I haven't written anything in a while. After I got laid off from CFB I simply couldn't find a motivation to do so. However as the time went on I realized that I missed writing. Honestly writing is something I've always enjoyed doing, and journalism is the thing that I went to study before I quit school long time ago. So after taking a break for about half a year, here I am starting my own blog. I'm going to be writing mostly about Magic, but I might write about other topics as well. Basically every time I think of something interesting it's going to show up here. I don't plan to write regularly, which is something I'm looking forward to. I tried to write weekly for CFB, which was super hard and I think the level of content was pretty low (partially) because of that. It's really hard to find something worth talking about every single week. So on here I am going to try and take my time to write good articles. This means I might not write anything for months, but when I eventually do post something, it's going to be something I'm happy with. In the end the reason I'm doing this is that I want to get better at writing. When it comes to Magic (or anything in general) I've struggled with explaining my thoughts and ideas and I want to improve on that. Well that's it for the intro, let's get to the topic of this article.
I've seen some complaints on twitter that people don't write tournament reports anymore so I'm here to bring them back, I'm going to talk about all the fun I've had in the past month and in the end I'm also going to give you guys some extra content with an updated decklist and a sideboard guide of my favourite Standard deck, because that's the stuff that will surely give me the most clicks. If you want to skip to that part feel free to ctrl + F - I'm a boring person.
The first tournament I played was a team constructed GP in Toronto. Early on I was supposed to play Legacy, but after I bombed out in a different team GP playing my trusty Canadian Threshold I decided it would be better to let Sam Pardee play it. Meanwhile Matt Nass just kept casually winning every other Modern GP with his KCI deck so I was left with Standard. I was happy with this as the PT was coming up so I planned on playing a lot of Standard anyway.
To start I just jammed with bunch of different decks online. The ones that showed some promise were UW Control, Mono Red and BG Constrictor (I don't like this name so I'll be calling it Snake). Of those I liked Snake the most, but I picked it up kind of late, I think 2-3 days before I had to leave for Canada. I won a LOT with the deck, going like 18-2 in the first four leagues I played. I was pretty excited about the deck, so I messaged my teammates that I'll run it. They responded with something like: “sure, if you want to”. Unfortunately BR dominated the GP in Birmingham so it was likely to be the biggest deck in Toronto and coincidentally is not the best matchup to play. I challenged Martin Juza to couple matches and the matchup didn't feel great to me so I went back to the drawing board. I expected UW and BR to be the most played decks in Toronto so I figured Mono Red might be the deck to play. On the paper it seems to have good matchup vs both BR and UW. I played like three leagues and had decent results so I decided to lock it in. I chatted with one of my casual friends Benjamin Weitz and we theorized what our decklist should look like. In Toronto played a bunch of game 1s of the RB v Mono R matchup with Petr Sochurek in our attempt to not fall asleep because of jetlag. My conclusion was that Mono R should try and go under BR capitalizing on how strong Hazoret is. Also the Soul Scar Mage + Chainwhirler combo is big. Because of this I wanted to try Flame of Keld, because it seems to go well with your plan of emptying your hand fast and trying to find Hazoret. Having played zero games with the card I decided to submit it. I was able to find only 1 copy and because I had no idea if it was actually good or not I decided to run only 1. Ben ended up playing 2 and his love for the Flame only grew from there. After I told my teammates that I'll play Mono Red instead of Snake Matt just told me that he thinks Snake is shit, but was too polite to tell me before. Awww.
The GP didn't go well, my teammates were getting terribly unlucky all the time and whenever we had a close decision and went one way we always got punished. Our win distribution was also awful. Sam went x-3, I went x-4 and Matt went x-5 so obviously we finished 9-5. I did go 6-1 vs RB in the event so I was happy with that. On the other hand in the other matchups the deck didn't feel great, and even vs RB I felt like I was only slight favourite. Overall my conclusion was that the deck is fine, but nothing special so I didn't work on it much in the PT testing. Highlight of the GP was hanging out with my teammates. We went to see Deadpool 2 on Saturday and while I slept through half of the movie and hated the other half I still had a great time. I also lost sunglasses that I stole from my roomate on the first day. I blame Rachel because I was in distress after she made us walk 30 minutes in freezing Canada, because her car was “right around the corner”.
Overall medium GP, but things were looking up, because on Sunday Siggy promised to take me to see Niagara Falls on our way back to DC. NOPE. Siggy missed a turn and instead of Niagara Falls we ended up in Buffalo. Also when we were crossing the border I'm fairly sure I got conned by the border control into paying them 6 dollars. I was really scared Trump wouldn't let me into the country so I just paid up when they asked me. Anyway to make matters worse Siggy missed another turn and we spent like 5 hours driving around the American countryside. It honestly looked like scenery from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie so I was bit worried for our lives. It was fun for a while, but then Siggy put on his music. In response, I decided to fall asleep and Siggy didn't get to enjoy my company, so jokes on him.
Our PT testing process was flawed in a lot of ways. We basically didn't test for the first couple days as we had only 5 people holed up in Ben Stark's building in DC. It was Siggy, Ivan Floch, PV, Jonathan Morawski and I stuck in the conference room. Ben was in his apartment playing leagues while we jammed some sets of games. I went back to Snake and I was beating up on Ivan, but in the end the BR matchup just wasn't where I wanted it to be so we had to look somewhere else. At the end of the week I still had 0 idea what to play and hoped we would figure something out when the rest of the team joined us.
The weekend was fun as I top 4'd alongside of Shahar and Oliver. Again my team was great and they showed me why they're called the lucky kids when we opened our pool on Saturday. It was 2 amazing decks and then we gave Oliver the cheese deck, Mono White with 3 Turtles, 2 Flights and 1 Wings. I got the best deck, busted BG with Multani, Slimefoot and bunch of great cards. I won all the matches, except for our last round when we played the eventual winners Ingram, Sochurek and Tenjum. Pete browns me in 5 minutes with the best deck I've ever seen. Shahar won quickly so it was all down to Oliver. I sit next to him and give him bad advice for 5 minutes, because I know Petr is going to cry if they lose. Anyway Oliver uncovered my sabotage plans and doesn't listen to me and we won after he played circles around Andrew Tenjum. We got lucky that it was late in round so Andrew didn't have much time and had to play fast. It was one of those games where our decisions didn't matter much and his were quite hard so the time factor definitely helped us. Throughout the day I realized how great at Magic are my teammates compared to me, which was kind of depressing, but I decided to blame it on lack of sleep/lack of practice/variance and at least I'm very handsome.
We ended up undefeated on day one, but our pool on day 2 is worse. We go 2-0 into 0-2 (I lose all matches) and can't afford to lose. Oliver is tilting off, because he missed the last 4 times he went undefeated on day 1. I give him a hug and tell him not to worry that I'll carry from now on. I'm such a great guy. After that, things go smoothly, we beat PGO (I didn't finish my match) and play for top 4 vs LSV, BK and Pat Cox. Oliver wins in two minutes, Shahar is going to lose and I'm going to game 3. I'm somewhat ahead, when Shahar tells me he won. I can't believe it, because I thought he lost 5 minutes ago, but it's reality and we're in.
Top 4 we get paired against Brad, BBD and Martin Muller, but last minute they change the standings and give us PV, BenS and Efro. Talk about bad beats. Ayway I trainwreck both mine and PV's draft which was to be expected. I play against BenS whose deck is busted. I punt a bit in game 1, when I miscount my mana and instead of being 90% to lose, I just die to him topdecking Steel Sword. Game 2 I brown him with great sideboard tech, but game 3 I have to keep medium hand and he has the nut and I die quickly. I cry a bit because I know I won't get to play with Shahar and Oliver again, but it's time to get ready for the PT.
On Monday we drove to Richmond and started testing in our fancy Marriot hotel. It was a lot of fun going into the Secret Sandwich Society every day and I actually still dream of the place to this day. Probably the best sandwich I've ever had. When it came to Magic, well, let me show you my diary entry on Wednesday when we have to register the deck.
9AM: I wake up like 90% locked into playing Mono G, as is most of the team except for the UG Karn people. That deck does seem sweet, but I've never won a single game with it. Matt Nass, LSV and Wrapter claim to win a lot with it, but basically every time I watch them play they lose. Surely I'm not playing that deck.
11AM. Spent a couple hours in the conference room. Looks like everyone is off Mono G, because they now found out it loses to RB. This was obvious to me the whole time, but all of sudden people decided it matters. I guess they're right so it's time to look elsewhere.
2PM: Tried more games with UG Karn, didn't win any. Spent some time birding Ben Weitz playing Mono Red online and he's been winning a bunch. Now that he isn't playing 4 Flame of the Keld in his maindeck the deck is much more playable. I continue to frantically ask everyone what they're going to play and they either say “I don't know” or they want to play 1/3 fliers for 2 with no ability.
5PM: On verge of tears, no idea what to play, Ben Weitz went 3-2 in the last league so Mono Red probably sucks. Mentally preparing myself to play RB, but I don't think we have a good decklist.
6PM: Steve built a RB list, no idea if it's good but the numbers seem decent. Probably going to run it, because it looks like some other people are jumping on board.
9PM: Watched some more of UG Karn, saw it win a game, but lose the set. Our RB doesn't have a sideboard, but maindeck is ok.
9:30 PM: Decided to submit RB, Hayne is going to play it, Steve is going to play it, Siggy doesn't know it yet, but he is going to play it. Very unhappy about the deck, because our decklist seems bad. It's tough because we have no idea, no one actually playtested the deck. Big mistake was conning Severa into thinking BW was good, so he spent his time testing that instead of RB. This was a flaw in our communication with people who weren't present.
10PM : Went to my room, because I already submitted my deck. I'm upset, because it's bad. Message Oliver who isn't on my team to whine about my deck. He offers to give me his decklist if I don't share it with my team, but I refuse. His deck (like ours) is probably steaming pile of shit anyway (it was, but I still love the kid). Decide to go back downstairs to talk to my friends.
10:30PM: Siggy laughs at my face that I've submitted 2 Cinder Barrens. I panic and decide to switch into Mono Red. After all I do like playing the deck and Ben Weitz claims to have a list he's happy with. I've also already secured 5% split with multiple people who have Platinum so what do I care. Decklist is great and since my laptop broke I steal Steve's and resubmit Mono Red.
11PM: I take a shower and walk down to see the last hour of people trying to figure out what to play. I watch PV, who is depressed, because all our decks are bad. I decide to make fun of him and tell him to play UG Karn and he listens to me. HAHAHA, I am such a bad friend.
11:30PM: I do the same thing with Sam Black. Evil genius over here.
11:52PM: I decide that it's time to quit Magic and I feel really strong about my limited game for this one. Because of that there is a chance I do well if I play Goblin Chainwhirler in my deck. Plus I've been trying to convince people that Verdurous Gearhulk is the best card in Standard the whole week. Time to put my money where my mouth is. I steal PV's laptop and submit this wonderful UG 1/3 fliers deck.
Disclaimer: I am actually not going to show the decklist, because I am embarrassed. You can find it on the internet, but I wouldn't recommend doing so.Thursday,
0:30AM: I realize that I'd actually like to do well at the PT and it dawns on me that I made a horrible mistake. I tweet some complaints about how stupid I am and cry myself to sleep.
On Thursday I've seen bunch of people tweet how they like the Wednesday decklist submission. They enjoy the stress-free Thursday. Personally I hate it. I love my stress and I felt robbed of the extra day of stressing out + I was extremely bored on Thursday and excited for the PT. Please give me my one day of fun back WOTC.
The PT comes and goes. I 6-0 the draft (2nd in draft master, DM me for draft coaching). Obviously my deck is poo-poo and I get rekt. 3-7 is quite impressive, but I do think I got bit unlucky in some spots and played poorly in others. I do regret not playing Chainwhirler as I would've probably made top 25 or better. Who am I kidding, I know I would have won the whole tournament.
Highlight of the tournament was me and Ivan in the feature area round 1. We both play Implement of Ferocity turn 1 and our opponents both pick it up to give it a read. Success! Oh, I also brown Oliver, which was nice.
Overall I think I did a horrible job of picking a deck (clearly). I think the reason for this is that I usually work worse the closer the PT gets. I always try to find a deck I like and work on that, but if we don't have anything I just spend the last 2 days before PT panicking and doing stupid bullshit instead of doing actual work. Next time I should just take a person, sit down with them and tune a tier 1 deck by playing it vs every single deck. We've had a couple of PTs like this where we tried hard to find a great deck and then didn't have the actual tier 1 deck tuned well (Marvel PT comes to mind). I still should have played RB, because even though we didn't work on the deck, the people in our group are so smart that they can theorize decklists pretty well.
PT was over and I decided to go to Copenhagen, because I didn't know the season doesn't end with the last PT and thought I desperately needed a pro point so I'm closer to gold. This decision was stupid, because I was just jetlagged, wanted to spend more time at home and it was hot in Denmark. I didn't test much, because I had to visit the family so I fell back on Mono Red. I played a list similar to the one I had in Toronto.
I didn't do well at the GP, but if I could go back I'd still play the same. I faced a red deck in 8 out of the 9 rounds I played and in that field I believe Mono Red is the best deck. I did lose a bunch, but I I didn't play well, going to blame the jetlag here. I slept 12 hours in 4 days and then ended up sleeping 14 hours on Tuesday after the tournament. While I would sleeve up Mono Red again, I'd play different decklist.
I'm a boring person.
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3 Shock
3 Abrade
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Goblin Chainwhirler
4 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Lightning Strike
23 Mountain
1 Abrade
1 Magma Spray
2 Walking Ballista
2 Fight with Fire
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Glorybringer
1 Mountain
2 Chandra's Defeat
Compared to the PT winning list I choose not to play Rekindling Phoenix and I'm instead maxing out on Ahn-Crop Crasher. I've been impressed with that card, because it's your only answer for opposing Phoenix. Another change I like is going down a land. I also played 23 in Toronto and I liked it there, but then both Ben's and Wyatt's list had 24 so I went with that, but in hindsight I think I prefer 23. As for sideboard Walking Ballista is great vs UW. I've never been fan of Harvester in this deck and I think Treasure Map is just an embarassing card. Interesting question is what land to play in sideboard. Ben had Grasping Dunes, but I think I just always want to be able to cast Chainwhirler. Also I don't plan to bring in the extra land vs Phoenix decks, which makes Dunes worse.
Quick SB guide
Mirror
in - 1 Abrade, 1 Magma Spray, 2 Walking Ballista, 3 Glorybringer, Mountain, 2 Chandra's Defeat
out – 4 Bomat Courier, 4 Ahn Crop, 2 Shock
I want to experiment more with Chandra, which I think could be good, but then your deck is probably too expensive.
RB
in – 1 Abrade, 1 Magma Spray, 2 Chandra's Defeat
out – 4 Bomat
Everyone keeps telling me how great Glorybringer is against RB, but it just hasn't been my experience. On the play you can cut some Shocks for Ballistas
UW
in – 3 Chandra, Mountain, 2 Fight with Fire, 2 Walking Ballista, Glorybringer
out – 3 Abrade, 3 Shock, 3 Lightning Strike
Snake
in – 1 Abrade, 1 Mountain, 3 Glorybringer, 3 Chandra
out – 4 Bomat, 2 Shock, 2 Hazoret
Depends on play/draw and I'm not really sure how to sideboard anyway.
Mono G
Same as with Snake but I like Bomat more (no Ballista) and Khenra less.
Overall I've had a great time in this past month. When it comes to my performance I felt a bit lost in Standard. It's becoming more and more like Modern meaning that you have to get lots of reps in and I usually lack that, because I keep jumping from deck to deck. Also ever since I took a break from Magic to pursue Gwent, my confidence in my abilities has been at an all-time low. I chose to not trust myself even though I knew the UG Crane deck was bad, I thought I would just go with what my wiser teammates are going with. In retrospect this was a big mistake and I should have just stuck to my guns and played Monored or even Snake to be honest. I loooove the Snake. Only positive is how great I've been feeling in limited lately. I don't even draft that often, but I've been doing well in both PTs and MTGO leagues. Not sure how long this will last, but I'm sad there is no draft at the PT next time.
That's it from me today. Comment, share and subscribe!
Thanks for reading!
