Thoughts on Growth Spiral and other ramp cards

I hadn't planned on writing anything about the latest Standard bannings. Overall, I felt like they did a good job, even if it was a few months too late for most of them. I've always advocated for banning Uro over banning Growth Spiral, but as long as one goes I think it should be enough.

In the week since, I've spent some time thinking about exactly why Growth Spiral was so strong. I've seen a lot of arguments making a variety of cases. I want to talk about these arguments and why they are valid or why I think they are missing the point. I also want to bring up a few things I haven't seen as often that I think do a lot to explain the dominance of Growth Spiral.

This may be a bit heavy on some theory, but I hope I can get my point across.

*Begin Theory*

What is Ramp?

The "one land drop per turn" limit is one of the most important rules in Magic. It is the way a cards mana cost dictates what turn it can see play. Without the growing nature of incremental mana increases, the game would be completely different.

There are several ways to play a card on a turn before it's mana cost would normally allow. These ways can be split into four categories. I will call them Ramp, Ritual, Tron, and Affinity.

Affinity refers to any cost reduction mechanic. Affinity for Artifacts is the classic example, letting you play a 7cc Myr Enforcer as early as turn 1. The Medallion and Familiar cycles from Tempest and Invasion would be in this category, as would Marauding Raptor and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV.

Tron refers to special lands that produce more than one mana when activated. These lands usually require some setup (like Tron, Tolarian Academy, and Lotus Field) or restrictions on mana type (Mishra's Workshop, Ancient Tomb, and also Tron).

Ritual refers to a one-time boost of mana, usually coming at the expense of card advantage. Dark Ritual, Black Lotus, and Ancient Spring are examples.

Ramp refers to a permanent increase in the amount of mana you have. This can come in one of three forms: Mana Rocks (Azorius Signet, Mox Ruby, and Coalition Relic are examples), Mana Dorks (Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, and Llanowar Evles are examples), and Land Ramp (Rampant Growth, Farseek, and Cultivate are examples).

Growth Spiral, Explore, and other similar cards don't necessarily fall into one of these four categories, but they mostly resemble Ramp when they work as intended. 

How to use Ramp cards

Mana Rocks can be used to power out expensive spells, but are more commonly used as fixing and ways to fill out the curve. They are less about accelerating into a game-breaking 6+ mana cost spell and instead about ensuring a deck gets to four mana and then reliably casts 4cc spells the rest of the game. These usually run between 24-26 lands. Example Deck

Mana Dorks are usually used to power out 3cc and 4cc creatures on turns 2 and 3 and then turn into attackers themselves when there is nothing left to cast. These decks run much lower land counts (20-23) and tend to be more aggressive than Mana Rock and Land Ramp decks. Example Deck

Land Ramp decks are trying to cast an expensive game-changing spell as fast as possible. Usually, this spell is Primeval Titan, but it can be anything similarly powerful. Example Deck. These decks run 26+ lands due to what I like to call The Fundamental Rule of Land Ramp:

The Fundamental Rule of Land Ramp: A land ramp spell is only useful if you are still making your land drop for the turn.

Land Ramp decks need to cast their big splashy spell *early* to have success. The Mana Rock and Mana Dork strategies can still execute their game plans adequately when they don't have the follow up land drops. Mana Rock and three lands is enough, Mana Dork and two lands is enough. The Land Ramp deck usually needs a combination of six Lands and Mana Ramp cards, preferably four lands two Ramp cards.

When I look at the various Growth Spiral decks in Standard the past two years, I see much more similarities to Mana Rock decks than I see similarities to Land Ramp decks. The main exception is the Field of the Dead / Golos deck from when Field was still legal for play.

Mulligans, Explore, and Rampant Growth

Ramp decks mulligan poorly, but topdeck fairly well. 

I've played a fair share of Primeval Titan ramp decks in the past. The card Explore has been always been an option, but I've usually decided to not play it. My main issue with the card is it's reliability. Consider a hand of three land, Explore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and two Primeval Titan. On the play, this hand can cast a turn four Titan whenever you draw two land over four draw steps (three draw steps for turn, one from Explore). With 27 lands in the deck, this is about 61% of the time. If the card Explore is replaced with Farseek. you only need to draw one land over three draw steps to cast turn four Titan. This happens about 81.8 % of the time with a 26 land deck.* 

Now, this is a specific scenario I've cherry picked to show the advantages of Farseek over Explore. Explore has advantages too, mainly when you topdeck in the late game with enough mana to cast everything. But Explore also had another downside that was a bigger issue for me. When you mulligan with the deck, especially to 5 or fewer cards, Explore becomes much worse. Explore only gives you the extra land drop the turn you cast it, so a hand of two land, two Explore (lol), and Primeval Titan is significantly worse than two land, two Farseek, and Primeval Titan. Also depending on your interactive spells, it can be way better to have Farseek and guarantee having three mana on turn three to cast Anger of the Gods than it is to roll the dice and hope to draw a land over two draws. 

For these reasons, I've shied away from using Explore in a dedicated Land Ramp decks. Others have had success with it, and maybe they are right that the benefits outweigh the downsides, but this is how I've seen it for the past decade or so.

The difference between a deck that HAS to get to six mana vs one that just wants to get to four or five more consistently can be seen in these two lists.

RUG Control

Valakut

The first deck is playing a much more interactive, controlling style using Explore more as a Mana Rock. It does have a 6cc Titan, but it is not imperative that it comes down on turn four. The second deck is a classic Land Ramp deck that only plays two explores (lol) despite having 28 lands in the deck, instead choosing to play Overgrown Battlement and Green Sun's Zenith to have more hard ramp spells.

*End Theory*

Growth Spiral in Standard

Why was Growth Spiral so oppressive in Standard? I think it has less to do with the Ramp aspect and more to do with the surrounding cards. Lets look at two more recent lists.

Esper Control

Bant Control

I chose to use two lists from the same player instead of maybe better performing lists to get a sense of the internal consistency in the deckbuilding choices. I want to focus on Growth Spiral in the Bant decks because it's less of a combo enabler like the Temur Reclamation deck. Wilderness Reclamation is itself an incredibly powerful Ramp card that adds some complications to discussing the raw power of Growth Spiral.

I think both of the lists above by Andrea Mengucci are very similar. Both are controlling strategies looking to stabilize and end the game with planeswalkers. When you compare the numbers, both have similar amounts of 5cc+ spells. The Esper deck had four Teferi, Hero of Dominaria as well as two Command the Dreadhorde. The Bant deck has two ECD, two Nissa, two Shark Typhoon, and two Hydroid Krasis. The difference in the decks is how they plan on getting to the point in the game of casting these 5cc cards. 

The Esper deck plays a traditional control role, using early disruption like Thought Erasure, Cast Down and Oath of Kaya to disrupt the opponents early plays. It has Kaya's Wrath to clean up the board if it gets out of hand. Once the board is stabilized, Teferi Hero of Dominaria can take over the game.The Bant deck has the same end game of the control deck, but gets access to eight Explores. This means it doesn't need as much early interaction, it can skip that stage of the game.

4 Thought Erasue, 4 Cast Down, 3 Oath of Kaya, 3 Basilica Bell-Haunt, 1 Despark, 3 Kaya's Wrath, 2 Elderspell = 20

4 Growth Spiral, 4 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, 2 Aether Gust, 2 Dovin's Veto, 1 Brazen Borrower, 2 Mystical Dispute, 2 Shatter the Sky, 3 Land = 20

I think Growth Spiral functions more as a Mana Rock in a controlling deck than a Land Ramp card in a Ramp deck. Cards like Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Elspeth Conquer's Death are still reasonable plays on turn five without any ramp. The deck uses the accelaration from Growth Spiral and Uro in lieu of interacting early. It plays just enough early interaction for the games it doesn't draw one of the Explore effects.

Other Arguments about Growth Spiral

I want to mention a few things I've seen other people argue for why Growth Spiral was so strong. 

First, the instant speed nature. The argument goes that it is significantly better than Explore because it lets you hold up mana. I think by the end of the Standard format this argument was fairly well debunked. The instant speed is certainly a benefit, but I don't believe it to be the main reason it seems much more powerful than Explore. Explore was used in similarly powerful ways when it was in Standard as I showed above. The decks that use Spiral at the end of the format weren't playing cards like Quench to leverage the flash aspect, and playing against Spiral decks wasn't that tricky with regard to instants on your turn (at least, not because of Growth Spiral instants). The Bant deck above is largely a tap out control deck. The additional color requirement of Blue compared to Explore was largely irrelevant in Standard because Blue and Green were probably going to be in your deck anyway.

Second, that Spiral is hard to interact with compared to Mana Dorks. Mana Dorks can be Shocked or Bolted on turn one or two (always Bolt the Bird) to disrupt their effectiveness.  A turn three Mana Dork in a deck with nothing costing more than 4cc has been effectively neutered. However, I don't think this comparison is reasonable. Mana Dork decks look nothing like Growth Spiral decks. I will say in the games I've played post-ban that countering turn three Uro has been a very strong play, so maybe the issue was that there was too many to reliably disrupt (see the next point).

Third, that you can play eight copies of the card. I think this has more merit than the other two arguments, but I'm still skeptical to the extent. Eight copies means its harder to stop from happening, but I'm not sure you would actually put all eight copies of the card Growth Spiral into the Bant deck. The strength here is that Uro lets you dilute your deck with 29 lands and 8 Explores while still having a reasonable amount of late game threat density. This is the reason I advocated for an Uro ban instead of a Growth Spiral ban, but I do see the reasons for leaving Uro around into future Standard.

Fourth, the lack of pressure from other decks. This one I actually agree with. The biggest threat to Ramp decks in the past has been very aggressive aggro and reliable countermagic for late-game threats. Teferi, Time Raveler basically removed all hard late-game counterspells from the format. The lack of aggressive one-drops is another issue. Aggro decks can try to "go under" the Growth Spiral decks, but don't have the tools necessary. If your best aggressive creatures don't come down until turn three or four, why would you choose that over just playing Growth Spiral yourself?

Final Word on Growth Spiral

I don't think Growth Spiral is an objectively over-powered card. It would not have needed a banning in a different Standard format without Uro. Perhaps even a different banning philosophy would have let it stick around. I still think this is a good choice to ban for the last few weeks of this Standard format. I think a card like it can be printed again in the future, but it would be important to only have one in the format at once.

I hope I've explained my thoughts and theories adequately on this card and ramp cards in general. If you have any questions on something I may have not explained adequately, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on Twitter @ceciliajupe.

-Ty

*Note on the math here: I ignored ETB tapped lands and ramp redraws. Ramp redraws really help the first hand a lot, but also negate the relevance of Explore. Perhaps having both is better and I'm completely wrong. I originally posted with incorrect percentage for the Explore case.

Jeskai Planeswalkers at Players Tour Online

This past weekend I played in the online Players Tour on MTG Arena. I went 1-5 before dropping. This was a strange event for many reasons, and I'm glad to be done with it. There isn't any more professional level Magic on my schedule for the year, and it remains to be seen what it will look like next year.

Preparation

Because this tournament was Standard only, preparation was a lot more focused than usual. As soon as the banning and companion rule change were announced, the team started working. Unfortunately, there was a four day lag on Arena before they went into effect. Normally, you would want to try out the various brews on ladder before subjecting teammates to playing against them with gauntlet decks. For the first few days it was hard to know what to even do.

The first thing we tested were variations on Yorion decks like Bant and Jeskai. Eventually it was determined that Yorion was not worth the loss of consistency. The UWx mirrors were all about Teferi and Elspeth Conquer's Death, so playing 80 cards meant you had these cards far less frequently. Bant had a big edge over other UWx decks because of Growth Spiral and Uro, so it was the main front runner for midrange/control.

The Temur Reclamation deck was obviously very strong, and a lot of time was spent trying to find decks with good plans to beat it. Jund Sacrifice was very strong against every deck we played except Temur Reclamation. Eventually the Cavalcade Red deck was published and we thought that might be the way to beat Temur, but it was weak to prepared sideboards and also very weak against Mayhem Devil.

At this point I expected a Rock/Paper/Scissors meta-game of Temur > Jund > Red > Temur, with various UWx decks being 45%-55% vs everything. I found that against Temur with Bant, I'd be able to establish a Teferi and Narset lock, but struggled wining the game before they could break out of it. Shark Typhoon was the key card in the match-up for both sides, and there didn't seem to be a good way to trump the other.

I tried Sarkhan the Masterless as a thought to take advantage of the planewalkers that were effectively just sitting around on the battlefield. I had some success initially closing out games way faster and sometimes out of nowhere. The Royal Scions and Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis pumping power provided extra boost at killing fast. 

I originally had main deck Tithe Taker with Legion Warboss to help pressure against Temur. Eventually I realized how strong Gideon Blackblade was with Shatter the Sky as well as getting around Teferi and Mystical Dispute. It was an additional target for the increasingly impressive Royal Scions. The deck was still skewed towards late game plans with a small fish plan with Tithe Taker, but it was inconsistent at applying early pressure. The idea is to get a creature in play to pressure the opponent which lets you resolve planeswalkers without losing tempo and then kill them with Sarkhan when the shields are down. Against aggro, the plan was to play creature or Birth of Meletis to protect your planeswalkers and use sweepers to clear the board. I had good Red matchup, and a reasonable Jund matchup after sideboard.

About midweek the results of LCQs showed that Sultai was on the rise. In the games I played against the deck I didn't feel like I could ever win. Casualties of War was too strong and undoing all the board presence, and the land destruction was actually devastating. Because I didn't have Growth Spiral or Uro, I had to play 27 land and hope to draw the right amount. This generally wasn't a problem if I could get to 5 mana, but Casualties a turn or two early would be more than enough to stunt my development. 

The night before decklists were due, I was about to switch to Jund Sacrifice. I had worked out a sideboard and plan with Collin Rountree that I liked. He played it and ended up going 4-5, losing the last round to not make day 2. After getting the Jund plan together, I went back into the lab with Will Lowry to give one last look at Jeskai. We came up with this:

I'm probably the only one playing a lot of these cards in the #mtg RPT tomorrow. Here's what I registered: pic.twitter.com/oP7g8F9unt

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) June 13, 2020

I wanted to try Sprite Dragon, and Will came up with Ajani's Pridemate to combo with Gideon and Interplanar Beacon. Now the deck had a more aggressive plan that didn't require sacrificing much lategame power. It did require some manabase concessions, but with 27 lands you can get the numbers right pretty easily. Some of the more controlling cards like Birth of Meletis and extra sweepers had to be cut, but you can make up for them with the power of the new two drops.

I knew some cards would be tough to beat. Storm's Wrath was scary, as was Questing Beast. But most scary was Nissa, especially coming out a turn or two earlier than normal.

Standard

Standard isn't good right now. I had a lot of fun playing on ladder while working on the event, but the metagame of the best of the best was not fun. Growth Spiral and Uro make the early game completely irrelevant. Everyone is playing a ramp deck, but instead of actual ramp strategies they have combo kills. The cycling triomes are the best lands you can play, and since you have to play Spiral and Uro, you can only play Temur or Sultai, or mono colored deck. 

The Jeskai deck was starting from a disadvantage against the field by not playing Spiral and Uro. It tries to make up for that with the strong two-drop plan, but can't afford to aggressively mulligan for them. The cards still line up well enough against Temur that I felt confident in that matchup, but I was still worried about Sultai.

The Tournament

I wasn't looking forward to playing the event on Arena. I'm not a big fan of playing high stakes event online. For whatever reason I can't get myself in the same head space to focus like it really matters. Also the lack of in-client tournament support was worrisome. 

I didn't have any technical issues, but I kept seeing stories from people who did. For the most part, the CFB process was reasonable, but there was no good way to back things up when something went wrong. As nice as it is to prevent cheating and provide equal time allotment with chess clocks, the percentage of the time errors occur is still too high from my estimation. 

Posting my notes from the matches below.

R1 - Sultai - 3x Nissa

I win game one with some solid tempo. Game two he has turn four Nissa on the play and I can't protect my planeswalkers. Game three I keep three spells four lands and then draw six land in a row .

0-1

R2 - Sultai - 2x Nissa

Game one I lose to Spiral into Casualties twice. Game two I never find a third land.
0-2

R3 - UG Mutate Ramp with 4x Nissa
Game one he plays Nissa on turn three on the play. Game two I lose to Nissa again.
0-3

R4 - Bant with 4x Nissa

I lose game one when I miss land drops and he plays Nissa turn five. I win game two despite missing my 4th land drop twice. My various grizzle bears got the job done. Game three is more attrition, but I end up sticking a Narset and his hand is just three Uro at that point and he can't get out of the lock.
1-3

R5 - RW Cycling
Game one he plays Fox into Fox on the play and I don't draw Shatter. Game two I'm able to keep the board clear and win with Sarkhan. Game three I punt when I don't use Elspeth to gain 5 life after casting Shatter the Sky. He untaps and plays Stinger and has enough cycling pings plus Zenith to kill me from 13 life before I can use Clarion with Sarkhan.
1-4

R6 - Temur Reclamation
Game one I play Pridemate into Gideon with two Beacon triggers and he dies on turn 5. Games two and three both go very long and I'm ahead but lose my planeswalkers to Nightpack Ambusher I can't really answer effectively as Aether Gust only delayed the problem.
1-5 Drop

I knew Nissa would be bad for me but misjudged how many people would play it. Sultai was the second most played deck and I should have played something stronger, preferably with Growth Spiral.

If you want to try the deck out, I'd recommend playing some Narset of the Ancient Way. I tried her and she was reasonable but ended up being cut to make room for more The Royal Scions. Scions was very impressive but usually the weakest card and sided out a lot. I think Pridemate is reasonable and Sprite Dragon is the weaker of the two because of the effect on the mana base. Sprite Dragon and Sarkhan is nice though.

What I missed

Besides missing on my metagame read, I missed a bunch of other things. I missed the ritual of finding cards and sleeving my deck. I missed traveling to a new place and sampling the local food and beer. I missed the time spent in between rounds playing whatever games to keep us entertained. I missed drafting. I missed the feeling that the tournaments usually give, that they matter for something. I missed being able to prepare and play with my friend Austin Burshavich #freeaustin. I missed the Pro Tour.

Props:
Zachary Kiihne for helping with the initial brew and Tithe Taker tech, even if I didn't end up playing it
Will Lowry for helping me tune my junky pile even if it didn't work out
The team for providing a real time reflection of the meta-game development. One of the stronger features of having such a large group

Slops:
WotC for cutting all the prize money
WotC for banning Austin #freeaustin
WotC for forcing us to play on Arena
WotC for killing the PT dream

Rakdos Sacrifice at GP Oklahoma City *Top 8*

I'm going to keep this one short, its more of the same and just want to get to the props / slops at the end.

My first GP ever was Kansas City in 2003. It had 500 players. I went 6-2, and missed day two at 66th place. This weekend, we had 348 in Oklahoma City, with far fewer 3-bye players. The weather wasn't even bad!

I played "updated" RB Sacrifice seen here:

pic.twitter.com/knSOiO3H82

— ChannelFireball (@ChannelFireball) December 15, 2019

Mask was still incredible for me. I think Rankle is unplayable after having played the tournament. I also don't think Claim is good enough vs the whole field to warrant 4x in the main deck. The list I wish I played:

4 Cauldron Familiar
4 Gutterbones
4 Priest of Forgotten Gods
4 Midnight Reaper
4 Mayhem Devil
3 Dreadhorde Butcher
2 cavalier of night

1 Mask of Immolation
4 Angrath's Rampage
2 Claim the Firstborn
4 Witch's Oven

4 Fabled Passage
4 Blood Crypt
3 Castle Locthwain
7 Swamp
6 Mountain

Sideboard
2 Theater of Horrors
4 Noxious Grasp
4 Duress
1 Dreadhorde Butcher
2 Murderous Rider
1 Cavalier of Night
1 Drill Bit


I went 11-2-2 (2 byes) in the Swiss before losing in the top 8 to Jeskai Fires. My two losses in the swiss were to Mono Black Aggro and RB Knights. I got lucky in a lot of spots, which I know by now is what you need to top 8 a big tournament like this. I probably played mostly okay. I know I threw away a game against the RB Knights and make a few poor choices in some other games that didn't end up costing me.

I'm pretty happy to catch up with Will Lowry on GP Top 8s. I'm also happy to win some money and keep playing big events. Now its time to prepare for GP Austin in January.


Props:
Woodrow for riding with me and keeping me company on the drive
Bing for arranging the AirBNB
Chris for being Team Dad / Coach / Lucky Charm / sharing his burger
Mangione for playing mostly the same deck as myself
My sister for letting me stay at her house on Thursday Night
My wife for watching the dog while I'm away and making lots of cookies
Eddie for making top 8 and finally qualifying for PT
Will and Collin for helping come up with sideboard plans

Slops:
328 person GPs
My deck for not being good enough to win
Chris and Berni for not ordering the coconut cream pie
The judges that let an already qualified person play a PTQ

Condolences:
Berni for losing in the top 8 of all the PTQs
Collin for not making the final four of the PC
Tad for losing in the finals of the PTQ back in November just to see me top 8 this event

Rakdos Sacrifice in Standard PTQ *1st Place*

PTQs are back!

I'll be honest, I wasn't really trying to play a lot of sanctioned organized play. I've been mainly focusing on Old School and related formats. The new OP PTQ system came at a time when it actually was worse for me than the previous PPTQ system. I was pretty happy going forward with just a few GPs a year and some more casual meetups.

But then Will Lowry had to go and win the PTQ in Houston two weekends ago.

Will was my roommate for a couple of years, and we've been working closely on all things Magic for a very very long time. He never played as much as I did, but he was always helping me prepare by discussing deck ideas and strategies with me. He's way more talented than I am, so I take it as a point of pride that I've played more Pro Tours than him. With him winning the PTQ, he was in a position to tie my number, so I decided to postpone the pseudo retirement and get back on the PTQ circuit (and also hopefully get to play in a PT with my good friend).

The Deck

See my decklist here.

I only started to pay attention to post-ban Standard when Will had called to discuss his UG Food deck prior to his victory. I didn't know what half the cards did, but I signed off on his decision to play Biogenic Ooze over Questing Beast in the main deck. After he won, I watched some streamers playing the Arena Qualifier to get a feel for the other decks. I ended up watching a game where Antonino was playing the Sacrifice deck against a Fires of Invention deck. The Fires player was low on life, about 5, against a Cat and an Oven. He drew Fae of Wishes and got Planewide Celebration from his sideboard and gained 20 life. Four turns later he was dead. At this point I could see that the Rakdos deck had the ability to go long. I'm always looking for aggressive decks with card advantage that can play long games. That is what attracted me to merfolk previously. 

I played a couple of nights on Arena, never losing a game on my way from Bronze to middle of Gold. I felt comfortable with the list, but I did make a few changes on the morning of the PTQ. I cut the two Noxious Grasp from the main and moved to the sideboard. I added a Mask and a Gutterbones to the main. I removed the extra mask from the sideboard.

I really liked having Mask as a 9th sacrifice outlet. I could even see playing a 2nd copy, especially if you were to cut the Chandra to have better mana like the player in the top 8 of GP Lyon. I was a big fan of Dreadhorde Butcher, and I think in a normal metagame it would be main deck, but it's just not worth playing against Gilded Goose so I only brought it in against decks without Goose. I never ended up boarding in Duress or Embereth Sheildbreaker so I don't know if they are any good. 

I think you are very favored against non-Oko green decks. You are probably slightly favored against Oko decks, but it gets harder when they have Veil of Summer to protect the Oko. I didn't play against much else over the tournament or the week of testing and can't speak for those matchups, but I think this deck is solid and the sideboard has some good cards. I'd look at playing Experimental Frenzy over Chandra and playing fewer Mountains if I was to play the deck again this week.

The Tournament

There were 74 people that showed up to Common Ground Games. These guys have been really killing it at running tournaments this past year. The two RPTQs I played there were great, and this PTQ was no different. They were even providing an extra $500 to the winner to cover travel to the Pro Tour. Other than the weird power outage in round one (reminiscent of the good ol' days of PTQs), everything was pretty smooth.

Round 1 

My opponent was on an interesting Abzan Wolf / Legend deck with 8 scry lands. I think there might be potential there. I win a really grindy game one and learn that the deck is very difficult to operate in real life. There are so many triggers and keeping track of it all while playing in a timely manner requires a lot of focus. I get a bit better with it over the day, but I'm sure I missed lots of triggers or lines through. Game two he gets me with Tolsimir and Garruk, but game three he doesn't get to five mana and he dies.

1-0

Round 2 

Opponent on Sultai Food. I win a really strange game one where we both flood out. I chip him down to about 10 but he played a Krasis for a lot which I take with Claim and he dies. Game two he has turn two Oko and I can't keep up. Game three was extremely close, but I'm able to kill Oko and ignore his Nissa while killing his lands with Mayhem Devil to stop a large Krasis from appearing. I find a second Mayhem Devil to kill him at the beginning of extra turns. 

2-0

Round 3

Opponent on Sultai Food. I don't remember what happens game one or two. Game three he keeps Swamp Watery Grave Once Upon a Time, but never draws green mana after getting nine looks for a green source.

3-0

Round 4

Opponent on Gruul Aggro. Game one he has a more ramp-like start with turn four and turn five Hellkites, but I'm able to get enough damage through to kill him with a Claim on his Harpooner. Game two he Embercleaves me down to two life, but I draw a Noxious Grasp to kill his Questing Beast and attack back for the win.

4-0

Round 5

Opponent on Green White Adventure. Game one he plays a bunch of 1/1s that die to Mayhem Devil. Game two I have two Mayhem Devil but no sacrifice outlet and he draws his Unbreakable Formation before I draw my Oven. Game three he is stuck on two forests and I win easily.

5-0

Round 6

Intentional Draw with Tad.

5-0-1

Round 7

Intentional Draw.

5-0-2

Quarterfinals

Opponent on UG Food with Brazen Borrower. Game one we basically trade off a bunch of cards, my Chandra and Reaper for his two Oko and Food-Elks. He has the third Oko and I'm on the back foot. I make blocks to go to 1 life with him at 9 and in the process I draw five cards. They are all land and I die. Game two I win but don't remember how. Game three I have a very good start with two Oven, Cat, and Chandra and he has to tap out every turn so I don't even have to try to play around Summer Veil.

6-0-2

Semifinals

Opponent is Dan on GB Adventure. I draw three Priest game one and he can only answer two of them. Game two I win and it goes really long but I forget about a Gutterbones in my yard and take way too long to kill him as a result.

7-0-2

Finals

Opponent is Tad also on GB Adventure. I win game one by topdecking a Claim before he can untap and Massacre Girl with Liliana in play. Game two he has Spyglass for my Ovens and then plays two Hydra that are too big for me to kill. Game three he has Spyglass again but is forced to name Chandra since I have a Rampage in the graveyard. Eventually I get two Mayhem Devil in play with a Mask of Immolation and burn him out, though I most certainly did it a very sub-optimal way. 

8-0-2

Another PTQ Win, Another PT to Attend

With PTQs back, the conversation turned to the good old days of PTQs. Someone claimed I was a PTQ Hall of Famer, which could be true. At least for the Texas area there probably aren't many others that have 28 PTQ top 8s and 6 wins. I'm sure in other areas these numbers are small by comparison.

I think its correct to consider the Regional Players Tours as PTs for lifetime stats, so when I play in February it will be my 10th PT. 10 is a good number, and maybe the number to end on. I keep saying I'm going to take a step back from the competitive circuit, but it's always bringing me back in. 

I'm looking forward to experimenting in Pioneer. This probably means delaying the Old School Theory article series. Hopefully next time I'll have some exciting decks to share.

Thanks,

Ty

Merfolk at SCG DFW

Standard Open

This past weekend was the SCG Open in Fort Worth. I played a similar Merfolk list to the one I played last weekend. I swapped a Watertrap Weaver for a Swift Warden and made some sideboard adjustments, but nothing major. I went 3-3 in the Standard Open before dropping. My friend Will Lowry also played the same list and went 3-3-1 before dropping as well. He played it again on day two in the Standard Classic, finishing 4-4. Here are some takeaways.

Unlike last week, my opponents decks seemed much better. Almost all had a clear plan and sometimes the plans were difficult for us to beat. Thief of Sanity and Thought Erasue from both Esper and Sultai variants proved difficult to beat. Theif would be impossible to kill while using your best cards against you. Thought Erasure would let them play for the correct late game plan by preventing your countermagic from being useful or letting your midrange cards take over. Your great draws still felt very good but there seemed to be fewer and fewer of them. I think we were winless in a combined four matches against Esper Control, which I had counted on being a good matchup when preparing for the RTPQ.

My rounds were as follows:
R1 - RG Aggro W
R2 - UR Drakes L
R3 - UG Reclamation Creatures (No Nexus, Biogenic Ooze, Dream Eater, Adapt creatures) W
R4 - Temur Reclamation Niv-Mizzet L
R5 - Mono Red W
R6 - Esper Control L

I was willing to call it a loss and move on. I'll credit my RPTQ win to a few lucky matchups. Will wasn't willing to give up so he continued playing on Sunday and kept finding more and more flaws with the deck. It is still a fun deck and I think it has potential but I'm unsure what to do to fix it. I'd start with 4x Kraul Harpooner in the sideboard.

Modern Classic

I brought some of my Modern Merfolk cards just in case I didn't make day two and didn't want to play Standard again. This was exactly the situation I found myself in, so I decided to play a brew I had been thinking about. I was going to play Merfolk with 4x Lighting Bolt 4x Wizard's Lightning. I began pulling the cards out I needed and realized I forgot to bring my Mutavaults. This may have been a blessing in disguise, because it let me redo the manabase and play the following list:

3 Cursecatcher

4 Silvergil Adept

4 Benthic Biomancer

4 Harbinger of Tides

4 Merfolk Trickster

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 Master of the Pearl Trident

3 Merrow Reejery

4 Wizard's Lightning

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Aether Vial

4 Spirebluff Canal

3 Steam Vents

4 Flooded Strand

4 Polluted Delta

1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

2 Island

Sideboard

2 Mistcaller

2 Grafdigger's Cage

4 Wizard's Retort

2 Unified Will

1 Ceremonius Rejection

2 Alpine Moon

2 Dispel

I went 6-3, losing the last round playing for prizes. The deck was a fun take but I don't think the red is entirely necessary. The bolts caught some people off guard in game one, and were very useful against other creature decks where I could never be attacked with combination of bolts, Harbinger, and Trickster. You should absolutely cut a Steam Vents for an Island if you play this again. The Alpine Moon was very impressive in the SB and something I would play again. I missed Mutavault in a couple of matchups and felt like I needed another land or two in the draws that didn't include Aether Vial. Benthic Biomancer was not as great as I thought. I would prefer 4th Cursecatcher and probably the 4th Reejery and 2 Biomancer if I were to play it again. 

My rounds were as follows:
R1 - Jeskai Control- L

R2 - UW Control - W

R3 - UW Spirits - W

R4 - MonoRed Phoenix - L

R5 - Burn - W

R6 - MonoRed Phoenix - W

R7 - Hardened Scales - W

R8 - RG Scapeshift - W

R9 - RW Prison - L

I'm probably done with Merfolk in both formats for a while, but I'm sure I'll come back to revist them at some point in the future.

RPTQ Report *TOP 8*

My previous two posts about preparation for this event are here and here.

It was the last RPTQ for the foreseeable future (who knows what the future for MTG holds at this point anyway). I figured why not play the deck I wanted to. I've loved Merfolk for so long, dating back to this event. I've played it in countless events in Modern and Legacy. When they reprinted Silvergil Adept, I even made Will Lowry play it in our Team SCG Open last January. I've been playing it occasionally on MTG Arena with a small hope that they might improve the deck when RNA came out, but I wasn't expecting much. 

Here is this list I played.

I definitely would not say that I broke it. It is a good deck, probably good enough for top tier in Standard at least as of now. The format still seems wide open so having a good proactive strategy and very flexible reactive cards is a good place to be. It has some weak spots which I'll get to later, but I don't expect it to change the metagame.

The Tournament

For the first time, the Dallas RPTQ had enough players that all eight members of top eight would qualify for the PT. 99 people showed up to play, so it looked like a record of 6-1 or 5-0-2 would get the invite. I was surpised at the turnout given that it was also Super Bowl Sunday. I think it being the last RPTQ had more qualified players than in the past.

Round 1 - Mono Blue Tempo

I win game one with four Merfolk Mistbinder to force him to chump with a Tempest Djinn. Game two I try to buy some time with a Sleep but he was able to stabilize and I ran out of gas. Game three he had his own Sleep and I maybe got too aggressive in response and lost to a Merfolk Trickster.

0-1

Round 2 - Esper Midrange

Game one I have an aggressive start with multiple Kumena's Speakers and Mistbinder. I was able to finish him off with a Trickster. Game two I use Transmogrifying Wand to turn his two Hero of Precinct One into Oxen. I then stole his Thief of Sanity with Entrancing Melody and played a second copy when I attacked him. He played a Lyra, but she also turned out to be an Ox in disuguise.

1-1

Round 3 - Mardu Aggro

Game one I do some early damage in race with his Boros Challengers, but eventually the board stalls after I Spell Pierce his Heroic Reinforcements. I can't attack because of his Judith but he doesn't have any good attacks either. Eventually I draw the fourth land I need for Sleep and win. Game two I misplay and steal the wrong Boros Challenger with Entrancing Melody so his lives through the Deafening Clarion. I trade my Kumena for it but he draws more gas off the top. Game three I'm in control the whole time drawing multiple cards off Kumena that his deck isn't really capable of killing and I easily win.

2-1

Round 4 - Esper Control

Game one is the most absurd thing I experienced on the day. I trade creatures for his removal and counterspells early, setting up a Kumena in play with Swift Warden back up vs his one card in hand. He plays Ixalan's Binding, I cast the Wardern but he topdeck Absorb. I'm now very unlike to win but we keep playing. The pace of play is fast and furious. I resolve a couple of Silvergill Adepts and they keep pressure on his Teferis. I kill the first two easily and with a little effort I'm also able to kill his third. Eventually he kills all my creatures and gets back to almost 20 life with Absorb and Vraska's Contempt. I'm still waiting for the inevitable loss but he hasn't shown me a win condition yet. Eventually he uses The Eldest Reborn to take my Swift Warden from my yard and start attacking me. I'm at 20 still and he is running low on library. I play some creatures to try to block, but he either counters or kills them. Eventually one sticks but he has Dispersal to get in some damage. I finally manage to chump for one turn, and he decks after attacking me to 2. I'm stunned since I was mainly continuing to play just to see his deck. I make short work of him game two with my twleve counterspell sideboard plan.

3-1

Round 5 - Sultai

He's playing more UG splashing black for Thought Erasure and Hostage Taker. I prefer this version of Sultai personally than one that plays a lot of double black cards. I win game one when he never draws a fourth mana source. Game two he has two Thought Erasure to take my two Entrancing Melody and I'm too far behind. Game three he uses Hostage Taker to play my Merfolk Mistbinder, pumping his Branchwalker, Jadelight Ranger, and Zeganna! I fortunately have a large board myself with the other three Mistbinders and Kumena. He can't attack and eventually I draw into Sleep for the win.

4-1

Round 6 - WU Midrange

His deck had Knight of Grace, History of Benalia, Senate Guildmage(!), Teferi, and Absorb. I really wanted to find a deck with Senate Guildmage in it, but I'm not sure this is the right spot. Game one I Spell Pierce his Ixalan's Binding on my Kumena and he runs away with the game. Game two he's stuck on three mana so I put as much pressure on him to kill him before he can Settle or Cleansing Nova me and I'm able to do it.

5-1

After six rounds, the point totals of the top 12 players looked like this:

18

16

16

15

15

15

15

15

15

15

15

12

The top four players can draw. The 15 that gets paired down has to play. The table 4 match also has to play. Table 3 can draw if the 15 that gets paired down loses, otherwise they have to play. 

I had by far the worst tiebreakers, so I end up with the pair down. In this situation it's actually not that bad since I can hopefully get a concession since the 12 point player won't get in with a win (assuming table 3 draws). I'm fairly certain table 3 knows what's up since I told Jason Cornell what would happen as we analyzed the standings together and he ended up on table 3. 

I'm paired against Hal Brady, a long time friend, and I explain the situation. He is still holding out hope that maybe he can sneak in, so he tells me we will play and if I win he won't have to worry about making the difficult decision to concede. If he were to win, he says he'd still think about it.

Round 7 - Mono Blue Tempo

Game one I mulligan to five and get stuck with an uncastable Swift Warden. I also have Sleep that might let me steal a win but I never draw the fourth land. Game two I have a very fast start and he doesn't have Curious Obsession so the race is much easier. I kill him while still having Incongruity backup to stop him if he were to get enough damage. Game three is very close but he has Curious Obsession turn two and a follow up one-drop that prevents me from using Trickster to stop it. I have multiple one drops and do my best to push through damage, but he has the Dive Down to protect is Pteremander when I try for Incongruity to prevent lethal.

5-2

At this point Hal says he's going to concede. At first I don't think I hear him correctly but we get the result down on the match slip and I'm now 6-1 and locked for top 8 and my ninth Pro Tour! Table three ended up drawing on time, so we also avoided the feel-bad of Hal giving up a spot since he would have missed top 8 even with the win. Hal is now my third favorite Magic player in Texas!

Made top 8 of the RPTQ and I'm now qualified for London! Huge thanks to @HalBrady for scooping in the last round. pic.twitter.com/mjOYwo1E0v

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) February 4, 2019

Karma Comes Back

I've conceded in spots like Hal's before. I've conceded four times in the Finals of PTQs when I was unable to attend the PT. But I never have been on the receiving end of one of these concessions until now (maybe I'm too nice). 

I fully plan on playing this at the SCG Open this weekend. I'll need to relook at the Mono Blue matchup since I lost twice to it. It seems like this is the one deck where I'd rather have Dive Down than Spell Pierce, or maybe an actual bounce spell to handle the Curious Obsession draws. I'm sure there are some other cards I can try too. 

I had planned on going to London for the Grand Prix anyway as part of a family vacation to Ireland to visit my sister-in-law, but now I get to play the Pro Tour instead! Also, getting part of the trip paid for is nice. Another PT, maybe I'll finally cash at one!

Thanks,

Ty

RPTQ Testing

Here I'm going to talk a bit about the process I used for testing for the RPTQ. I chose to do my testing almost entirely on MTG Arena for this tournament. I previously used Arena for testing for GP Denver back in October, but this would be my first foray into serious constructed testing. Given the recent announcements about the future of Arena, it seems like a good time to continue my dive in. It was much easier to obtain the cards on Arena than on MTGO, even with a Mana Traders account. I saved several hours over the month or so by avoiding the clunky MTGO trading interface, and who knows how much time by the increased game speed.

The biggest drawback was likely quality of opponent. The Twitter account MTGArena decks retweets anyone who shares lists that get five wins in a Traditional Constructed event. From my experience, these events are incredibly soft. I think I was 20-3 at some point with Merfolk, and as much as I'm hoping that means I broke the format (see last post), I'll be realistic and say it's probably not the case. Sideboarding helped tremendously against the weaker players where a strategy they might not be prepared for will not only give you an advantage, but outright win you the game.

The Deck

I've had Merfolk built as a casual Arena reward chasing deck since I first installed the software. There are lots of different ways to build it. You can focus on going wide with Deeproot Waters. You can play lots of +1+1 counters like Merfolk Branchwalker, Jadelight Ranger, Deeproot Elite, and Hadana's Climb. The version that had the most fun was a Wizard heavy version with Wizard's Retort supported by Silvergil Adept and Merfolk Trickster (both auto-includes) and Watertrap Weaver. As RNA release approached, I knew I would get Breeding Pool to improve the manabase, but I wasn't hopeful for much more. 

Unclaimed Territory is one of the very few lands in standard that draws you to play it. There are no spell lands besides Arch of Orazca that don't start out as some other permanent type. My traditional strategy of "play the best lands" really means you either play some gate concoction, a tribal deck with Territory, or some Arch control or midrange deck.

The New Cards

Then I saw the spoiler for Benthic Biomancer. This card is legit. It's actually played out better than I thought after initially reading it. I think it will be a real contender in Modern. And it's a Wizard. So my first brew took my old Wizard list and added Breeding Pool and Biomancer. The deck was solid, but unspectacular. I was running out of gas a bit more than I liked, likely due to trying 23 lands since I figured I had more looting available. I was still winning matches and events (mainly thanks to 4x Sleep in the sideboard), but it didn't feel like anything special.

I then saw a few lists pop up with Incubation / Incongruity. I had considered this breifly, but never actually tried it. I also switched Mist-Cloak Herald for Kumena's Speaker when the Herald wasn't doing enough damage on its own. The results felt incredible immediately. I was killing opponents much quicker thanks to the added damage boost of Speaker, and I had Kumena himself more often thanks to Incubation. The 1cc sorcery filled out the curve nicely, which finally lead me to cut Deeproot Elite entirely (this card is pretty bad as a turn two play on the draw, and if you aren't casting it on turn two what is the point really?)

I quickly settled on a core set of creatures supported by Incubation and then a few select spells. It almost always included two maindeck copies of Sleep with two more in the sideboard. The ability to effectively double your teams damage for four mana and go directly to the opponent's face means there is almost no race you are out of.

The Sideboard

You get 8+ counterspells along with several flash creatures to let you play a traditional "fish" game against combo and control decks. You have Sleep to handle other creature decks. Transmogrifying Wand was very impressive against Drakes. I wanted a repeatable card advantage source beyond Kumena for grindier matchups. At first I had Jace, Cunning Castaway (and his loyal companion, Jace's Sentinel for a while too! Thankfully they both near unplayable and I didn't have to track down the mythic 2cc 1/3). Jace had his moments, but was very inconsistent. Eventually someone suggested Karn he performed his role perfectly. He's also castable even with three or more Unclaimed Territory in play.

The Matchups

I was winning everything. Every event I'd get 5 wins, many times going undefeated. It was likely a multitude of factors, but eventually I realized something strange. I never faced Mono Red on MTG Arena. This is likely because the MonoRed players were stickly primarily to the Ladder with best of one matches, something I had no interest in during my preparation. Here is a basic synopsis of matchups besides monored:

Green Dudes, etc - they can't beat Sleep, they have a hard time answering Kumena

White Dudes, etc - still can't beat Sleep, still difficulty answering Kumena

Drakes - if you can counter / answer their threats, you have all the time in the world. Alternatively use counters to protect your team and swarm their lone creature

Control - Play a dude or two, counter their responses, repeat until they die.

Combo - like Control 

Red - ????

I finally played some focused testing vs Red. I started off by losing the first nine games before stealing a win in the tenth. Goblin Chainwhirler is a messed up card. So Red is bad, my main strategy is to dodge, hope for mana screw, or try to play the anti-control plan against them. 

Play What You Want

I'm hoping for the best. I'll play this at the SCG Open next weekend regardless of my finish at the RPTQ because it is that much fun.

The Deckbuilder's Dream

I'm writing this before playing in the RPTQ this weekend. By the time this will be published, I'll have a result. Whether it is a good result or a bad result (and really there is never any in between at events like these), I wanted to capture my thoughts as they are right now, 72 hours away from the tournament.

What is the Dream?

The dream of every deckbuilder is to make a deck that is perfectly positioned to win the tournament. When this happens, the actual winning will almost feel like an afterthought. The best way to do this is to have the most powerful and consistent deck in the room with no bad matchups, and also for no one else to have the deck. 

For many players, this dream isn't attainable. Most players spend time reacting to the metagame. They settle for copying existing lists, maybe changing a card or two. They might not even care to adventure into deck building. The opportunities to play in events before the Pros or Results have created the established metagame just isn't that common either. When some new technology does show up, they can copy it, but so can the rest of the field. What is game-changing one week can be hated out by a couple of sideboard cards the next week.

Chasing the Dream

I've come close a few times to acheiving the dream in the past. Most of my success and pathways to the Pro Tour have been limited format mastery (OLS, INN, RTR, THS, RIX) or mastery of the specific Tier 1 constructed deck (CawBlade, MonoBlack Devotion). I can remember a few times where it felt like I had the best deck in the room and was destined to win.

States 2011 - I played Dungrove Elder ramp with Kessig Wolf Run and Primeval Titan. This was just like the list that won the SCG the week before but added the Elders to win the mirror and provide stickier threats vs control. It had done well in the grinders for byes at an Australian GP that thanks to the time zone, I was able to read about before spitballing a list of all the cards I wanted to include about an hour before the tournament. This was less about having the right list and more about being faster to react to the information. By the next week, the deck was known and not particularly dominating but it was perfect that one day. Plus I didn't really come up with the idea on my own so not quite the Dream.

Modern PTQ 2012 - It was the first Modern PTQ. I had played at the first Modern PT where I thought I broke the format. Turns out, everyone had broken the format and while my deck was incredibly powerful and consistent, it was about the same level as everyone else's. After several waves of bannings, I brewed up an aggressive Boros aggro list that played the right cards and a soon to be calling card of mine - an incredible sideboard. I recall eating dinner after intentionally drawing in round six and David Thomas asking me if I thought I was going to win, and I just knew I would. The deck wasn't the most powerful howeverful, mainly I had a focused gameplan against the Big Three (Jund, Affinity, Twin) decks of the time and about ten times as much Modern experience as anyone in the state at the time. So not quite the Dream.

Regionals Hawaii 2008 / 2010 - Being a step ahead of the players in Hawaii was fairly easy. It was a small community of competitive players. Having access to the cards you needed was a big step. I played RG Countryside Crusher in 2008 that crushed Faeries (it was a known PT list) and Mythic Conscription in 2010 (a week after Matt Sperling got to live the real dream and win a PTQ the first week it was legal). Both results were good, but not the Dream. I played Mythic Conscription again a week later for a PTQ and lost in the top 4 to a now-prepared MonoRed opponent.

SCG Legacy Open 2013 - Is my Twitter profile pic really 5 years old? I guess I'll need to take a new one soon. Anyway, this probably felt most like the Dream but this was less about deck building and more about reading the text box of True-Name Nemesis, finding the physical cards and putting four copies in my Legacy deck. I know, real big brain stuff.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

I've always tried to chase the Dream at the Pro Tours I've played, usually to my detriment. The best players know its not about where the deck comes from as long as you win. And perhaps my low opinion of my play ability when compared with the PT regulars has me looking for an edge in risky deckbuilding when I shouldn't. Many times I've been close, or built a deck a set or two too soon. 

For the upcoming RPTQ, I'll be playing the deck below. I have done very little losing with it while testing on MTGA (more on this in the next post). Maybe I can live the dream one more time.

4 Benthic Biomancer

4 Kumena's Speaker

4 Silvergill Adept

4 Merfolk Mistbinder

4 Merfolk Trickster

2 Swift Warden

4 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca

4 Incubation / Incongruity

2 Wizards Retort

4 Spell Pierce

2 Sleep

4 Breeding Pool

4 Hinterland Harbor

4 Unclaimed Territory

2 Forest

8 Island

Sideboard

2 Sleep

4 Negate

2 Wizard's Retort

2 Transmogrifying Wand

2 Entrancing Melody

3 Karn, Scion of Urza

Green Blue Hadana's Climb at Pro Tour Dominaria

I played at Pro Tour Dominaria in Richmond Virginia this past weekend. I went 9-7 overall. This is my personal best result over the eight Pro Tours I've played in. My constructed record of 7-3 was by far the best I've ever done at a PT.

Draft Rounds

I went 2-4 in draft, going 1-2 in each draft. I think in both drafts my deck was okay or better, but in each draft it could have been much better. I've never been able to get the UR decks to work in my practice drafts, and my unfamiliarity with the archetype made it harder for me to see that is the colors I should have been. I think if I had found the right line to end up in UR I would have had closer to 5 wins in the limited portion. My two decks can be seen here and here.

I made the worst play of my life in the last round of the second draft that prevented me from salvaging a .500 draft record. My opponent had just attacked me with two Serra Disciples and then played a Cabal Paladin. He was tapped out except for his Paladin and a Knight of Grace. My board was D'Avenant Trapper, Juggernaut, and Relic Runner. I missed the fact that his Paladin gave his Knight +1/+0, so when I played Aesthir Glider I tapped his Paladin and then attacked with Juggernaut and Relic Runner. He blocked my Juggernaut and killed it with first strike damage, I pass the turn slightly embarrassed. The embarrassment was even worse when I looked at my hand and saw Seal Away.

My Constructed Deck

I supposed I always knew I would play a green deck. I fell in love with Jadelight Ranger in the only standard event I'd played prior to testing for this. Also Llanowar Elves was reprinted. I was willing to play anything, but I'd obviously have a slant towards green. I'm not I'm good enough to intentionally go against my bias to make sure I'm evaluating properly. Also I didn't have much time to prepare.

Goblin Chainwhirler is warping the format, but it's more than that. The strength of all the red creatures in combat makes it very difficult to stabilize against the red decks by deploying your own creatures. Chainwhirler, Kari Zev, Earthshaker Khenra, and Ahn-Crop Crasher are almost impossible to block with the creatures you can play in other colors for similar mana costs. If you are able to stabilize by playing your own dudes, Hazoret and Glorybringer and Chandra means you won't be stabilized for long. The only way to beat the red decks is to either legitimately answer all their threats (eg. UW Control) or to go over the top and kill them. The best way to go over the top and still be able to stabilize that I found was Verdurous Gearhulk.

A few things I found when testing: Karn wasn't as good as I had hoped. We had a list very similar to the CFB UG Constructs but never got it to consistently beat anything. I also tried BG Snake, but the liability against Soul-Scar Mage was not my favorite, and the upside wasn't quite enough to consistently go over the top. I tried out a list with Bristling Hydra and Hadana's Climb and quickly realized no one could beat Bristling Hydra. Adventurous Impulse increased the amount of Hydras in the deck, so I added them.

In order to play Hydra, you need to play Servant of Conduit. The energy was far more valuable in pumping Hydra than in drawing random cards with Glint-Sleeve Siphoner. Also if you cut Winding Constrictor you wouldn't need your second color mana on the first two turns. Lack of interaction didn't hurt since the BG decks were cutting back on it already. The only concern I had was not having Ravenous Chupacabra for other green decks. Once I figured out how good Skysovereign, Consul Flagship was in the mirrors (and against red), I knew my deck would be a good choice for the expected metagame. I wasn't expecting much UB Control at all, so I didn't need multiple Blossoming Defense. I played enough countermagic in the sideboard to have a decent shot against UW control. Kefnet's Last Word and Commit / Memory helped me answer Scarab God and Ghalta that otherwise would destroy me. Maximum Hadana's Climb never really was an issue, and I didn't mind drawing two.

This is what I registered:

If Adventurous Impulse could find Skysovereign, I would consider playing a second or third in the main. The second one in the main still probably better than a Spell Pierce or something in the current metagame.

Constructed Rounds

Its hard to tell whether the red decks I faced were mono-red or red-black midrange, or something in between. I think at least two I played were straight mono-red, and two were the midrange variant. The other two were probably more aggressive with a black splash for Scrapheap Scrounger. Overall I went 4-2 against Chainwhirler decks.

I played against UW Control three times, going 2-1. The matches I won were not particularly close, especially when I get to bring in 13 cards from the sideboard. Despite that, I still lost a match when I didn't draw any SB cards after losing game 1.

The third archetype I played against was UB Midrange. I got game 1 with Skysovereign before he could get Scarab God online. Game two he used Gonti to cast Verdurous Gearhulk on his Gifted Aetherborn, but I had Kefnet's Last Word to take it and win the game.

Going Forward

I'm still undecided if this will be in my lineup for the Team Unified Standard RPTQ. The blue counters take away from UW control, though maybe you can get away with just Spell Pierce. Perhaps the default lineup of GB, RB, and UW is still the best. I'll be working with my teammates to try to figure it out.

Thanks
Ty