Grand Prix San Antonio Report

I seem to do pretty well at San Antonio Grand Prixs. I hoped this year would be no different. Team Unified Constructed was a format I never got to play previously and I was hoping they would bring it back. I wasn't thrilled that it was Modern, but I still looked forward to the deck building challenge.

My teammates for this event were Will Lowry and Robert Berni. Early on, we decided I would play Merfolk since it didn't conflict with most decks, and I had a ton of experience with it. As the tournament approached, we decided someone should probably play Affinity since that deck is so broken and only loses to hate. As for the last deck, we were looking for options. Then GP Vancouver happened.

Immediately we knew we had to have a Death's Shadow player. The difficulty of that deck to pilot meant we would give it to our most experience Thoughtseize player Berni. This severely restricted the other decks you could play, but we knew we could find a way. The easiest deck to pair was Affinity which we already were working on. Once Will started playtesting it and after playing at the SCG Open in DFW, we had another issue: Merfolk wasn't good. We expected a lot of Affinity at the team GP because it doesn't take anything from other decks, and Merfolk has a very bad matchup vs the robots. But one good thing came from the testing and that was the inclusion of 4x Glint-Nest Crane in the Affinity deck.

So with Will on Robots and Berni on Death's Shadow, I had to go back to the drawing board and figure out what I would play. I wanted a deck that was reasonable against Death's Shadow (nothing is great vs it) and Affinity while still being abstractly powerful enough to deal with the randomness that is the Modern format. I ended up playing this:

3 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Renegade Rallier
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Eternal Witness
4 Restoration Angel
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Thragtusk
1 Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker

4 Path to Exile
4 Eldritch Evolution

1 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Breeding Pool
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Towhship

Sideboard
3 Stony Silence
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Linvala Keeper of Silence
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Reveillark
1 Archangel of Tithes
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Magus of the Moon

I started with Todd Stevens Rallier Company deck from SCG DFW. I liked how Rallier and Voice of Resurgence could gum up the ground vs Death's Shadow, but I didn't like how Tarmogoyf and Knight of the Reliquary just got killed. I also didn't like the land destruction element, nor the sometimes awkward way Company into Rallier didn't do anything. One card that did always have value with Rallier was Restoration Angel, and I soon began looking at Eldritch Evolution as an engine of sorts. Evolution sacrificing Voice to go get Rallier and getting Voice back was very good. Using the second evolution to sac Voice again to get Restoration Angel blinking Rallier getting back Voice and now you have a real army. I also added Saffi Eriksdotter as a great syngergy card since sacrificing it to protect Rallier gives you two blockers indefinitely. Strangleroot Geist also made an appearance as a 5th Voice for a while.

I ran into the issue that there weren't any good 4 drops you want to evolve into on an empty board (nothing to blink with angel). The best ones were either Huntmaster of the Fells or Glen Elendra Archmage. Huntmaster was great at grinding through removal, so it furthered that plan even more. Once I added red mana, the singleton Kiki-Jiki gave the deck a way to kill vs the faster decks of the format and a solid endgame. My past experience with trying to make Kiki Chord work is that Chording for 4+ casting cost creatures is not a reliable plan because it requires way too much mana or playing Wall of Roots, which isn't a very good card. Not playing Chord or Company definitely was an edge at the GP since I know a few people boarded into Dispels thinking I had them in my deck.The blue for Archmage was added to help vs Ad Nauseam and other combo decks. Once it made it to the main deck, it never left. Being able to steal game 1 when otherwise you'd never be able to win really adds up.

I worked on this with Zach Krizan (an expert on GW lists) and we quickly learned it was actually just great. I was even surprised at how well it was doing, but that could be because I was used to playing Merfolk, a deck that is admittedly not great. I even went 5-0 in a Modern league for the first time on MTGO as documented here.

The tournament venue was much nicer than I remember. Props to the City of San Antonio for the beautiful transformation of the formerly ugly convention center. I really enjoyed the area and wish I had stayed closer to the site.

Our seat configuration was myself in seat A with Naya Evolution, Berni in seat B with Death's Shadow, and Will in seat C on Affinity. Will has to be on one of the edges to minimize the distractions and hopefully keep him focused and playing at a reasonable pace. Berni is in the middle because he's great at observing all of the opponents, plays the fastest, and his large frame gave a barrier behind which Will and I could confer. I'm on the end because I'm not the super observant and quick player I used to be.

Round 1
Our round 1 opponents didn't show up. Berni runs so hot.
1-0

Round 2
I'm playing vs elves. I lose game 1 when I can't block because of his Elvish Champion. Game 2 I have Linvala and Archangel of Tithes in play, but he has 3 Essence Wardens preventing me from going for the combo. I was using Kiki-Jiki on Rallier to thin my deck with fetchlands. I was finally out of fetchable sources just waiting to draw Explosives or Huntmaster when my teammates won. Berni beat their Affinity player, and Will beat their Death's Shadow player, leading to the awkward situation where the teammates can't exactly blame a bad matchup.
2-0

Round 3
I'm playing vs Jeskai Burn (snapcaster mage, serum visions, jeskai charms). I combo off game 1 at 4 life after gaining 4 from Kitchen Finks, my opponent says "well at least I did 20". Game 2 I misplay and sacrifice Forge Tender when he casts Boros Charm while I'm at 5 life. He responds will Skullcrack. Game 3 his draw doesn't have many cheap spells or creatures and I'm at a comfortable 12 life when I win. Berni loses to Abzan Company featuring a Saffi-Rallier-Viscera Seer combo, then Blood Artist for the kill. Will pulls out his match against the mirror and we win the round.
3-0

Round 4
I'm playing against TitanBreach. Game 1 he has turn 4 Through the Breach and I can't recover. Game 2 I win with Magus of the Moon and Forge Tender to stop his Anger of the Gods. Game 3 I Evolution into Magus and he can't ever kill it and I kill him with just a Finks and Voice token. Berni loses to Abzan Midrange,and Will loses the Affinity mirror because his opponent has Ancient Grudge and he doesn't (they are in Berni's sideboard).
3-1

Round 5
Berni's opponent is late (how lucky). He wins a quick game against Swans / Treasure Cruise combo and takes his match. I'm playing against Elves where I win game 1 with maindeck Gaddock Teeg stranding his Companies and Chords in his hand. Game 2 he has turn 1 Mystic, turn 2 2x Heritage Druid into Elvish Archdruid, and turn 3 Elvish Archdruid attack for 12. All I have in play is Voice and a Birds of Paradise so I take it down to 6 life, but Evolution the following turn for Archangel of Tithes to slow him down. A follow up Huntmaster of the Fells starts clearing the board, and he scoops after drawing nothing but lands for a few turns telling me he sided out all his Companies and Chords after seeing Teeg game 1. Will was playing vs Standard BR Madness Vampires with Robots, but somehow was the last one done with his match.
4-1

Round 6
I play against Eldrazi Tron. Game 1 I have the turn 4 kill while he's mana screwed. Game 2 he is manascrewed again and my Stony Silence stops his Ballista and Collar from wrecking me. Eventually he resolves Thought-Knot Seer but by then I had a few Voice tokens big enough to attack into it and I could Evolution for Reclamation Sage for his Batterskull and attack for lethal. Berni lost to burn, but Will topdecked multiple Etched Champions against Death's Shadow to come back after losing game 1 to win us the match.
5-1

Round 7
I play against Affinity. Game 1 I get destroyed on the draw, but game 2 and 3 I have early Stony Silence and I'm the first one done. Berni is in a grindy Death's Shadow mirror, and looks like he's about to lose game 3 due to being stuck on only 1 mana for too many turns when Will beats the Jeskai Control player with multiple Etched Champions.
6-1

Round 8
I play against Esper Control. I almost get game 1 with the maindeck Gaddock Teeg, but end up flooding out and he finally deals with it a 3rd time and puts the game away with Sphinx's Revelation. Game 2 is more of the same, I don't have enough action to pressure him before he can safely set up Revelation. Will beats a flooded Burn player, and Berni is down a game against Ad Nauseam when they get deck checked mid-round. The check takes almost 20 minutes, and they finally come back to tell Berni's opponent that he has presented 59 and 16 for game 2, so he gets a game loss. Game 3 he keeps a 1 land hand with Leyline of Sanctity, but that didn't stop Surgical Extraction on Serum Visions. With the knowledge of his hand, Berni aggressively used Fulminator Mage and Kologhans Command in a mana denial strategy before setting up two Death's Shadow and Battlerage that can win through Phryexian Unlife. It didn't matter though as the opponent only drew Gemstone Mine for lands and ended up mana denial on himself letting Berni take the match.
7-1

Round 9
Backup feature match vs Sam Black, Justin Cohen, and Corey Burkhart. On the time shifted match, Berni gets to see the 0 land hand Sam keeps with Thoughtseize. Titian, Titan, Amulet, Amulet, Pact, Stirrings on the draw didn't hold up when the Stirrings was discarded. Game 2 he grinded through an Engineered Explosives and a Tireless Tracker to kill Sam just before he could deploy Hornet Queen. I lost the first game to Corey's UW Control, but win the second one in a grind fest that involved 4 castings of Supreme Verdict and still me getting him to 2 life. Then I cast Huntmaster of the Fells five turns in a row as he only had Cryptic Command to bounce/tap during my upkeep with the flip trigger on the stack. He finally drew an answer with Path to Exile, and my Restoration Angel in response was exiled by Spell Queller. I drew a Voice and a Township that let me attack into his Queller with the Wolf token and he couldn't draw another wrath to stabilize. Getting ready for game 3 we hear Will has defeated Justin Cohen on Death's Shadow, so we don't get to finish our epic match.
8-1

Finishing day 1 at 8-1 is great, but all of us have been here before and we know there is still lots of work to do. We get some solid Mexican food for dinner and get some sleep before coming back the next day ready to continue our run.

Round 10
I'm paired vs Gerard Fabiano and his UR Madcap Moon deck. I see neither Moon nor Madcap in our two games so I was kind of lost as to what to play around. Game 1 I show some signs of not being fully awake when I cast Restoration Angel in response to his Cryptic Command bounce-draw on my Voice token but I fail to blink the token to counter the draw (I was just casting because he was tapped out.) Then two turns later he taps out for Goblin Dark Dwellers flashing back Ancestral Vision and my board is 5 lands, Voice, Angel and my hand is 2 Evolution and Path to Exile. I bemoan the fact I don't have 6th land to kill him so I just attack with Angel then post combat Evolution into Rallier on Voice. While searching I realize I could have used Evolution for Rallier on a Fetchland to cast the 2nd Evolution and combo him, but since I am in my 2nd mainphase I can no longer attack. I pass with Path up, and he plays Jace Architect of Thought but I end of turn path his Goblin and can attack for lethal with Township through the Jace trigger. Game 2 he plays Threads of Disloyalty on my Voice which I decline to Path in response because he also has Thing in the Ice in play. I think its the correct play, but eventually I get buried by multiple Ancestrals and he attacks with Cryptic Command and has multiple Bolts to finish me off. We only have 6 minutes left for game 3, but by this point Berni has lost to Eli Kassis Bant Knightfall, and Will has lost to Ben Lundquist on Death's Shadow, so our match no longer matters.
8-2

Round 11
I'm playing vs Carlos Ramao. I know he is on Ad Nauseam so I keep Birds Fetch Evolution Evolution Finks Angel Rallier on the draw. I peal Breeding Pool and easily get out Archmage before he can go off. Game 2 I get out Archmage but he has Boseiju. I decline to counter his Lotus Bloom which may have been a mistake. He casts Ad Nauseam and draws the deck, casts Slaughter Pact on Archmage. I attempt to save it with Restoration Angel, but he has Echoing Truth and I die to Lightning Storm. Game 3 I lead with Stony Silence turn 2 and Magus of the Moon on turn 3. He can only cast Simian Spirit Guide and hope to buy time, but my Voice and Finks kill him before he can draw Lightning Storm or Slaughter Pact. Will defeats Abzan Midrange so we win despite Berni losing to Dredge. Berni attempted to call a judge because his opponent attacked with a Bloodghast that just entered the battlefield when he didn't realize that it has haste but I quickly told him he was being dumb.
9-2

Round 12
I'm playing against Affinity. I lose the die roll and get destroyed game 1. I win game 2 with 3x Path, EE, and then finally Stony Silence. Things get complicated game 3 when I have Stony Silence but I'm stuck on land without any real plays. I make a misplay and Path his Ravager giving him the 3rd land he needs to play Aether Grid. I use Reclamation Sage to kill it, but in the mean time I take a large hit from some man-lands and Signal Pest. I draw a second Sage to kill the Pest, and then try to develop mana with a Birds and Hierarch, but he has the second Aether Grid and wrecks my team and I'm low enough I can't play Archangel of Tithes and still be in the game. If I had just held the Path for the Signal Pest I would have been able to destroy both Aether Grids with the Reclamation Sages and not take nearly as much damage. Berni defeated Bant Eldrazi, but Will lost to Death Shadow and we drop a match that we should have won.
9-3

Round 13
I'm playing Matthias Hunt who is on Scrapheap Trawler combo. I win game 1 when I Evolution for Archmage on turn 3. While I'm tapped out, he attempts to go off, but only has 1 card draw artifact. After a few minutes of comboing, he passes the turn back. I have Path to Exile for his Trawler, then I can hold up Archmage for his Ichor Wellspring I know he has and he never draws another Trawler. I think he may have been better off just playing KCI on the turn I was tapped out and then attempting to combo through the Archmage the following turn. Game 2 I have turn 2 Stony Silence and he has neither green mana or the Nature's Claim to beat it. Will defeats Infect thanks to Hope of Ghirapur, and therefore Berni doesn't need to finish his mirror match after winning game one when both players had 7+ creature in play.
10-3

Round 14
We are paired against Chris Pikula team who are coming off 3 losses on the day after being undefeated day 1. They have an outside shot at top 8, but we are most likely playing for 5th place due to tiebreakers. I'm playing against Jarvis Yu who is on Abzan Company. I've know him from MTGO for a while, so he's the only guy I play that not only knows what my deck is since he reads on the MTGO results, he also knows I'm on it before we play. Game 1 he's on the play and starts with Viscera Seer and Melira. My turn 2 I can hold up Path or play Voice of Resurgence. With nothing else in play, I decide I need to develop my board and hope he doesn't have Finks or the 3rd land. He has both and while I do break up the kill combo several times with Path, Witness, and Restoration Angel, he gets to stack his deck each time and keep replaying it before he gets both Melira and Anafenza to combo me. Game two I play Linvala and then have to try to get through his board of dudes with my weaker creatures. He gets Fiend Hunter for Linvala, but I use Explosives on 3 to get it back. Eventually I have enough fliers to kill him before his Township takes over. Game 3 I mulligan to 6 and keep a slow hand with only Explosives, Linvala, Restoration Angel, and 3 lands. I play Explosives on 2 to set up the long game protection and then play Linvala on turn 4 but he has the Path. I try to use two Restoration Angel to stay alive against his beatdown with Orzhov Pontiff, but he has Maeltrom Pulse to kill them both. I'm at one life when I play Voice, Saffi, and Hierarch to try to stabilize but he topdecks his own Hierarch to kill me with Birds of Paradise. This happened after Will had won and Berni had lost, so it was an exciting moment... for our opponents.
10-4

We finish in 20th place, good enough for $1200 dollars and one pro point. I liked the decks we chose and I think we played mostly great except round 12. We did have a very tough day two gauntlet of opponents but that is to be expected.

I loved the deck and going forward I wouldn't change much. I actually think it is better outside of team modern since I didn't play against Death's Shadow all weekend and that is one of the better matchups for you. The only change I would make is possibly cutting a Rallier for another Eternal Witness.

Team Unified Modern was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, and I thought it was going to be pretty fun. I hope they continue to run Unified Constructed tournaments in the future, though I would also like to play a Split Format team event sometime too.

Edit: Posting my teammates decks here as well:

Robert Berni - Seat B - Death's Shadow
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf

1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
4 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Temur Battle Rage
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Tarfire

1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats

Sideboard
2 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Kozilek's Return
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Painful Truths


Will Lowry - Seat C - Robots
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Etched Champion
4 Steel Overseer
4 Ornithopter
1 Hope of Ghirapur
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
1 Memnite
4 Glint Nest Crane
2 Master of Etherium

4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Mox Opal

4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Island
2 Spire of Industry
2 Glimmervoid

Sideboard
2 Spell Pierce
2 Dispatch
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Wear Tear
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Whipflare
1 Etched Champion
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Talking about going to combat

This past weekend at PT Aether Revolt, there was controversy during a round 8 feature match. As far as I can tell, Player A moved into the combat step (and specifically the declare attackers step) by saying combat, then Player A attempted to crew a vehicle and attack with it. The following judge call and internet uproar brought to light several issues I wish to discuss that I haven't seen talked about in depth.

The official policy is Not Good.

Not Good as opposed to inadequate, or actively bad, or a variety of other negative descriptors. It is possibly borderline inadequate, and has the potential to be actively bad given the right circumstances, but in general I'll say it is Not Good.

 The only "official" ruling on it is in the MTR where it states "A statement such as 'I’m ready for combat' or 'Declare attackers?' offers to keep passing priority until an opponent has priority in the beginning of combat step. Opponents are assumed to be acting then unless they specify otherwise." The meaning of this seems clear, but the implications are far reaching. The reasoning behind this is explained in two judge blog posts, here and here. This has been around for almost a year, yet a majority of PT players seemed surprised by this. This is poor communication akin to when the judges before PT Avacyn Restored told the entire tournament Cavern of Souls mana had to be announced to be used, only to be told 30 minutes later that in fact the opposite would be true. The people in charge of making these rulings are not communicating with those making the cards and running the tournaments, nor are they communicating with the players until it is too late (or almost too late).

One issue I have with the blog post is this unilateral statement "No sentence can allow AP to remain in Main Phase one unless NAP agrees to." But in the ruling from the PT, Player A wasn't trying to remain in the main phase! In the other blog post, Toby says "So Why Not Just Have a Phrase That Lets You Explicitly Have Priority in Beginning of Combat? [it is] unnecessary..." I think clearly the PT and the reaction to the ruling have shown it is necessary and natural for such a shortcut exist. As an exercise, here are some things an actively player could say, where do you think the line is between remaining in main phase and passing priority in the beginning of combat?
"I pass priority in my pre-combat main phase"
"I would like to go to the beginning of combat step"
"I would like to go to combat"
"I would like to go to the combat phase"
"Combat?"
"I would like to attack"
"Attack step?"
"Attacks?"
 Better question, which one of these are actually classified as shortcuts? I assume "no sentence can allow you to remain in main phase" only applies to shortcuts and not any English sentence, since passing priority as robotic as MTGO surely can't fall under this, but who knows with judges?

The issue they are trying to solve is hardly a real issue. The best example they can give is one from 20 years ago. In today's constructed magic, tap effects are rare, beginning of combat triggers are common, and in limited haste creatures are rare enough this almost never comes up. This "shortcut" they've created only skips one instance of passing priority. If instead of a shortcut any instance of "combat?" was treated simply as passing priority in main phase one what would be the downside? It's far easier to uniformly apply instead of sometimes going straight to declare attackers, and sometimes remaining in beginning of combat depending on triggers and / or opponent responses.

One common justification is "if you communicate clearly, you don't need this shortcut" but that sounds very much like "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you shouldn't worry about the government spying on you." Yes those who make the effort to communicate clearly will not run into issues, but the existence of shortcuts is to reduce the burden of having to be precisely exact to the last detail in all your communication. The way this ruling is applied, its punishing people who communicate less clearly in a way that would encourage burdensome communication in the future.

Kai Budde made a great point in his Facebook post about this. For over 20 years on the PT "combat?" meant one thing, and now it doesn't. It was changed to eliminate some "feel-bads" for beginning / casual. They'd much rather sacrifice nuanced game play at the highest levels so that a new player doesn't quit and continues to buy more cards. It doesn't have to be this way. Player B's feel bad for the reaction his judge call received, Player A's feel bad for the poor ruling when he felt he did nothing wrong, the feel bad of all the people watching and the black eye it puts on the judges who wrote policy and the non response issued by Scott Larabee- was it worth it for those few incredibly rare situations you may have prevented?

Jeskai Ascendancy Combo at Grand Prix Houston

I didn't do much preparation for Grand Prix Houston. For local GPs in the past, I’ve brewed dozens of decks and tried many more I found online until I got the list I wanted to play. This time, real life time commitments got in the way. If you remember my New Year’s Resolution article, you may wonder why I stopped writing after resolving to put out one article a week. My wife and I have been in the process of buying a house, so that has taken up a lot of my free time. I don’t feel like I’ve failed at my resolution since I have been progressing on sorting my collection (an unwritten resolution I had) in preparation for moving.

With little time to prepare in my usual manner, I put my trust in my friends for this event. Will Lowry and I have assembled a group of players we know and trust in an online Slack group to help all involved build and tune decks for upcoming events. Will and I have worked together for just about every event either of us has played for about five years now, so I know he understands what I want from a deck. With him and others to do some of the more time consuming work, I was able to manage the discussion and have my issues addressed when I had the time.

The Deck

Collin Rountree showed me the first version of the deck we ended up playing (I somehow have several friends who want to play Jeskai Ascendancy Combo in every format, and he's in that group.). With the printing of Slip through Space and Expedite in Oath of the Gatewatch, there's finally enough critical mass of cantrips to enable a combo style of play. Also manlands and Elemental Uprising along with the Awaken mechanic create more ways to generate mana while the chain is going.

The first goal was to tune the deck to have the fastest goldfish (playing solitaire without an opponent) kill possible. After that, we played it against a variety of decks in the format to see if it was fast enough and how easy it was to disrupt. It turned out you could fairly reliably kill on turn 5, and the deck was more resilient to disruption that we thought. Also, much of the metagame including the deck-to-beat, Rally, didn’t have any good way to interact at all in game one!

When it was all said and done, we ended up playing this:

Standard
Jeskai Ascendancy Combo - Ty Thomason

Creatures (8) 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy 4 Rattleclaw Mystic Non-Creature Spells (30) 4 Treasure Cruise 4 Slip through Space 4 Expedite 4 Anticipate 1 Tormenting Voice 3 Radiant Flames 2 Briber's Purse 4 Elemental Uprising 4 Jeskai Ascendancy

Lands (22) 2 Plains 2 Island 2 Mountain 1 Prairie Stream 1 Cinder Glade 1 Canopy Vista 1 Wooded Foothills 4 Frontier Bivouac 4 Flooded Strand 4 Windswept Heath Sideboard (15) 3 Monastery Mentor 3 Dispel 3 Valorous Stance 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Reclaim 2 Kozilek's Return

The Process

Step 1: Get Jeskai Ascendancy in play.
Step 2: Have an active Rattleclaw Mystic or cast Elemental Uprising.
Step 3: Cast cards like Slip through Space and Expedite to grow your creatures and untapping them at the same time, making the cards “free”.
Step 4: Use the loot ability of Ascendancy to keep the chain going, and use Treasure Cruise to keep your hand full.
Step 5: Repeat this process until your creatures are big enough to kill your opponent. Then attack with unblockable 20/20s!

Getting two creatures that add mana is important, especially if you aren’t comboing with Bivouac or Rattleclaw as you’ll probably need a red and a blue source. Eventually you can net mana, and add even more creatures to the board if needed. Expedite can turn on Jace to flashback key spells as you are comboing. Briber's Purse can add mana when you need it, or it can help clear the way if you don’t find Slip.

The Choices

You can build a three color only version with Awaken spells and Wall of Resurgence, but it isn’t nearly as fast as adding green. Rattleclaw lets you go off on turn three sometimes (not very often and usually not necessary). Elemental Uprising is both a creature and a way to trigger Ascendancy. Both are the cheapest options, especially compared with manlands. And you only need eight total in the deck. The mana is good, but not great. It might still need a second Cinder Glade instead of a Mountain. Frontier Bivouac is your best land, and the best target for Elemental Uprising.

The main deck Radiant Flames buys you a bunch of time, especially against decks like Bant Collected Company and Four Color Rally. They also can be used when comboing to clear the way for your attackers.

Dig Through Time proved to be worse than Treasure Cruise, and you can only have so many Delve spells. With Jace in the deck, you can cast more than four Cruises while going off if you really need to. Dig is only better in the situations when you're looking for Ascendancy, and it's still difficult to cast. You could maybe replace the Tormenting Voice with one Dig.

The sideboard has more interaction for when Radiant Flames and Briber's Purse aren’t needed. Monastery Mentor isn't as good as it looks, but still earns a spot because of the surprise factor.

The Tournament

In total, seven of us played the deck at GP Houston. Six of us made the second day, though most did at just 6-3. Robert Berni got to show it off in a few feature matches. A few who made day two at 6-3 declined on playing the second day, but three of us continued on. In the end, only Tony Ho and I stuck it out to the end, finishing right next to each other in the standings at 9-6.

I played against Abzan variants way more often than expected, including five out of six on day two. Abzan has historically been good against these kinds of combo decks by being able to play efficient green and white beaters while disrupting you with discard and removal. I think four of my losses were to Abzan, but two of them was more because my deck failed me. It’s probably not a favorable matchup.

The Aftermath

Perhaps we misjudged the metagame, expecting more Rally than I ran into. Perhaps I should've just played Rally instead; it worked out for Haibing Hu despite his lack of preparation. But given the lack of time I had, I don’t feel too disappointed in my finish. I still made day two (at 6-3), but it's only the second time I’ve made day two without winning money. I think it was a good first run for our group process, and I look forward to working with the guys in the future.

Thanks,
Ty

Revisiting Pack Rat in Legacy

Towards the end of Pack Rat’s domination of Standard, many players began to experiment with the once over-looked card in other formats. Tad Macaraeg and others had some success with it in the Modern format, but I went one step further and attempted to bring it to Legacy.

my apologies to everyone who likes legacy pic.twitter.com/cLJIo4boeF

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) August 21, 2014

We all quickly discovered that Pack Rat was not the force to be reckoned with that it was in Standard. While our attempts may have been more to frustrate opponents who were tired of losing to the Rat round after round, I learned quite a bit from the process. Today, I’ll be going over some of the things I learned as well as presenting one of the more recent experimentations.
Why play Pack Rat?
One of my favorite concepts in deck building is the idea of different Axes of Attack. The best example is Standard-era CawBlade. The deck could beat you by using Stoneforge Mystic to find Batterskull or various swords. It could also beat you just by playing a bunch of Squadron Hawks and protecting them with countermagic. Or it could beat you by acting as a control deck centered on Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Having three different plans allowed the deck to take the best role for the matchup, and it also made it very resilient to the opponent’s actions. Diversifying your threats makes it much harder for your opponent to negate your plan with sideboard cards.
Pack Rat as a threat is not the fastest, most disruptive, most resilient, or hardest to answer. But it does present a unique challenge for opponents to answer. Relying on 1-for-1 spot removal to answer creatures like Delver of Secrets or Dark Confidant won’t be as effective. Graveyard hate, like Rest in Peace creating Virtual Card Advantage against threats like Deathrite Shaman and Tarmogoyf, won’t stop Pack Rat. By using Pack Rat in conjunction with a diverse set of threats, you add an Axis of Attack to your deck that could be useful.
What are the drawbacks of Pack Rat?
Pack Rat is slow by Legacy standards. Without Mutavault, the clock it presents is slightly slower than a fully powered up Tarmogoyf. It also requires a huge commitment of resources every turn. Pack Rat is also black. I think black is one of the worst colors in Legacy, maybe even the stone worst. Pinpoint discard like Thoughtseize is not as good in a format where Brainstorm is the most played card. Also, the power level of decks is so high that opponents are much more likely to topdeck something good. Liliana is expensive in a format with Daze and Wasteland.
Cards to Play with Pack Rat
While Thoughtseize may be the best set up card for Pack Rat in Standard and Modern, I don’t think it's necessarily needed in Legacy. Since we're using Pack Rat to supplement other threats, we can use those threats to act as disruption, drawing out the removal that would normally go towards Pack Rat. Once both players are out of gas, Pack Rat can come down and take over the game. Discard might still be wanted to disrupt the lightning quick combo decks of the format, but it shouldn’t be relied upon to set up the horde.
Dark Confidant is Pack Rat’s best friend. He shares a color and provides the additional cards to create more rats. He also acts as a lightning rod for removal. Liliana is also very good with Pack Rat. You can use her +1 ability after discarding to Pack Rat every turn, so you will gain Card Advantage.
Cards that can be used from the graveyard also have synergy with Pack Rat. Lingering Souls, Punishing Fire, and Life from the Loam are all great compliments to Pack Rat. It’s important to remember that Pack Rat itself is a compliment to other strategies, so loading your deck full of these will just slow down your deck past the point of playability.
Mutavault is always a card to consider, but Legacy really emphasizes the need for colored mana sources with the prevalence of Wasteland. Mutavault could be right if you want to play a large number of lands (22+).
Some Pack Rat Brews

Legacy
BG Pack Rat - Ty Thomason

Creatures (16) 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Dark Confidant 4 Pack Rat Non-Creature Spells (22)2 Sylvan Library 3 Liliana of the Veil 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Abrupt Decay 4 Thoughtseize 1 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Life from the Loam 1 Disfigure 1 Umezawa's Jitte

Lands (22) 4 Wasteland 4 Bayou 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Swamp 1 Forest 4 Bloodstained Mire 1 Treetop Village 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Sideboard (15) ???

This was my first Pack Rat brew. It's based on Modern Jund and other BGx decks but really playing up the disruption and aggressiveness. It looks like it shares a lot of cards with recent BUG Delver lists, and Pack Rat might just be a worse Delver of Secrets. This would be the best deck to try Mutavault in.

Legacy
BW Pack Rat - Ty Thomason

Creatures (16) 4 Deathrite Shaman4 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Dark Confidant4 Pack Rat Non-Creature Spells (22)3 Lingering Souls 1 Batterskull 1 Umezawa's Jitte1 Sword of Fire and Ice4 Thoughtseize3 Liliana of the Veil4 Swords to Plowshares4 Hymn to Tourach1 Vindicate

Lands (22) 4 Wasteland 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Marsh Flats 2 Windswept Heath 1 Bayou 4 Scrubland 1 Swamp 1 Plains 1 Savannah Sideboard (15) ???

I love Stoneforge Mystic, but she isn’t the best with Pack Rat. Abrupt Decay versus Swords to Plowshares is an interesting swap and depends on the metagame you expect. There are probably better Abzan lists and definitely better Stoneforge lists.

Legacy
Shardless BUG Rat - Ty Thomason

Creatures (16) 4 Deathrite Shaman3 Tarmogoyf4 Shardless Agent4 Pack Rat1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang Non-Creature Spells (21)2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Liliana of the Veil4 Ancestral Vision4 Brainstorm4 Abrupt Decay2 Hymn to Tourach2 Thoughtseize1 Life from the Loam

Lands (23) 4 Wasteland 1 Creeping Tar Pit 4 Polluted Delta 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Misty Rainforest 2 Bayou 2 Tropical Island 4 Underground Sea Sideboard (15) ???

Drawing lots of cards with Ancestral Visions and Jace is a good way to fuel Pack Rat. Without Force of Will (not enough blue cards plus non-bo with Pack Rat), you might need more disruption cards. I haven’t played enough with this to know if it’s good or not. Shardless BUG probably doesn’t need more ways to win the long, grindy games.

Legacy
Chalice Jund - Ty Thomason

Creatures (12) 4 Tarmogoyf4 Dark Confidant4 Pack Rat Non-Creature Spells (24)4 Chalice of the Void 3 Life from the Loam3 Liliana of the Veil2 Sylvan Library4 Abrupt Decay4 Punishing Fire4 Mox Diamond

Lands (24) 1 Barren Moor 1 Tranquil Thicket 1 Forest 1 Swamp 1 Badlands 2 Bayou 2 Bloodstained Mire 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 1 Taiga 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wasteland 2 Wooded Foothills Sideboard (15) ???

This is the latest brew I have. I based it off of the Punishing Abzan lists that have done well lately. The manabase is more forgiving since it’s only three colors. Tarmogoyf is actually great in these decks, but Pack Rat is not as good as Knight of the Reliquary. Not having access to Gaddock Teeg is also a negative. This deck can still be a force in the metagame because Chalice of the Void is that strong. Pack Rat and Life from the Loam are good together, but Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage might be better uses of Loam. This is somewhere between Jund and Lands, and I’m not sure it needs to exist. It's fun if you like making rats every turn. The list might need a Volrath’s Stronghold, probably as a 25th land.
So…Now what?

So maybe Pack Rat won’t ever change the Legacy landscape. But it’s still a uniquely powerful card to keep in mind when building a deck. And if you really love making rats, it's not so bad to hurt your deck significantly. Perhaps focusing on it less can increase its success. Adding in one or two to an existing deck won’t hurt the consistency and will add a new dimension. Maybe you'll be the one to find the perfect home for the card in Legacy. Good luck brewing!
Thanks,
Ty

Basics of Magic Theory

In the upcoming year of writing once a week, I may try to discuss some theoretical aspects of the game. Magic theory has always been of interest to me and I think taking a serious academic approach to some concepts can be beneficial to a player. Some of my favorite articles that I’ve read over the years have been theory articles.

My goal is not to develop a universal theory that relates everything because I think the best way to talk about theory is to keep it applicable. A good understanding of theory can help in three ways: 1) A better understanding of the game situation and what's important 2) A way to differentiate between possible decisions and outcomes 3) A way to evaluate cards from new sets for use in various formats.

In this article I want to define some of the basic concepts of theory so that in my future writing they can be used as a reference to understand exactly what I’m talking about. This list is not comprehensive or exhaustive. One day I may expand it and add references when necessary. But for the purposes of this site, brevity wins out. I'll assume you know most of the rules of the game and have a decent enough grasp on basic strategy. I shouldn't need to explain what chump blocking is, why it’s bad to do on turn three, or why other similarly awful things are bad.

Resources, Their Limiting Factors, and the Big Three Concepts

Magic is a game of resources, but it’s much more than a game of resource management. There are three major resources in the game: cards, mana, and life. Each of these resources is limited by one or more rules. You only draw one card a turn and can't have more than seven in hand at the end of a turn. You can only play one land a turn. You start with only twenty life points. These three resources and their limiting factors are integral to the big three theoretical concepts: Card Advantage, Philosophy of Fire, and Tempo. There are other limitations in the game, chiefly getting only one attack and untap step each turn. These will be discussed when appropriate. I define the big three concepts as the exchange of resources for an increase in a certain type of resource.

Card Advantage

This is the exchange of resources (cards, mana, life) for cards.

If all cards are equal, the person with the most card advantage will win. The simplest illustration is two decks full of Memnites playing against each other. If a player is allowed to draw even one more card than the other, that card will be the deciding factor of the game*. The way I define a card for CA analysis includes creatures on the battlefield, including tokens even though they aren’t technically cards per the comprehensive rules. Permanents on the battlefield that can’t attack or block generally don't count as cards.

*This is actually only true if the player drawing the extra card is on the draw. The player on the play would be required to draw two additional cards to tip the scales in his or her favor, or the creatures would need haste. This is a good illustration for the difference between being on the play versus being on the draw.

The exchange of resources (cards, life, mana) for life (either yours or your opponents).

This concept was originally put forward by Michael Flores in his article by the same name. I don’t like the name, but I like the concept (the opposite will be true for tempo). I’ve expanded on the main points of his article to apply to more than just Burn decks. A good illustration is a deck full of Lightning Bolts and Mountains. Drawing seven Bolts is all that is needed to win the game. Any Bolt spent not killing your opponent is one more you need to draw down the road to finish him or her off. Some decks immediately start with a philosophy of fire mindset, trying to convert resources to damage right away. Others wait until the game is firmly in control before using the resource advantage to end the game. Using cards to gain life is also part of the philosophy of fire. For each Healing Salve your opponent plays, you'll need to draw an additional Lightning Bolt. Philosophy of fire also covers situations where you attack with a greater number of creatures than your opponent has as blockers. You lose one or more attackers in the process, but gain from the damage dealt by your unblocked creatures. You traded resources (cards / creatures in play) for life (damage to the opponent).

Tempo

The exchange of resources (cards, life, mana) for mana.

This is perhaps an oversimplification of a very complex subject, but talking about tempo can be difficult at times. Some commonly held ideas about tempo can be described in terms of card advantage and philosophy of fire. Only by clearly defining those other two, can we see the negative space left as it’s own independent concept. Tempo is a great name. But historically, it has been poorly defined. I won’t try to convince you that my definition is correct, but it'll be the definition I use in future articles. My concept of tempo only works because the mana system works the way it does. Cards increase in power level as their mana cost increases, and you can only play one land a turn (lands being the primary source for mana). Note that playing a land is a tempo play: it costs a resource (card from hand) and since the land does not attack or block, it no longer counts as a card. The word tempo implies a time-dependent quality, usually described as a turn. Missing a land drop can cost tempo. Not making a play on a critical turn (failing to utilize mana you have available) is also negative tempo. Being behind one or more turns in a game can lead to a swift defeat. The other restrictions mentioned above (only one untap, only one attack) also apply to tempo in some situations.

Additional Concepts

Velocity

The amount of cards you see in a game.

If card advantage is important when all cards are equal, velocity is important for finding a specific card that is much better than the rest. Cards like Preordain, Ponder, and Serum Visions create velocity without a loss of card advantage. Traditionally, a card that sees more cards but doesn’t replace itself (i.e. Index) wouldn’t count as Velocity since it doesn’t quantitatively get you further into your deck. I think Index should still count, but understand that velocity is not generally worth a card. Note that card-drawing spells like Divination create both card advantage and velocity. A card that creates only card advantage would be something like Entreat the Angels.

Threat Density

The amount of relevant cards left in your deck.

Velocity explored the idea that not all cards are equal. Threat density takes this further by acknowledging that in the later stages of the game, many cards are no longer useful. Lands are almost always useless after a certain point. When this point is reached, having more spells than lands left in your deck than your opponent means you'll be less likely to experience mana flooding. Threat density is very important for aggressive decks, and one of the biggest reasons to play aggressive decks is their low land count.

Card advantage “created” by neutralizing your opponents cards without actually destroying or discarding them.

Don't confuse virtual card advantage with threat density. Sometimes people use the term to refer to creation of tokens, but this is confusing and I think my system allows for tokens to be pure card advantage in a way that works. Virtual card advantage can be created by cards like Chalice of the Void, or Moat, or Rest in Peace against a deck with Tarmogoyfs. Usually they're permanent-based.

Some Good Articles to Read

1. Stage-Skipping Standard

Stages describe what part of the game you are in.

This is a great concept from Mike Flores. I quote his explanations because they really are great.

Stage 1 - “In Stage I you are basically mana screwed.”
Stage 3 - “In Stage III one player is both 1) dictating the field of battle and 2) playing in such a way that only a subset of the opponent's cards (if any) are live any more.”
Stage 2 - “Stage II is...everything else.”

If you want to know more, click on the link to the article. It’s a very good concept that hasn’t really entered into common theory discussion, and I don’t see a need to put it in my own words.

2. Who's the Beatdown?

This describes the roll you take in a matchup.

Yet another Mike Flores creation. It can’t be overstated how much great stuff Flores has contributed to Magic theory over the years. In my opinion, he's the best writer of all time, but I’m kind of a geek for the theory stuff.

3. Chatter of the Squirrel - What Matters

Focus on what matters. Enough said.

Strategy, Tactics, and Operations

Flores put forth these three terms here, but the definitions have shifted over the years. Thus, my definitions are presented here.

Tactics

These are the choices you make in a single turn to maximize the effectiveness of the turn. Tactics can occasionally be expanded to beyond a single turn, but it's the nuts and bolts of solid Magic play. You can be very successful in Magic just by using good tactics. I won my first PTQ in Limited by relying on tactics and some good instinct, but really not on any in depth strategy (I also got pretty lucky).

Strategy

This is broader than tactics. It's knowing what's important in a match-up, as well has how to sideboard. Deck construction can also be considered a part of strategy.

Operations

This is stuff outside the game that you use, some parts of it more impactful than others. Playing all matching basic lands in your deck is part of operations. Scouting in the late rounds of a tournament is operations. Shuffling the card you draw into your hand is part of operations. Some of it can border on the fringes of ethical and legal play, so be careful! My favorite Magic quote has to deal with operations: “Your ability to succeed at the top levels of Magic is directly related to your ability to control your tells.” - Gary Wise (I promise I won’t quote this every article!)

Looking Ahead

Hopefully this gives you enough foundation and background that I can communicate effectively going forward. I know I’m working on something to dive more in depth to my ideas about tempo. In the meantime, I’ve been drafting Mirrodin on Magic Online. Follow me on Twitter to find out when I’m streaming!

Thanks,
Ty