Aether Vial

Throughout my Magic career, I have played many decks with Aether Vial. It is one of the cards I enjoy playing with the most. I played it when it was first printed in Affinity. I played it in Extended and Legacy Goblins. I played it in Merfolk and Death and Taxes. I've recently been playing it in Spirits and Humans. Fourteen years of playing this card and I thought I knew all there was to know about it.

I was wrong.

A 2004 era Goblins deck

This past week I've learned two things about the card that changed the way I think about it.

One-Drops with Aether Vial

The first piece of new information came from my favorite Magic player when I first started playing competitively, Jeff Cunningham. In his article about the top tier of Modern, he put forth a list with two copies of Thraben Inpsector in addition to the four copies each of Champion of the Parish and Noble Hierarch. In his words: "The Thraben Inspectors are included because I think standard builds of the deck are short on one-drops - this is because maximizing Aether Vial requires you to have another one-drop (besides itself) to play on Turn 2, and so it effectively doesn't count as a one-drop."

This seems fairly straight-forward and obvious, but felt like a revelation. Because Vial requires such a large portion of the deck to be creatures to be effective, the decks that play is are historically fairly aggressive. However many of these lists don't play more than four one-drops to vial in. Merfolk, Death and Taxes, Spirts, and even Legacy Goblins rarely play more than eight one-drops at most.  This is largely because the main strength of vial is in its repeated Sol Ring activations with two or three (or more) counters.

Humans plays a bit more aggressively than these other decks, and a card like Thalia's Lieutenant incentivises you to put as many creatures onto the battlefield before you deploy it. More one-drops in Humans is likely more correct than fewer. As Thraben Inspector also provides the late game card advantage you need to continue to take advantage of Aether Vial, its the perfect compliment one-drop.

Some notes here: Mutavault in Merfolk acts as a one-drop (or zero-drop) that makes the deck function with adequate aggression. Also the requirement for late game card drawing is likely why we are seeing the increased play of the card Horizon Canopy. Legacy DnT has Stoneforge Mystic and Recruiter of the Guard and therefore doesn't need as many copies.

With this knowledge, I played Humans at a PPTQ in Houston. I lost in the top 4 due to a poor mulligan decision, but overall I was very happy with the deck. It will be something I'll consider playing again in the future.

How many Aether Vial do you play?

The answer is obviously 4, right? Well, maybe not. Ondrej Strasky made the top 8 of GP Prague with a Bant Spirits deck sporting only 3 copies of Aether Vial.  It has been very interesting to look at the reasons behind the number.

Strasky's GP Prague Top 8 Decklist

The divide between UW Spirits with Aether Vial and Bant Spirits with Noble Hierarch has come down to a few key factors. Collected Company is a great card in conjunction with Spell Queller, but requires a bit more mana sources and a third color. Noble Hierarch solves those problems, but it is much more fragile than Aether Vial. You cannot keep one-land Hierarch hand with Spirits the same way you can keep one-land Vial hands. Also, the interaction between Phantasmal Image and Collected Company is not ideal, so you will have fewer instances of double Drogskol Captain in Bant despite what would seem to be more. 

I've preferred the UW version, largely because of my love of Vial. This Strasky version plays both Vial and Noble. In additon to Mausoleum Wanderer, the deck now has 11 solid turn one plays. The issue with running both is the amount of creatures required to play Collected Company.

The other Bant deck in the top 8 played 31 creatures. Frank Karsten set the minimum at about 22 creatures, though you clearly want as many as possible. What the Strasky list has decided on is that he wants 28 creatures (22 of which are non-Noble non-Image). With the requirements of 21 lands and 4 Path to Exile, that only leaves room for three Aether Vial. This also helps alleviate the problem of drawing multiple Vials when you don't need them.

One interesting thought: if the numbers you want are 21 land, 28 creatures, and 4 Company 4 Path, is the deck better at 3 Vials and 60 cards, or 4 Vials and 61 cards? Could this be a time to play more than 60 in order to get the right ratios for Collected Company? That will be something that may be worth looking into.

Old Dog, New Tricks

What this week has shown me is that you can still have success in Magic by questioning your assumptions about everything. I thought I knew it all about Vial, but I'm excited to try these new things in different decks. I had decided to focus on Humans since I felt it was a bit better than Spirits overall, but with the success of Spirits at the GP and these new innovations, I may return to Spell Queller and Co. for my upcoming PPTQs.

Thanks,

Ty

Cedric Phillips

Cedric Phillips recently had a bad day  During the time period between his first post about being in tears at the events of the day and the second post explaining his position, I found myself defending him in various discussions with other Magic players. I did my best to explain what I thought his position was to these people. I didn't want to put words in his mouth, but I had a good feeling I knew what he was getting at. He does a much better job explaining his position in the Facebook post than I did, but I don't think I was very far off.

It is okay to care.

Most discussion or thinking about the meaning of life will quickly find the conclusion that nothing matters once you are dead. Some despair at this notion, some use it to fuel their apathy. People like Cedric know that they can create their own meaning of life by caring about something and working to make things they care about better.

Caring isn't uncool. Caring is what's important. Thinking it is weak or uncool to cry when you have the experiences Cedric had is really missing the point. Either you have a warped view on masculinity or can't relate to caring. Think of something in your life that would make you this upset. That level of caring is how Cedric feels about MtG and the community. It is something I admire.

Many years back, someone asked me if I knew anyone that loved Magic more than I did. At the time, in a pre-streaming, pre-podcast, minimal-content world, it was hard for me to name any names. Certain writers and many pros seemed to sell how little they cared. I didn't know many players in my area who loved the game as much as I did. But in the years that followed, Magic exploded in popularity. The opportunities for those people who cared even more than I did made it so they could have full time jobs doing something they loved. I'm not nearly as passionate or as hard-working as Cedric and the others like him who have brought about this change, but I very much appreciate it.

Cedric loves to talk about how great the SCG Tour is at promoting its players to give them these opportunities. While I may not have always agreed with this, I can now speak from personal experience that they are outstanding at it by sharing this anecdote:

This past weekend, I played in the SCG Open in Fort Worth. My team was featured on camera during round four. I've since gone back and watched the coverage - part out of vanity, part curiosity, part looking for misplays. My name is shown as Timothy Thomason. This is how it appears in the DCI system (they require you to use legal name for some reason). When my match was on camera, Cedric didn't hesitate to call me Ty. This is a guy I've only met two or three times in my life. I don't have nearly a large enough profile for my preferred nickname to be common knowledge. In the middle of the match, I'm in no position to try to get them to use my preferred name, I have games to win. Cedric not only remembered my preferred name, but even remembered the story of my previous open win (which is now almost five years ago). Maybe he didn't know it immediately or had some background info researched before the match went live, but that still requires effort that he is not obligated to do.

I don't always agree with Cedric on everything (especially Milita Bugler), but I support him and his passion for the game. Having people like him in charge makes it easier for me to spend as much or as little time with the game as I'm inclined, knowing that it's always getting better.

Esper Spirits in Modern

I've reached the end of my chain of RPTQ qualifications, so I'm back on the PPTQ grind. Hopefully I can get the last pro point I need at GP Minneapolis this weekend to get to Bronze and stop playing PPTQs again.

For once I wasn't looking forward to Modern season. I've played very few games at all since the PT in February, and I was actually enjoying playing Standard. The few times I played I didn't really enjoy it. I think M19 changes that. It has a surprisingly high amount of cards that I want to play in Modern. The top of the list is Militia Bugler and Supreme Phantom.

The Deck

I played one league with an Esper Spirits list that 5-0 recently. I went 2-3, but the cards excited me and I could see with some tuning there might be a solid contender. Image, Drogskol Captain, and Lingering Souls all reminded me of one of my favorite standard decks of all time. However I was focused on Sealed prep for the GP and didn't know I would be able to play Modern PPTQ. When I found out Saturday afternoon I could go to the Sunday PPTQ, I made some adjustments to the list from some theorycrafting. This is where I ended up:

4 Mausoleum Wanderer

4 Rattlechains

4 Supreme Phantom

3 Selfless Spirit

3 Phantasmal Image

4 Spell Queller

4 Drogskol Captain

4 Lingering Souls

4 Path to Exile

4 Aether Vial

2 Mutavault

4 Seachrome Coast

4 Flooded Strand

2 Polluted Delta

2 Marsh Flats

1 Watery Grave

1 Godless Shrine

1 Hallowed Fountain

2 Island

2 Plains

1 Swamp

Sideboard:

3 Stony Silence

3 Collective Brutality

3 Unified Will

3 Damping Sphere

2 Geist of Saint Traft

1 Kataki, War's Wage

This deck has many similarities to Humans and Merfolk, but many key differences. Spell Queller is the effect that the other two decks don't have access to. Also all of your creatures except Mutavault have flying. It is slightly less explosive that either deck. It is less disruptive than Humans but better than Merfolk in that regard. It is more resilient than both. You get to play really good sideboard cards.

I have never played the Green version of Spirits, so I can't 100% say this version is better. I do think the card Collected Company is not what I want to be doing in a deck like this. I actually bought all the cards for Bant Spirits a while back and then never played it after I did a math problem. I wanted to know what the odds of a Company in response to a Supreme Verdict would find either Selfless Spirit or Spell Queller. The answer is somewhere around 65%. This is not high enough to make me want to cast the card in that situation. If you miss you probably lose, though if you hit you win. However you can use the Company after the Verdict resolves to rebuild and still possibly win. There are obviously lots of factors that go into it, but I wasn't happy with this math so I never tried it out.

The Games

Just a few quick recaps:

R1 vs RG LD - G1 I make an overly aggressive attack when I think his hand must be air, but turns out he was playing his creatures around my Wanderer activation so he drew the sixth land he "needed" to cast Stormbreath Dragon and kill me when I could survive and likely win by leaving a guy to block. I win G2 with two Vials vs his two Blood Moons. G3 is very close but I'm able to force through lethal in the air before he can take over with Pia and Kiran + Tireless Tracker.

1-0

R2 vs KCI - I have Spell Queller for his KCI G1 and he dies. G2 he has Aether Grid and I lose most of my team, then he combos me. G3 I have Stony Silence and he never finds an answer.

2-0

R3 vs Tron - We split the first two games. G3 I'm in a situation where he is at two life and I have Wanderer in play. He has Ulamog and I have 23 cards left in library. After the game I counted I had twelve outs to win but I drew Mutavault and lost to his Ghost Quarter. Moorland Haunt would have been better.

2-1

R4 vs Mardu - G1 we're both empty handed but I draw two Drogskol Captains in a row and he can't deal with them. G2 I draw two Lingering Souls and his Collective Brutality has to take one. Despite a strange judge call that I won't get into here I manage to win the game easily with the Spirits.

3-1

R5 vs KCI - Simliar to R2, I have Queller G1 and Stony G2. I turn an almost guaranteed win into a possible loss by following up with Kataki (a card I think is unplayable but only put in the SB because "it's a spirit!") allowing him to draw cards from his Stars, Terrarions, and Wellsprings. I still have a Damping Sphere and he soon dies, though it was closer that it should have been.

4-1

R6 vs Storm - Exactly 64 players so all the X-1s have to play. I have two Wanderers and Lingering Souls G1 and he can't go off. G2 I have Spell Queller for Past in Flames and my team is Hexproof so he couldn't get out without Anger, which he wasn't playing.

5-1

1st Seed

Quarterfinals vs Scapeshift - G1 his draw is slow and I can do exactly 20 the turn before he gets to seven lands. G2 I Unified Will his first Primeval Titan. He draws a Valakut and uses fetch to kill my Wanderer. I play two Supreme Phantom, hoping to untap and hold up second Unified Will. He draws another Valakut, which doesn't do anything but makes subsequent Mountain draws very scary. I Image the Phantom and put him to 1 life on the attack, and he draws a third Valakut (probably the only bricks left in the deck) and I win.

Semifinals vs Tron - G1 he doesn't draw any Tron lands that he doesn't search for, and I have two Spell Quellers to counter his searchers and he dies. G2 he has two Ugins and I don't draw a way to stop either. G3 he has turn three Wurmcoil and I put a bunch of creatures into play with Souls. I hold up Queller for a possible Oblivion Stone which he doesn't have. I play it EOT to try to draw a lord for lethal. I don't draw it but attack him to two life anyway. He has Ugin again and I lose.

The Takeaway

I liked all the spirits except Geist of Saint Traft and Kataki. These cards aren't playable in my opinion, especially Geist. I never knew when I wanted it, and lord + Lingering Souls was usually more than enough pressure that couldn't be blocked. 

Aether Vial was just fine. I sided it out quite a bit to bring in Stony Silence, and I was happy to have 22 lands to play in the games without Vial. I can see the want for a card like Noble Hierarch, as playing Spell Queller on turn two then protecting it with Rattlechains or Drogskol Captain is very appealing. 

I didn't activate Mutavault at all during the tournament. It could have been solid but only playing two means it won't come up too often. I could be interested in Moorland Haunt in a split, or just Haunt and more colored sources.

All the non-creature SB cards were great. I think I want to play a couple of Ceremonious Rejections and possible some enchantment or artifact removal. I had no answer to Ensnaring Bridge in the 75, and Blood Moon was tough. Collective Brutality was the weakest of the others and still very good, though I don't know if you need three.

I might try to play a four color version with both Noble Hierarch and Lingering Souls.

Props Slops

Props:

Spirits
Eddie Eng for lending me Supreme Phantoms

Michael for winning the PPTQ with Infect

Kyle Evans for being a great HJ and my good luck charm. I think I've top 8 the last 4 PPTQ I played where he was HJ

Slops:
Haibing and I for both losing in top 4

Tron. The games just aren't interesting on either side.

Thanks,

Ty

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

Leveling Up

I’ve played a few magic events since the last time I posted. During these events I’ve actually learned (or relearned) quite a bit. The highlight of these events was making the top 4 of the RPTQ for PT Dominaria. This means I will be attending my 8th Pro Tour at the beginning of June. This is also the third time I have managed to qualify for back to back PTs, and I feel like something is different this time. I feel like I have leveled up.

SCG DFW – Modern Open

For the main event of the SCG Open, I played a Bant Evolution list of my own design. It is very similar to the list I played at GP San Antonio, but I added Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I also cut the red mana, only being able to get Kiki-Jiki into play via Edritch Evolution (or multiple Birds of Paradise). I did not have a successful tournament, going 5-4 in matches with one win being an opponent no-show.

What I learned from the main event was nothing big, but it was still important. I learned that just because I have a brew and I’ve had success with my own variants before, doesn’t mean everything I come up with is tournament ready. I knew going into the event the deck still needed work, but I was committed to playing Jace in the event.  I acknowledged this before the event as well, knowing I wasn’t there to win just to have some fun.  Since I’ve sold my MTGO collection, I no longer have that outlet to play the wacky early stage brews at low risk. I don’t know if that means I should not play brews at all, or only at local store tournaments, but I also knew exactly what I was doing.

SCG DFW – Standard Classic

Instead of running it back on Sunday with a deck I knew was not good (with some updates, like the 4th Jace), I was able to borrow a Tier 1 Standard deck for the Classic. I played Sultai Climb to a 5-2 finish. I lost one match to my unfamiliarity with the format and one match to a very good draw from the mono-red opponent. I’m very glad I was convinced to not play Modern because I learned some important lessons.

The first lesson I learned was that Standard is very good right now. The games were refreshing after a mono-Modern diet I had myself on. All the decks seemed interesting, powerful, but not broken, and all decks had many ways to interact. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The second lesson was how much margin for error is available in a tier 1 deck. My experience with fringe decks in Modern like GW Ghost Quarter usually required almost perfect play and a bit of luck for success, something that I was able to achieve but also very draining to attempt. I made many more mistakes in Standard, but none of them felt like they cost me the game on the spot the way they can in Modern. Also, playing good decks has always been a strength of mine that I forgot I had. I’m naturally good at pressing a deck advantage into a board advantage without much to worry about from the opponent when they are outclassed (either on deck or play skill, but much easier on deck).

RPTQ Dominaria

Going into the RPTQ, my sealed experience had me wanting to open just a few cards (outside of the bomb rares). All I wanted was 4x Legion Conquistador and 3x Sun-crested Pteradon. The deck I opened was very close. I had 3x Conquistador, and 1x Pteradon, but also had 2x Forerunner of the Empire and a Needletooth Raptor. The rest of the deck was various removal splashed over four colors thanks to 3x Evolving Wilds and a Traveler’s Amulet. I picked up a loss in round 3 and an draw in round 5, but managed to win round 6 and sneak into 8th place on tiebreakers. I think this is the first time in a while picking up unintentional draw didn’t leave me in 9th/10th at an event of this size. Also luckily for me the draft pairings were random, so instead of having to face Limited Legend Haibing Hu (the only player in the top 8 I think I’m <50% against) in the 1st seed, I got paired against another player. I drafted a medium Wb vampire deck with 2x Famished Paladin to go with 2x Moment of Craving and a Mark of the Vampire. I was able to win my match against a UG merfolk deck in the top 8 to secure the invite.

What I learned from this event was that I still have what it takes in sealed and draft. While limited is no longer my preferred format, all those years of experience put me way ahead of the average RPTQ player. Also listening to the Limited Resources podcast about sealed gave me some good insight to building my deck that I might not have had otherwise that paid off (like splashing for Recover).

Nexus ESports Event

I played 5 Color Humans at the Nexus ESports opening event. Zach Krizan has a great space and I was glad to go support him and his store. I lost in the top 4, with both losses on the day coming against Bogles.

What I learned was once again playing tier 1 decks is a different story than playing my own brews. The deck also killed incredibly fast, and I found myself with almost 40 minutes to kill between rounds several times. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had that kind of time. Also despite tier 1 lists being fairly stock, the sideboards are generally pretty bad, at least to me. I’ll have to redo the SB if I play the deck again.

Main Takeaway

Looking back after the RPTQ win, I realized I’ve been having quite a bit of success in the events I’ve chosen to play dating back almost a year. I’ve tried to pinpoint exactly what I’ve done differently, and how I can still achieve things like PT invites when I’m playing so much less than I did at my peak.  I think there are two main reasons.

The first is being more confident in my own deck building decisions. I’ve had success with decks that were completely my own (naya evolution) or partially my own (the GW GQ deck) that involved me personally justifying the existence of every card in the list. I also know what I want to do and how to achieve that.

The second reason is probably the main reason as it ties everything together. I’ve become much better at the time I spend thinking about Magic and preparing for events that doesn’t involve actual playtesting. With less time to spend during the week and no Magic online collection, I’ve had to make good theory decisions before the event to be adequately prepared, and I think I’ve been doing a good job of this. Finding the right things to think about before the events can be hard but I think I’ve proven to myself it’s doable. It’s not ideal but when it’s all I have, I have to be happy with that. I’m also much more accepting of making mistakes in game since I know ahead of time they are all but guaranteed to happen.

Going Forward

I hope I can apply these techniques in preparation for the upcoming Pro Tour. I’m also optimistic that there is more time to prepare than for other PTs I’ve played in the past, so at the least I shouldn’t have an awful deck.