creatures like Palace Jailer, Containment Priest, and Faerie Macabre. With 4 Mox Diamond and 4 Lotus Petals, we decided that a basic Forest was not needed, and I'm glad that decision was made. Dismember was great and I had two up until the last minute. Should have stayed with two as it answers Empty-Shrine Kannushi, but probably should have also had a Walking Ballista for that since it can also be found off of OUAT. I managed to use Gemstone Caverns twice in eight rounds and lost both games, so maybe it's not worth the sideboard slot. 

The Games

(opponent names taken from MTG Melee)

Round 1 - Adam Prusa on 4-Color Yorion Spellseeker

Game one he had to Force Petal on turn one facing my Cavern opener but the turn two Orc still won easily. Game two I had two Swords to Plowshares and a Dismember to stop his Spellseeker for Ephemerate Shenanigans.

1-0

Round 2 - Mark Kitchenman on Elves
Game one I mulligan to five cards and only have turn one Peacekeeper on the draw. I manage to slow down his development by naming Quirion Ranger but eventually he found a Cradle and Natural Order to kill me. Game two is similar as I have turn one Chalice but he has two Elvish Visionary to continue development. My Archon of Emeria probably isn't doing much but he does Zenith for Grist to kill it, and then Natural Order for Craterhoof kills me again.

1-1

Round 3 - Chad Maurer on Jeskai Miracles

Game one I use Peacekeeper on his Flooded Strand which prevents him from being able to miracle the Triumph of Saint Katherine (yes, I had to read it). He draws some spells which don't interact with Initiative and I win. Game two I get initiative and keep him from using Snapcaster to get it back, but he does miracle Entreat the Angels. At this point, he's too low on life to race so I attack with an Orc with some counters on it to kill one angel. Eventually I kill him with the Undercity. 

2-1

Round 4 - Bryce Morgan on 4-Color Loam
Game one my hand does nothing and he has Swords for my only guy and his creatures win easily. Game two I have turn one Initiative and he didn't have Force of Will. He gets too far behind. Game three I again have turn one initiative and he Brainstorms in response but doesn't find the answer. I have Containment Priest in play when my dungeon reaches the end so that non-bo happened but I was so far ahead that it did not affect the game.

3-1

Round 5 - Brandon Chang on MonoWhite Initiative
Game one I have first initiative but he has Jailer to try to swing the tide. I also have Jailer and being both Monarch and the one with Initiative was too much. Game two he has turn one Empty-Shrine Kannushi so I can't go for Initiative right away. I hold up mana for Eiganjo but he doesn't swing into it. Eventually I play the Orc to get Initiative and try to win the race. I manage to do so by using both Eiganjos after I reveal one to Explore and that with Solitude and a Swords to Plowshares meant I kept Initiative from that point on and won.

4-1

Round 6 - Justin Ryan on Izzet Delver

Game one I have an Orc on turn two and he has Daze. Unfortunately for him, I also had Cavern of Souls. The loss of tempo was too much for him to recover from. Game two I have Chalice for one but he already has a Dragon's Rage Channeler in play. I take about 7 points from it before using Solitude to stop the bleeding. He follows up with Unchained Berserker (!!) and I'm in a tight spot. I draw enough Initiative creatures though to progress the Undercity to the point where I get a Skeleton to block with just in time. He has a Murktide Regent to threaten lethal but I draw Solitude for that. He only draws one-mana spells from that point and I win with Initiative.

5-1

Round 7 - Jeff Kinsey on MonoWhite Initiative

He asks if I played Vintage on Friday and I tell him no. I ask him if he played and he says yes. I ask him what he played and he said "I'd rather not say". Which is basically saying that he's playing Initiative, so I mulligan appropriately. Game one I have first Initiative but then draw five land in a row and lose. Game two I have turn one Dungeoneer and turn two Palace Jailer off of so many Lotus Petals and the advantage of both is too much. Game three I have Gemstone Caverns on the draw, but only have turn one Spellbinder. He shows me a hand with three Orcs and a Dungeoneer. I manage to slow him down but draw too many lands and eventually he can cast Dungeoneer and win. I had a spot where I could block and Dismember to keep iniative but I save my creature to attack back. This made my clock lethal if he doesn't find removal or flyer off of the end of his dungeon and also gave me more outs, but I drew another land. Maybe keeping him from initiative one turn to delay his end of dungeon was the better play.

5-2

Round 8 - Jeffrey Zhang on FiveColor Loam Zenith with Yorion

Game one he has Wasteland and Loam to slow me down but I eventually get some basics and Palace Jailer. Despite all his creatures, he can't get the Monarch from me so this game goes long, even though I'm so far behind from Wasteland I really don't think I can win. Eventually I get Initiative back after he forgets the trigger twice in his upkeep. I reach the end of the dungeon and reveal ten non-creatures off the top so I guess it wasn't meant to be. Game two I have turn one Spellbinder which takes his Abundant Growth and he can't cast any spells. Game three I use three Peacekeepers on the two Swords to Plowshares in his hand but can't find an Initiative card or any other gas to close the door. Eventually he uses Prismatic Ending on one Peacekeeper to unlock the two Swords and all my threats are neutralized. I just play along as he generates tons of value with Yorion and Karakas and I lose.

5-3

I was fairly confident that 7-3 would not make prize, especially after the 5-3 start so I elect to drop instead of coming back to play again on Sunday (which would have cost me another $20 to get on site, what's up with that?)

My Thoughts on Initiative

One of my better skills in Magic is the ability to identify a broken deck when I see one. I've done this many times over my playing career to great success. This event didn't have the success, but I feel the same about this deck as I did with Mythic Conscription, or Dungrove Ramp, or any of the other times I've done this. The following opinions presented with the caveat I have only eight matches of sample size, but on the other side of that coin, keep in mind that its clear to me after just eight matches.

Initiative feels like a weird combination of Eldrazi (for disruptive bodies that end the game quickly), True-Name Nemesis (for the inability to be interacted with), and CawBlade (for board state complexity and decision tree intensity). I think it is an issue and should be addressed. 

The best way to combat Initiative is to play your own Initiative creatures. I don't think the fast mana of Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors would be enough to stop the coming Initiative arms race. There are certainly decks that will improve in a metagame full of Initiative (I think Elves is a good candidate), but that does not mean Initiative is not an issue. There are always metagame decisions to be made when busted cards are around, whether they be Necropotence or Skullclamp or Treasure Cruise or Underworld Breach or whatever. 

There are so many initiative creatures that banning just the best ones might not be good enough. It probably is, but I'm not sure thats a risk worth taking. The only reason to fix the problem with a ban instead of a rules change is to maintain the playability in Vintage. The initiative deck in Vintage is probably good for the format as a whole, but I do not think it is good for Legacy.

Future Legacy

I don't know how much Legacy I'll play in the future. I'll try to play in Eternal Weekend again next year, but don't even know when or why I would play beyond that. Maybe there will be a team event where someone needs a Legacy player and I can join them.

Props:

Philadelphia Convention Center for being great place for big events

Reading Terminal Market 

My wife 

Slops:

Daily badge entry to event sites with only a voucher for side events included

2nd place with TrollAtog at Eternal Weekend North American Old School Magic Cup

This past weekend, Eternal Weekend took place in Philadelphia. I've wanted to participate in EW for a long time now, but have never been able to make it work except for the online version in 2020. This year, it would be only an hour away, so I wanted to play as many events as possible. Unfortunately, work and other commitments meant I would only be able to play in the Legacy Championship on Saturday. 

However, the plans I had on Thursday evening canceled at around 14:30, which left me just enough time to rearrange my schedule to get to Philadelphia and Love City Brewing for the 17:45 player meeting. Luckily, I already had a deck sleeved up in preparation for the upcoming Winter Derby. 

The Deck

4 Atog

4 Sedge Troll

4 Black Vice

1 Jalum Tome

1 Copy Artifact

2 Relic Barrier

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Psionic Blast

1 Fireball    

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestrall Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 City in a Bottle

1 Mind Twist

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 Volcanic Island

4 Badlands

4 Underground Sea

1 City of Brass

1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard

1 Falling Star

1 Earthquake

2 City in a Bottle

3 Shatter

3 Copper Tablet

2 Gloom

1 Terror

1 Shatterstorm

1 Braingeyser

This is the next iteration of the BottleAtog list I played in Buffalo in October. Once again, the idea is to use City in a Bottle to destroy City of Brass and use the 4x Strip Mine to further constrain the mana. This time I opted for Black instead of White as my support color. This gives access to Demonic Tutor, which means multiple Bottles main deck is no longer necessary. This also gives Mind Twist, which just wins games.

For supplemental threat, I went with Sedge Troll. I was already planning on playing the full eight dual land Swamps, so it was a natural fit. As it is more of a midrange card, I didn't think playing Chain Lightning was necessary. There are no turn one Savannah Lions to clear the way for, and a lot of the creatures that Chain kills are blanked by having a Troll in play. 

The other strategy in the main deck was to not have any non-restricted cards that couldn't be converted into damage. So instead of Shatter or other reactive cards, I played artifacts like Relic Barrier that could be sacrificed to Atog for damage. 

The sideboard options in black aren't quite as good as with white, but they are serviceable. Earthquake is always a consideration when you don't play Savannah Lions and it works fine with Troll. Terror is a reasonable Swords to Plowshares replacement. There isn't an answer to The Abyss or Moat as good as Disenchant, but Gloom does a good enough job at stopping Circle of Protection: Red which is significantly better against the increased red threat count.

The Event

I believe 50 or so players showed up. The brewery was very nice. There was a small hiccup where the bartenders thought it was open bar, but it was sorted out quickly enough before round one to not be a total disaster, and most people ended up with a free beer or two from the mix-up. 

I don't have great notes or full record of pairings, so some names and events might be slightly off.

Round 1 - Jason Castonguay

He did not show up, so I win this round. Lucky

1-0

Round 2 - Brett Attmore - UR Atog

He had basic Island and basic Mountain. Game one he has an early Ankh of Mishra, but is stuck on two mana so while I take 6 damage from it, I'm never in danger of dying and I think I burn him out. I don't remember game two, but it might have involved Mind Twist.

2-0

Round 3 - Andy Callaghan? - MonoGreen Aggro

Game one I have turn one Timetwister but I'm on the draw so its parity vs his land and Llanowar Elf. He has too many cheap beaters to follow up and I don't have enough removal. Game two I think I land a Black Vise and Strip Mine him twice and he's never really in it. Game three he has two Scryb Sprites and an Argothian Pixies, but they get swept up by my Falling Star. I think I have Mind Twist the following turn to ensure the game is locked up.

3-0

Round 4 - Michael Scheffenacker - RUG 12 Bolt with Kird Ape

I win game one with a Demonic Tutor for City in a Bottle to get his City of Brass and Serendib Efreet. Game two he has two Argothian Pixies but I have Earthquake for 1 and then Demonic Tutor for Relic Barrier to stop his Jade Statue. I think I also have Library going for a few turns this game. Eventually I draw some beaters to kill him as he floods out.

4-0

Round 5 - Will Parshall - Atog

Game one he has early Vise and Ankh, but is losing to my board presence. I'm two points short of killing him with Atogs when he draws Ancestral to find the burn he needs to kill me. I maybe could have avoiding playing one land, but I'm not sure. Game two I don't remember but I think I win quickly with Vise and Timetwister. Game three I keep a hand with Lotus, Time Walk, Badlands, Factory, Atog, Demonic Tutor, Psionic Blast. He has turn one Vise so my first turn is Badlands Lotus Atog Time Walk to avoid Vise damage. I have drawn City in a Bottle for the extra turn but no other mana source. I play City instead of Demonic Tutor in order to wait for more information and to have protection for my Atog from a bolt. He has Chain Lightning which I sacrifice the Bottle to save Atog. He also has Strip Mine for my Factory. I never draw another mana source and die to his Vise and Factory shortly after. There is some debate whether to tutor for a Mox, or to mulligan the hand, but I'm not sure either play is better than taking the occasional loss to Strip Mine.

4-1

Round 6 - I don't remember who I played this round - Shops

Game one I'm ahead with some Vise and Atog damage. He has two Icy holding me down, but then draws the sixth mana to play Triskelion. This gives me a turn to Timetwister into another Vise and two Lightning Bolt which is enough to finish him off. Game two he has an early Su-Chi and Copy. I have turn one Library so I start digging. I use Shatter to kill one and then Mind Twist to get the two Trikes in his hand when he's on five mana. I manage to get Relic Barrier to stop the other Su-Chi beats. Eventually Library finds me enough burn to end the game before he can find any more threats.

5-1

Will Parshall ends up the lone undefeated for first place. I have the best tiebreakers of the 5-1s and take second place. I select the Winter Orb for my prize.

Conclusion

The deck performed about as expected. I don't think this build is the best way to build Atog but I think it has unique advantages. I've still yet to face anyone on The Deck with these builds so the viability there is still just theoretical.

The event was a great time. Thanks to Jimmy for putting it on with short notice.

Props:

Love City Brewing - beer was fine, but rolling with the open bar / cash bar mix up was nice. The venue was a great spot for event

Philadelphia parking - I've shit on Philly parking and road layout previously, but this area was very easy to get to and I didn't struggle to find street parking. Probably not good enough for a true "prop", but in the interest of fairness I'll put them here

My wife Beth for allowing me last minute to go to the event after our other plans fell through

Slops:

Strip Mine - just when you think 4 Strip is no big deal after 10 rounds of it, Strip Mine is there to remind you who the boss is. (I've got nothing against 4 Strip formats, just salty about the round 5 loss)

Naya Zoo in Middle School

I recently played in the Romancing the Stones Fall Semester Middle School League. I went 3-3 with Naya Zoo and finished in 15th place. 

The Deck

4 Jackal Pup

4 Savannah Lions

4 Jungle Lion

1 Grim lavamancer

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Goblin Legionnaire

1 Granger Guildmage

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Rancor

2 Cursed Scroll

3 Wax / Wane

1 Armadillo Cloak

4 Battlefield Forge

4 Karplusan Forest

2 Brushland

3 Rith's Grove

3 Gemstone Mine

2 City of Brass

1 Thran Quarry

1 Undiscovered Paradise

Sideboard

3 Seal of Cleansing

2 Pyroblast

3 Tormod's Crypt

1 Phyrexian Furnace

3 Winter Orb

2 Simoon

1 Armadillo Cloak

I wanted to play a few cards that are only legal (or good) in Middle School: Jungle Lion and Goblin Legionnaire. I even tried to play Kird Ape. It is possible to build the manabase to support Ape with eight fetches and two Forests. However, basic Forest is not good. Basic Plains and basic Mountain are not good either, and the deck failed to cast two spells in a turn quite frequently. So I scrapped the Apes for a better mana base, once again playing zero basic land.

The creature suite is solid. I don't know if Legionnaire is great, but it certainly wasn't bad. I considered playing a couple of Anurid Brushhopper but decided against in order to keep the curve low. Lavamancer is just fine without a lot of ways to fuel the graveyard. I could see Guildmage being the better choice and would play a second and third Guildmage before adding the second Lavamancer. Rancor sort of counts as a creature in this deck. I don't think you need four copies when you have Jungle Lion to up the power of your one drops. It can be clunky sometimes to play out and trample was not that relevant. I would play three copies or fewer going forward.

The only spells you have to play are Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares. I think Wax / Wane does enough in the format that I would also want at least three copies, but the Wax side is a bit underwhelming. It does shore up lots of matchups against Oath, Survival, Necropotence, Humility, and Deed. Scroll is kind of slow and the mana base doesn't support it that well. Drawing Gemstone Mine or Undiscovered Paradise or Rith's Grove can make it hard to utilize. It could be just a sideboard card. The other options for spells would be to play Seal of Fire or another burn spell, or to mainv deck some copies of Winter Orb. After playing the league, I think I would try to play two or three Orbs in the main and go up to the full four Rith's Grove to supplement it. When everything in the deck costs one mana Orb will be asymmetrical against most other decks even when it isn't shutting them down completely. The Armadillo Cloak was about as good as expected, which is to say I expected it to be not that great. I only played it for the style points.

I really liked the sideboard I played except for Simoon, but other options to include if you shift Orbs to the main deck would be Absolut Law, more Cursed Scroll or Lavamancer type cards, or some more resilient threats like Anurid Brushhopper or Call of the Herd.

There are four and five color versions of this archetype popular in Premodern that play Carnophage and Sarcomancy along with Duress. They are usually base Jund colors or Mardu. The mana base isn't that much worse for them since they replace the pain ands with more City of Brass and that means you take about the same amount of damage. Damage from your own lands is the biggest drawback to this archetype. 

I considered a straight Red Green approach that would utilize Kird Ape and Skyshroud Elite to replace Savannah Lions and Goblin Legionnaire along with more burn spells. Giving up the Lions is not that big of a deal, but not having Swords to Plowshares, Wax / Wane, and Seal of Cleansing is a big deal. The mana base would be a lot better at not doing damage to yourself. 

The Games

Round 1 vs Jake Baltz on Urzatron Time Spiral Time Stretch deck

Game one he mulligan to five on the draw and I have Lion Lion Pup so he's facing 6 power before he can even play a spell. He plays two islands and Mana leak on my Legionnaire but then concedes when no third land.  Game two he has Force of Will for my turn one Lion and Syncopate for turn two Legionnaire. I have two Savannah Lion turn three and then land Winter Orb. He takes two turns to get mana back online and tries for Chromatic Sphere plus Fire to kill my creatures but I save one with Wax. I draw another Pup off the top and another Wax to kill him the turn before he has enough mana for time Spiral. 

1-0

Round 2 vs Phillip Collier on White Weenie

Game one I have enough Bolts and Swords to eliminate his problem creatures (Paladin and Mother and Silver Knight) and he only has shadow guys that don't win the race. Game two he stuck on one land and forced to block with Mother of Runes to prevent damage from my Rancored Lion but I have Wax to make it huge blowout and by the time he finds Tithe and more lands he's dead.

2-0

Round 3 vs Lorien Elleman on Bubblick Muck Tendrils Necropotence

This match was streamed here. Game one I have two Cats and Rancor and he never really recovers. Game two he kills my first two guys and has Necro plus Zuran Orb and I flood out. Game three I lead Pup he has Carnophage, I decide to use Wax to trade instead of letting my guy die with Rancor. I follow up with second Pup, but he has Cabal Ritual into Priest into Engineered Plague on Jackal and I'm blown out. The rancor I'm left with doesn't answer Necro and I lose shortly after.

2-1

Round 4 vs Robert Wilson on CounterRebels

Game one goes very long as I get two Cursed Scroll active. My sixth land is Undiscovered Paradise so its tough for me to activate both each turn though. I kill a Lin Sivvi and a Sky Marshall but then he sticks Standstill and starts attacking with Conclave once my hand is a bit more full. I have four cards, two are Rancor and I miss like four Scroll activations at 50% before I'm forced to break Standstill. He wins from there. Game two I have enough pressure and removal and he gets too far behind so I easily win. Game three I kill his first Mother and Rebel, he has Disenchant for my Cursed Scroll though. I have Lion with Cloak to try to race his Thermal Glider but I end up drawing 8 land and 8 spells flood out while he kills me with Glider and Factories.

2-2

Round 5 vs Dustin Ransom on Blue Storm

Game one I keep hand with Wax/Wane thinking he's on Stasis like he's played every other league but he plays turn two Helm and then kills me on turn five when my clock wasn't fast enough. Game two I have two Legionarre and Seal for his first Medallion. I have no green mana so my clock is a bit slow. He has second Helm and I bolt him to 9. I draw City for Rancor attack for 6 he's at 3. I can activate both Legionnaires to kill but I also have Pyroblast in hand and only two red sources so I tank a bit. In the end I decide letting him untap on his turn is too risky so I go for it and he can't kill at instant speed. Game three he mulligan to five and I keep Lion Lion Rancor Seal Brushland two red cards on the draw. I never draw a second land but he never finds third land and I win with just 2/1 beats somehow.

3-2

Round 6 vs Keith Sweeney on Black Aggro

Game one I'm looking good with double Rancor to get him down to five life but he gets Cursed Scroll online and I'm forced to top deck mode. Because of his Sarcomancy doing damage each turn, I have four turns to draw any of Mogg Fanatic, Goblin Legionnaire, Lightning Bolt, or Cursed Scroll  but I don't and he attacks for lethal while he's at 1. Game two I have Lion plus Rancor off of Undiscovered Paradise so my development a bit slow. All he has is the one Sphere of Resistance he left in but Wasteland and Hymn make it so I can't play any of the three Legionnaire in my hand. I kill his Factory but he has Slayer to start chipping away. Eventually I get him to 3 life with Legionnaires before his Scroll takes over and I fail to find the Lightning Bolt to win.

3-3

Lessons Learned

All three of my losses ended up making the top eight, and they all felt close enough that with better draws or slightly better build I could have been there instead. In several games against Necropotence and Rebels I really wanted to draw Winter Orb after sideboard and never did. I think going forward I would try to play Winter Orb main deck in some quantity.  I also think playing fewer Rancor is fine as I routinely had multiple in my hand without anything to put them on. Cursed Scroll was a tough card to beat, but maybe the best answer is more Scrolls of my own, but this is would not work with Winter Orb. 

This was probably the deck that surprised me the most from how good I expected it to be compared to how well it performed. I would definitely consider playing this again if I felt the metagame was right. 

Props:

Once again, Middle School format for letting you play with sweet Portal cards

Once again, Romancing the Stones crew for running these great events

MasaH for finally winning one of these leagues

Slops:

Once again, formats where you can't play sweet Portal cards like Jungle Lion

Cursed Scroll for missing my coin flips. 

Thirteen Rounds with Mutavault at the Regional Championship in Atlanta

Back in September, I won an RCQ in my only attempt. I figured I may as well attend the Regional Championship, mostly to see if I was at all interested in the higher levels of competitive play available in these times. This report is a bit late. The tournament was the weekend before Thanksgiving so I spent the week after travelling for the holiday.

Regional Championship Recap

The testing process did not go as well as I would have liked. I had access to a solid group for collaboration, but I just could not get myself to play that many games. Much of this was due to how much I disliked the Pioneer format. The games did not make me want to keep playing, whether I won or I lost.

After a few weeks of testing and observing results from teammates, I knew a few things. Green was the deck to beat, but that was where I started. Phoenix was very good against all aggressive decks I wanted to play and was the deck I was most afraid of. Spirits was not quite good enough to compete with Rakdos, Phoenix and Humans. This left me deciding between Humans and Gruul Vehicles, since I knew I wanted to play Mutavault. I decided to play Vehicles since it also had eight mana Elves. This is what I played:

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp

4 Reckless Stormseeker // Storm-Charged Slasher

4 Lovestruck Beast // Heart's Desire

2 Scavenging Ooze

4 Esika's Chariot

3 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

3 The Akroan War

4 Obliterating Bolt

4 Mutavault

4 Stomping Ground

4 Karplusan Forest

4 Cragcrown Pathway // Timbercrown Pathway

2 Boseiju, Who Endures

2 Lair of the Hydra

2 Mountain

1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

1 Den of the Bugbear

Sideboard

1 Jegantha, the Wellspring

3 Rending Volley

3 Embercleave

2 Outland Liberator // Frenzied Trapbreaker

1 The Akroan War

1 Fry

1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Klothys, God of Destiny

1 Unlicensed Hearse

1 Hazoret the Fervent

I don't have a lot to say about this deck. It's fairly stock. I wanted to beat Green and Rakdos while having decent shot against Humans and Phoenix. It did not work out that way for me.

R1 vs UW Control

I stole a game by using Outland Liberator on my Skysovereign when he blocked with Baneslayer Angel, but the other two games were not close.

0-1

R2 vs Angels

I was surprised to win game one with triple Esika's Chariot and Reckless Stormseeker for exact damage on the turn before he started gaining tons of life. Game two I mulligan to five and lose to Collected Company after killing the first three threats. Game three I kept a hand with two Elves and all red spells with no red mana and never found the red mana. It was probably a mulligan, but I think I need to get lucky to win so I kept. It didn't work out regardless.

0-2

R3 vs Yorion Enigmatic Incarnation Fires

I win game one with Akroan War. Game two I'm too far behind on tempo against Chain to the Rocks and Leyline Binding followed by Siege Rhino and Yorion. Game three I have Outland Liberator in play but tap out for Akroan War on Siege Rhino to push damage through with Lovestruck Beast. I immediately lose to Leyline Binding on the Rhino plus Incarnation the Binding into Titan of Industry. Maybe I should leave up mana but I had no other play that turn. I'm still not sure about this one.

0-3

R4 vs Phoenix

I win game one with multiple Chariot. Game two I lose to second Young Pyromancer after using Stomp on the first one. Game three I get the opponent down to one life and then draw nothing but lands while he returns three Phoenix with a Pyromancer in play to kill me.

0-4

I decide to drop.

Pioneer 10K Recap

I registered Humans for the 10K the next day:

4 Hopeful Initiate

4 Dauntless Bodyguard

4 Recruitment Officer

4 Thalia's Lieutenant

4 Luminarch Aspirant

4 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

4 Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute

1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist

1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged

4 Rally the Ranks

4 Brave the Elements

15 Plains

4 Mutavault

1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

1 Castle Ardenvale

1 Shefet Dunes

Sideboard

4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

3 Portable Hole

2 Rest in Peace

2 Declaration in Stone

2 Destroy Evil

1 Loran of the Third Path

1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

I did not play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in my Humans list. In the matchups where it is good, it's only good in game one as after board they are more prepared to deal with it or use sweepers to neutralize it and other threats. It has good value against combo decks, but I didn't expect them much. I wanted to play Rally the Ranks to maximize the clock to make up for loss of disruption without Thalia. Rally also helped support the Wedding Announcement sideboard plan.

R1 vs UW Control

He wins game one easily, but game two is a slog. He draws all of his removal and sweepers, but I'm able to rebuild with Recruitment Officer and Wedding Announcement each time. He never finds a Teferi or other source of repeatable card advantage and I manage to win the game with three minutes left in the round. We only get the five turns in of game three before settling for a draw.

0-0-1

R2 vs Mono Green Devotion

I keep an iffy one-land hand on the play game one with three one-drops and three Thalia's Lieutenant but never draw a second land. Game two and three, the deck does what it does in the matchup and kills him before he gets much of a chance to do anything. He's a bit salty after the match, but he probably wasn't expected to face WW in the draw bracket.

1-0-1

R3 vs RB Sacrifice

This matchup Rally the Ranks really proved its worth. Game one I have two Rally which lets me do a bunch of damage to get him to 4 life before he stabilizes with two Mayhem Devil and kills my board. I then topdeck Tomik and he doesn't have an answer and I steal the game. Game two I use Portable Hole on Oven instead of turn one Cat. He draws two more Ovens and I lose. Game three I'm able to grind out with Rally the Ranks, Wedding Announcement, and Castle Ardenvale to keep him on the back foot. I then find Rest in Peace right when he's about to stabilize and win the match.

2-0-1

R4 vs UW Control

Game one I'm on the play and he foretells on turn two so I hold back incase of Doomskar. He doesn't have it and I'm presenting lethal with Brave the Elements on turn four when he doesn't have Supreme Verdict either. I swing with everything since Brave beats The Wandering Emperor, but he has Settle the Wreckage. I can't redeploy fast enough to get back in the game and lose to subsequent Emperors and Teferi. Game two I win with multiple Wedding Announcement. Game three I'm stuck on two land with multiple three-drops in hand. He has Starnheim Unleashed and Lyra, Dawnbreaker to beat me before I can recover.

2-1-1

R5 vs UW Control

Game one he has two Settle the Wreckage but that just enables my Recruitment Officers to keep the pressure on and I win. Game two he's stuck on four land but has multiple Settle and Verdict as well. I'm finally attacking for lethal when he has fifth land for Baneslayer Angel, but I use Eiganjo on my own creature to make sure I kill him.

3-1-1

R6 vs WW

Game one is very close but neither player has Brave so I'm able to get there with two Thalia's Lieutenant. Game two I'm on the draw and never really in it. Game three I keep one land and it takes a few turns before drawing second. I still have a chance if I draw Brave the Elements, but he has Declaration in Stone for my two Lieutenant and I die.

3-2-1

R7 vs Phoenix

Game one he makes a tough choice to play Spikefield Hazard as a land instead of killing my Luminarch Aspirant so he can play Pieces of the Puzzle the following turn. This lets me build up a smallish attack force and his Pieces only finds more Pieces. That means I can do exactly lethal with Shefet Dunes the turn before he brings back multiple Phoenix. Game two he has Brotherhood's End and wins easily. Game three I use Eiganjo on his Ledger Shredder so even if he brings back three Phoenix it doesn't kill me and he can't block enough of my creatures to live.

4-2-1

R8 vs UW Control

Game one I'm very far ahead and kind of slow roll him playing around Settle the Wreckage, but to be fair I'd played against it quite a bit previously. He didn't have it nor Verdict and I won easily. Game two he has Lockdown into Baneslayer into Lyra and I lose. Game three he floods out while I hold up Destroy Evil for Lockdown and Brave the Elements for Wandering Emperor. He has neither and dies.

5-2-1

R9 vs Keruga Fires

I don't remember this too much. One game I use Bodyguard to save Adeline from Supreme Verdict. One game I draw two Rally to change the clock and kill him with Mutavault when he wasn't expecting it.

6-2-1

35th place (prize to top 32)

Lessons Learned

I wish I had played WW in the main event. I didn't because the games I had played and watched did not look favorable vs Rakdos or Phoenix, but they were probably closer than I realized. Recruitment Officer was even better than I thought it would be. Gruul Vehicles was the deck for a Pro Tour metagame that consolidates around 4-5 different decks, but the Regional Championship was more like a Grand Prix. With that knowledge, WW is better against the various other decks you run into in a GP like event. 

I still don't like Pioneer. As much as I like WW being a top deck, it seems kind of embarrassing when its in a format as deep as Pioneer. It really seems like all the good cards are banned, and the ones that are left like Karn, Collected Company, and Fable of the Mirror Breaker don't really lead to exciting games in my opinion. I wonder what Modern would have looked like after two years if they had the same approach to banning the top cards as they do in Pioneer.

On Organized Play

The Regional Championship overall felt like a success. It is a bit weird its so different between Europe and USA and Canada and all the other places. The US event needed more rounds or more prizes or both. The draw to events like these for me is being able to play for something once you've been eliminated from top 8 contention. Old Pro Tours would have substantial prizes for 11-5 records and those late rounds playing for Pro Points, invitations, or cash were in a way more appealing to me than playing for top 8. Its those rounds where the idea of a Professional Player exist, someone doing this consistently needs those solid finishes to sustain the career. 

I was not a fan of having the event be the week of the set release. One more week to pickup cards would have relieved a lot of stress. 

One of the stated reasons for not having the extra three rounds like Europe was that the Dreamhack event space closed at 7pm on Sunday. If this continues to be an issue, Magic needs to divorce itself from Dreamhack as soon as possible. 

The Dreamhack experience was not a pleasant one for me. The event was sequestered in a separate room away from the main hall without enough space for the players to play. The tables were so narrow you could not fit two playmats on them without overlap. The room was crowded and smelly in a way I hadn't experienced at a GP or PT or SCG Open / Invitation in over a decade. The few tables in the main hall were mostly side events and a spectator trying to find the feature match area for Magic would easily get lost. I don't think the finals was broadcast on any of the major viewing stages. I was in the 0-4 bracket and relegated to playing in the main hall. This provided plenty of space, but the lighting was off and I could not hear announcements at all. Having to get badge access to the hall may be the new standard, but I still don't like it.

But there were a few good things about Dreamhack: there was way better than normal food (if you walked across the entire hall to go get it), and you could buy alcohol. I think those were the only pluses I could come up with after the weekend. 

Conclusion

My testing process - bad

My deck choice - bad

Pioneer - probably bad

Gruul vehicles - not good

WW/Humans - very good

Organized Play - remains to be seen, but not a disaster

Dreamhack - bad

Props

Collin Rountree and Allen Wu for winning LCQs

Atlanta for having great food and being great every time

My wife for letting me leave her for a week

Slops

Trying to find the Uber pickup in a state that doesn't have front license plates

Dreamhack - stop being embarrassed about the Magic event

Two-Headed Giant Old School at Jawncon 2022

This past weekend I participated in the first Jawncon in Philadelphia. The format was Two-Headed Giant Old School using Atlantic restricted list with a few modifications: Shahrazad was banned and Ankh of Mishra, The Abyss, Time Vault, and Underworld Dreams were restricted. Additionally, each player was allowed to play a Chaos Orb.

I've always enjoyed Two-Headed Giant (2HG) as a Magic format ever since it was formally introduced in 2006 or so. I like the deeper gameplay and longer games, especially in limited. I like being on a team and having more people in the game without the political shenanigans of other multiplayer formats. I also like how certain cards function much differently than they do in normal 1v1. I also had some success with the format, winning the 2HG State Championship in two different states. 

I was able to convince Simon Christie from the Houston Falling Stars to once again travel to Philadelphia and be my teammate. 

The Brewing Process

My first instinct was to play a control deck and a combo deck. One of the first times I remember playing 2HG was in 2006 Standard with a Mono-Blue Counterspell deck protecting the UG Early Harvest deck. For Old School, I thought the best combo would be Power Artifact / Basalt Monolith combo. I expected Fireball to be a good card in general and wanted to try to play mostly creatureless to turn off any anti-creature cards our opponents had. 

Next, I started looking at cards that are increased power level in 2HG. These cards include Copper Tablet/Syphon Soul, Earthquake/Hurricane/Inferno, the restricted Underworld Dreams, and most importantly Pestilence. We looked at trying to make a WWr aggro deck with eight protection from black creatures to pair with a UB Workshop deck that would play four Pestilence along with some Cylcopean Tomb. I was worried that pro-black creatures were underpowered though and wouldn't be good against all the Moats I expected to face. Also, when you don't draw Pestilence you just had two mediocre creature decks. Our round three opponents did this best though by still playing mostly creatureless with their Pestilence and just had Mishra's Factory to keep it around at the end of the turn. We never quite got to that part in the development.

The next thing I looked at was ways to help out my partner. I envisioned a kind of artifact prison deck with Howling Mine, Relic Barrier, and Winter Orb to go with a deck with four Copy Artifact and Titania's Song for the kill. I think this configuration has more promise that I gave it credit for, as it is still mostly creatureless. Paul and Emily played some variation of this combination.

The final thing I looked at but probably not enough was the extreme control configuration. Simon wanted to play two decks where the only win condition was Timetwister and Tormod's Crypt. I think this combination of decks would have been great for the event, but the turns take so long in 2HG I was worried about running out of time before actually killing the opponent, even when it is just best-of-one.

In the end we decided to play the Control / Power Artifact configuration as nothing else seemed as strong, though we maybe came up with the actual best decks to play when we were just joking around the morning of the event (see bonus section).

Our Decks

Team Falling Stars

(sorry for the poor picture of the Power Artifact deck, I forgot to take a better one before taking it apart)

With the nature of the combo deck and the restricted cards, you quickly realize that you want all the power cards in the deck with Demonic Tutor. Besides the two restricted lands, there were just two Moxen and Balance in the UW deck, and I'm not sure that it should have had that many. We played too much anti-creature stuff and could have played fewer STP and not had the Moat or the Factories at all. Jayemdae Tome was far too slow for the format and should have been some Jalum Tome to work with the Land Tax. I don't think we got the Copy Artifact and Fellwar Stone split correct and probably should have played the maximum of each between the two. Additional countermagic like Flash Counter and Avoid Fate were some of the last cards cut. 

Mirror Universe was in as a Transmute target until being cut for Earthquake at the last minute. Without Balance to tutor for we wanted access to a cheap-ish sweeper. Transmuting for Triskelion also seemed strong enough and the bad synergry with Ivory Tower and Mirror Universe was a slight concern. I really want to play Sylvan Library and Channel in the combo deck but the green mana sources were tough. Overall I'm happy with about 105 of the 120 cards we submitted, though we did miss a big card that should have been more of a factor. Given what we knew, we were about 90% of the way there.

The Event

After some bagels and coffee, Simon and I drove to the site passing by the Home Depot with the giant abandoned smokestack along the way. This also took me through the craziest signalized intersection I've ever encountered at Roosevelt Blvd and Adams St. As a traffic engineer, it was fascinating but as a driver it was terrifying. In general, the boulevard traffic situation was something new to me.

In particular, this left turn on the way back crossing four travelways is mind-melting.

The event location was nice and spacious on the inside, but not much to look at from the outside. The food was solid all day and the special cocktail for the day, the "Healing Salve", was top notch. 

After a brief introduction and review of the 2HG rules including explanation of the penalty kick orb flip tiebreaker procedure, we began the tournament.

Round One - Wardens of Alcatraz

Their configuration was UW Tax Tower and Armageddon with Power Artifact and the Monoliths were  in the RB deck that also had Hymn to Tourach and Sinkhole I think? We won the game on turn three or four with Counterspell backup. We played again for fun and they almost locked us out of the game with Cyclopean Tomb but Chaos Orb undid that and Time Walk let me combo.

1-0

Round Two - The Birb Maidens

We were under the gun facing an early Blood Moon and Scryb Sprites plus Zephyr Falcon. We used Orb to destroy the Moon but this turned on Pendelhaven and Mishra's Factory to do more damage. We had two Ivory Towers and they were forced to use their Chaos Orb on a Land Tax. They got us down to 8 life before Simon got back up to seven cards for Library and a Copy for a third Tower. A Wrath of God the next turn bought us plenty of time, but I drew Braingeyser for seven cards and won the next turn.

2-0

Round Three - Fee Fi Fo Fuck Outta Here

This team identified one card that was probably key for deckbuilding that we just missed: Fork. They had a mostly Black deck for Pestilence and Syphon Soul and a mostly Red deck for Fork and additional burn. They used Fork to stop our first combo attempt. I believe they cast Wheel of Fortune at some point after which I attempted a Braingeyser for nine cards. They had Fork which we should have let resolve since they would only have four mana left for counter interaction. Instead, we tried to counter the Fork and after a Counterspell and Red Elemental Blast, no one drew any cards. I took a gamble with Timetwister after this. Simon failed to draw a counter off of it and my great seven card hand was Mind Twisted away. They did play the ninth land that would tie with Simon for Land Tax, so I went for Orb flip on Simon's land but missed. We should have just used Swords to Plowshares instead of the Orb and then forgot to do that. Not getting to tax meant we only gained two life from Tower and the next turn they had Pestilence plus Syphon Soul plus Fork to burn us out exactly.

2-1

Round Four - Two Dinguses

Their configuration was a mostly Green fatty deck with Elves, Birds, Erhnam, and Iff-Biff along with a Dingus Egg Armageddon deck. We were never really in trouble as the Swords to Plowshares finally did something. Eventually I combo when they were tapped out.

3-1

Round Five - Bald Bearded and Beautiful

They were 4-0 at this point and there were three teams at 3-1. A win here could at least get us in the tiebreak conversation for first. They were also on Power Artifact deck, but their support deck was less anti-creature and more anti-spell. They had Flash Counter and Glasses of Urza(!) to further support the combo. I play a turn one Wheel of Fortune and draw six lands and Demonic Tutor. Simon's hand is mostly anti-creature, so I used Tutor to find Timetwister on turn three. Turn four we decide to tap Simon's white source to play Land Tax instead of leaving up Disenchant since I had REB and Simon had Counterspell up. This backfired and we immediately lost since they had Power Artifact plus Fireball and Flash Counter plus Mana Drain for our answers.

3-2

So in the end, one of the other Power Artifact configurations won the event at 5-0. The team with four Fork ended up at 4-1 for second place. Simon and I had the best breakers of the 3-2 so we got third place. Here is a photo of us in the same pose as the trophy card Clone:

Overall Impressions

Two-Headed Giant was a fun format to build decks for, but the gameplay was a bit lacking. I don't think that can really be fixed by banning or restricting any of the combo cards as the control cards that did nothing all day in Simon's deck would still be oppressing other strategies. I think the best way to do some 2HG in the future would be to do some kind of Singleton. There are enough ways to synergize with your partner in deckbuilding while still probably requiring normal Magic play patterns. 

The event was run extremely well and props to the Philly Old School group for putting it on. I will continue to attend events they run as long as I'm in the area. 

Props:

2HG just for being a cool thing

Simon for travelling all the way from Houston to be my other head

Philly Old School for running the event

the "Healings Salve" 

the team with all the Forks - this card is so good in 2HG

Simon and Will for completing this three-way Demonic Tutor trade

Slops:

Me for making some questionable plays and questionable deck building decisions

Weird Philly intersections

Me for missing my sister-in-laws 40th birthday party to play silly card game

Bonus Section

We came up with this Saturday morning trying to decide what Dom and Andy would be playing. It might actually be good:

Deck A:

4 Bazaar of Baghdad

4 Sword of the Ages

52 Giant Creatures

Deck B:

4 Eureka

4 All Hallow's Eve

4 Animate Dead

4 Concordant Crossroads

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Elves of Deep Shadow

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Mind Twist

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Timetwister

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 Regrowth

5 Moxen

1 Black Lotus

1 Sol Ring

4 Bayou

4 Tropical Island

4 Underground Sea

4 City of Brass

1 Forest

BottleAtog at Buffalo Stampede

 

This past Sunday I played in the Buffalo Stampede event in, you guessed it, Buffalo. I had a wonderful time both playing Magic and not playing Magic.

Saturday Night

Buffalo is a six-hour drive for me which is a bit too much to do in one day. I drove up Saturday morning and arrived around 4pm. I checked into my room and then met up with DFB, Chris Mason, and DFB's brother John at Nine-Eleven Tavern (no relation to the national tragedy) for chicken wings:

We sat at the bar and got our order in shortly after they opened so avoided having to wait the hour for seating or hour plus for food. We had some beers and some french fries while we waited but our wings came out in less than thirty minutes:

I'm not entirely sure how to explain these wings. I don't normally enjoy Buffalo sauce, but these were  the best wings I've ever had in my life. We ordered the medium heat sauce. The sauce was more complex with hints of vinegar and brown sugar (maybe?) but still the familiar heat and tang of Frank's. 

After Nine-Eleven Tavern, we went to Anchor Bar, which claims to be the originator of the Buffalo chicken wing. 

Driving past the beautiful City Hall at sunset

These wings were much more like what I've experienced before. The quality was still better than your average Hooters or other chain, but the sauce not nearly as interesting to me as Nine-Eleven. We met up with Jeff Menges here. This place was very busy since it was near the Sabres stadium and people were eating here before the game. Dave happened to "know a guy" and we got seated almost right away. We had just got our beers from the bar when the table was ready. I wanted to have some ice cream after eating all these wings but they didn't have any. I settled for a cannoli which was below average.

After Anchor Bar, we went to Colter Bay in the Allentown area of Buffalo for some more drinks. This was a chill spot and a good way to end the night. I got back to my room which was above another bar. I watched the end of the World Series game (go Astros!) at the bar with another drink (or three, the locals bought me a few shots) before going to bed.

Sunday

I was a bit hungover when I got to Resurgence Brewing Company, so the first order of business was getting some food. I had the biscuits and gravy. It was good.

The beer at Resurgence was fine? It wasn't bad but nothing special. About your average micro-brewery beer. It may have been better if I wasn't as hungover. I had two different IPAs and their Blond ale. No photos of that.

Later during the day I ordered the poutine that caught my eye from the menu. I wanted to get it with short rib, but they had ran out. The waiter told me that "the pulled pork is even better". I don't believe him. This was just fine:

The other highlight of the brewery was this dog who was so short and yet had the longest ears. He kept stepping on them. I loved it: 

The Magic

It was refreshing to play some 4 Strip Old School again. I don't think I prefer it, but it is the format I've played the most. I played the following deck:

4 Atog

4 Savannah Lions

4 Black Vice

2 Relic Barrier

2 City in a Bottle

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Chain Lightning

2 Psionic Blast

2 Disenchant

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 Balance

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 Volcanic Island

4 Plateau

4 Tundra

1 City of Brass

Sideboard

2 Swords to Plowshares

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Disenchant

1 Divine Offering

1 City in a Bottle

3 Copper Tablet

2 Aeolipile

2 Icatian Javaleneers

1 Plains

I decided to try this version with the logic that City in a Bottle can add to the mana denial of Strip Mine against decks with lots of City of Brass. This would in turn make Black Vise better. Lion over Serendib is already pretty close. The real sacrifice is in number of colored sources in the deck. I was conservative with Psionic Blast and Chain Lightning, opting for more generic spells like Relic Barrier and Aeolipile that I can cast with any color lands. This also meant not playing Demonic Tutor and Mind Twist. I skewed all my sideboard to white cards to make mulligans easier and to have access to the basic Plains. This was probably too clever and not needed. I also wanted more proactive cards in the sideboard and didn't want to play BEB or REB, two cards I'm not really a fan of.

City in a Bottle worked extremely well in two matches, was not relevant in three matches, and then probably hurt me in one match where I drew it game one when it did nothing and needed to have anything else to be in the game. I don't think its worth it to give up on Tutor and Twist, so I don't think I'll play this version again. There may be a way to build with City and black cards but no white spells if you find a replacement for Savannah Lions. I may try that in the future.

I still think Atog is the strongest deck because of the free wins you get and being the best at leveraging the draw sevens. It's certainly not unbeatable but I'm still a believer.

Round 1 - Jason Shaw on White Workshop Archeologist

Game one I'm explosive from the start with Lion Tog and Vise. I think I have a Twister and win easily. Game two I get him low but he has two Triskelion and Coffin and Diamond Valley. I have Relic Barrier to tap a Trike on his turn and attack with a lethal Atog. He makes some plays and I sacrifice some artifacts to keep it alive but it was all a setup to get him to activate the Valley. When he does, I respond with two Lightning Bolts to kill him.

1-0

Round 2 - Pete Lankering on Workshops

Game one I have Vise into Lion Vise. He only has two Mox so my Relic Barrier in his upkeep on his Sapphire forces him to Ancestral. The Vises do enough damage from there to win. Game two I don't remember very well. I think I had Divine Offering for a Su-Chi and STP for a Triskelion and then eventually found enough burn to win.

2-0

Round 3 - Nick Cummings on CounterBurn

Game one he sticks a Serendib that I never find an answer to. He only sees red and white cards though and sideboards thinking I'm Pink Weenie. Game two I manage to win with two Atogs. He adjusts his sideboard for game three but my City in a Bottle plus Relic Barrier plus Strip Mines keep him below three mana for too long and by the time he recovers he's facing lethal Atog and I win.

3-0

Round 4 - Raymond Mitchell on Shaharazad Burn

Game one I have City in a Bottle turning off a lot of his deck. He has to kill it with Shatter and finally casts Shaharazad. I think about scooping immediately since I'm at 20 and he's at 12 but I have two Bolts in hand and Lion plus Atog in play. I play the subgame just to see more of the deck but I end up losing. I take 10 but he's now tapped out in the main game and I draw the artifact I need to do lethal. Game two is a fight over City in a Bottle. I have one in play but am forced to sacrifice it to save my Atog. I play a second one and he has Energy Flux. The game then draws out extremely long with me paying for two  Flux every turn while he has spells that he can't cast. I'm not drawing much gas but he also has CoP: Red in play so it is going to be a struggle. Eventually he finds Timetwister which lets him Disenchant the City and plays some spells. Unfortunately he tapped out in the process leaving him open to my burn spells that kill him.

4-0

Round 5 - Tino Galizio on Deadguy

Game one I have Vise plus two Lions. He takes a lot of damage before recovering with Balance at 1 life. I've got Psionic Blast in hand but only one land left after a Sinkhole. He Hymns and hits a Mox and a Disenchant so I'm still live to Psionic Blast. I draw Strip Mine and leave it in play for mana and then find the blue source the next turn to win as he's starting to get a threating board. Game two I'm not quite as aggressive start but I do manage to Strip his Scrubland and win with Atog when he can't cast Balance or STP.

5-0

I'm the only 5-0 going into the final round, but my tiebreakers aren't that strong compared to the three people on 4-1. I need to win to lock up first place.

Round 6 - Rich Borque on Workshops

Game on I have turn one Savannah Lion plus City in a Bottle. This draw is not good against Shops and he finds two Triskelion to easily win as I draw mostly nothing. Game two he has Abyss plus CoP:Red and the game goes really long. I manage to deal with all his threats and win with more Mishra's Factories than he has Relic Barriers. Game three is similar as he has Abyss and CoP: Red again. I draw a lot of lands but this time they aren't factories. He gets two Icy Manipulator in play and I decide to destroy one instead of his Factory thinking its going to be harder to beat the Icy. He then has a second Factory and a Jayemdae Tome. I draw two Factories but they don't do anything against his Icy and he draws too many cards with Tome and I can't comeback.

5-1

I end up in third place on tiebreakers. I did manage to get the Strip Mine from the prize pool though. You can't ever have enough Strip Mines.

Also received the nice Divine Offering for participation and had these Merfolk of the Pearl Trident altered by Jeff:

Props / Slops

Props:

DFB for putting on the event and the chicken wing tour

Nine-Eleven Tavern chicken wings

Buffalo for being a great place to visit

Slops:

Me for not playing Demonic Tutor

Me for not playing Mind Twist

-Ty