It turns out that I was right about being lucky to have two jobs. Since my last article, my part-time contract job was suspended until July due to budget cuts. The upside is that I have had more time to prepare for Regionals. However, the preparation for Regionals was daunting. I looked through the decks from recent events and found about a dozen that I thought were worth testing. That was too many for me, even with my extra time, so I had to cut it down to the ones that I thought were most important: B/W Tokens, Five Color Control, R/B Aggro, Boat Brew (R/W Reveillark), and Faeries. I didn't expect to see many Faeries decks, but the matchup is so different from others that I thought I should test it. In the end, I didn't test very much against Five Color Control because I had played that deck for several weeks prior to Alara Reborn and thought I had a pretty good understanding of it already.
Oh, there was one more deck that I tested, which is the deck that I ended up playing for Regionals. It is the deck that Patrick Chapin designed and posted in his article the Thursday before Regionals. I liked it as soon as I saw it, but I also knew I needed to test it extensively. It looks deceptively simple, but really has a number of nuances. I doubt Patrick will read this article, but if he does, I must say, "Great deck, but I don't care for the name you gave it." I was calling the deck "Five Color Cascade," but instead I'm going to bring back an old adjective for this kind of deck and call it:
I picked this deck because I believe it is terrific against B/W Tokens and I expected a lot of tokens at Regionals. I also believe that it has a lot of versatility, which was important because there are so many different deck choices right now. The main deck is exactly the same as Patrick's list, except that I only had one Twilight Mire, so I replaced the other with a Fire-Lit Thicket. My sideboard is quite a bit different, but not necessarily better. I went back and forth between Hallowed Burial and Wrath of God in the sideboard. In the end, I chose Hallowed Burial because the latest B/W Tokens lists were playing at least eight Persist creatures. More about that at the end of this report.
I'm going to give the round-by-round results. This is my first tournament report, so my notes have a number of gaps. I won't be able to give every play, but I hope there is enough detail to be worthwhile. At times, I may get the details wrong. If you were one of my opponents, feel free to correct me in the forums.
The first round is the most difficult for me. I really hate losing the first round. It does terrible, terrible things to my tie-breakers. The result being that I absolutely cannot afford to lose again. I think I handle pressure pretty well, but I don't like being in that deep of a hole.
My opponent wins the die roll and starts off with Blightning on turn 3. I have a solid midrange hand that I don't want to discard at all, but I have to make a choice. I'm holding Anathemancer, Bloodbraid Elf, Cryptic Command, Bituminous Blast, and three lands. I decide that my best strategy is to be sure I can cast the Elf and give up on five mana for now, so I discard Bituminous Blast and a land. I draw and play a Kitchen Finks on my turn. He plays a second Blightning on turn 4. My hand is Anathemancer, Bloodbraid Elf, Cryptic Command and one land. My deck has a lot of land, so I could easily draw one for the Elf and if I don't, I can play the Anathemancer. I discard Cryptic Command and a land. Next turn, I draw a land. I drop the Elf and I think the cascade was Pyroclasm. I choose not to play it and swing for six. He plays Boggart Ram-Gang and takes me down to 13 life. I swing for six again on my turn, taking him to 8. I'm a little less sure of the rest of the game, but I think he holds back the Ram-Gang and blocks my Elf with it next turn. Then I draw the removal for the Ram-Gang, knock him down to 2 life and finish with Anathemancer.
The second game is less eventful, I get a Putrid Leech out early, but he fries it in response to my pump. He plays a Blightning. I don't remember that hand, but I think one of the discards was Anathemancer. I drop a Kitchen Finks and start hitting every turn. He drops a couple of creatures to block, but I have the removal. He burns the Finks once, but his deck stalls as I drop Bloodbraid Elf and finish him off.
My deck shifted nicely to the aggro strategy in this match since Blightning limits my card advantage. Bloodbraid Elf is the star of this match with its combination of card advantage and hasty beats.
As I'm playing this match, I start thinking that I wished I had tested it more. I should have an advantage because of Anathemancer. In the first game, I drop Putrid Leech early and hit for eight before he can kill it. Then my deck stalls until he plays Broodmate Dragon. I have Maelstrom Pulse for one of the dragons, but he hits me with the other. I get the other with a Bituminous Blast, but the Cascade is Maelstrom Pulse, which is now unplayable. Then I make a series of bad plays where I try to resolve spells and he easily counters them. I should know his deck better, but I'm off-balance for some reason. I really don't need to resolve anything until he plays a threat, so I should be hold spells and some land in case he plays Cruel Ultimatum. Instead, he counters and plays a couple of guys and beats me down to 1 life. Then I top off my parade of misplays with a Cloudthresher to kill myself when I had Bituminous Blast in hand. I try to shake it off and win the next two.
For the second game, I have sided in Jace Beleren. Jace is good against Five Color Control because it is hard for them to kill it or it can kill their Jace. I can certainly use a little more card drawing. I don't remember a lot of details from this match, but I remember my mistakes. First, I played Jace Beleren right into his counterspell. I think this was the biggest mistake, but I continued to play into his counterspells even after that. Second, I lost track of life totals twice. This is very unusual for me and I think it threw off my focus as I worried about it. Third, I called the judge on a minor misplay and I hate doing that.
Here is what happened. At the end of my turn, he plays Esper Charm and draws two cards. Then he untaps and plays a Vivid Creek and reaches for a die to put the counters on. I tell him that I think he forgot to draw and he agrees. I apologize and say that I have to call a judge. I used to be a level 1 judge, so I know that the correct action after a misplay is to ALWAYS call a judge. The main reason that I have in mind as a player is that if someone is watching the match and I don't call a judge, then that person can fetch a judge and then I get a penalty as well. The downside is that my opponent might think that I am trying to get a cheap win. The other reason to call a judge is that he or she is the only one who knows how to remedy the situation. I may think I know, but remedies change over time and I am not up-to-date on the current documents. This case may seem very simple, but there are at least three remedies I can think of:
In this case, the remedy was number 1. How many of you would have chosen 2 or 3? The judge must be called.
As I write this, I realize that I can handle this better by saying just that. "I don't know what to do now, I have to call a judge." My opponent was a great sportsman and made no indication that he was upset by my call, but my mental game is off and I just throw this one away. I would say that the root cause of all my troubles in this round was the failure to shift away from the pure beatdown role that worked in the first round.
Kyle and I both play at Valhalla's for Friday Night Magic. As I walk to the table, I'm thinking about the two Mutavaults that I lent him that morning and how ironic it would be if he beat me to death with them. I'm about to express my thoughts as we sit down and he says that he is at a Karmic disadvantage because I lent him those cards. Of course, we both know what the other is playing, but I suspect he does not know my deck nearly as well as I know his.
First game, he has at least two Vendilion Cliques, maybe three. The parade of Cliques get me down to 8 life while I'm killing them one at a time. I'm getting in a hit here and there, but he has got the burn to kill my guys. I don't remember how we got there exactly, but my notes say that he was at 10 life and I have Bloodbraid Elf, Putrid Leech and Anathemancer. On his turn, he plays Pyroclasm. I respond by pumping the Putrid Leech and adding two +1/+1 counters to the Bloodbraid Elf with Jund Charm. The Anathemance dies, but I'm one mana away from being able to unearth it. On my turn, I swing for 9 and take him to 1. I'm not sure that I should have pumped the Leech on that attack, but I have Cryptic Command in hand. I counter a Flame Javelin for the win.
The second game does not go well for Kyle. His lands are a mess while I drop Anathemancer for two damage and early beats. Bloodbraid Elf comes next to take him to 11 life. He burns a couple of guys and I drop another. Toward the end I respond to his Incinerate with a Jund Charm for counters again and then counter the Flame Javelin next turn. Kyle has paid his Karmic debt and hopes he still has a chance to make top 8 or at least some prize packs.
The first game is a quick loss for me as I mulligan to four. My opening hand has three land, two Bituminous Blast, Maelstrom Pulse and maybe a Cryptic Command. I can't remember the exact lands, but they were clumsy. I have no early drops and can't be sure that I will get the mana for Maelstrom Pulse. Next hand, I get a single Vivid Crag. I could play the slow game looking for mana, but since my deck has 26 lands, I should be better off going to five. My five include no lands. My four are Swamp, Pyroclasm, Maelstrom Pulse and a fourth card I can't remember. I have to keep, but if that Swamp was a Vivid Land, I would be much better off. I got a land on my second draw, but it was Reflecting Pool. In the meantime, my opponent beats me down with Seedcradle Witch and I think it was a Steward of Valeron. If I had drawn a Vivid land, I could have hit Pyroclasm, but my chances were still poor. By the way, I don't think that mulligan was a mistake. Clearly, the first hand was better than what I ended up with. The point is that the first hand was poor and I could have easily lost the game with that hand. I ended up losing anyway, but at least I made the right choice.
Neither of us has seen much of the other's deck. Seedcradle Witch is certainly not on any list I know, but I'm thinking maybe it is a Bloom Tender combo or at least focuses on pump, so I bring in extra Jund Charms. As it turns out, she is also playing blue for Cryptic Command and draws them. In the early game, we both have Kitchen Finks and they beat up each other. I then make a mistake by playing Maelstrom Pulse on her Finks and kill mine as well. I could have just attacked and let them take each other out. As it turns out, that could have cost me the game. She controls the game with Cryptic Command while getting out a Garruk Wildspeaker and a couple of beaters. Now I wish that I still had that Maelstrom Pulse that I wasted. It's not really close, though. I die while she is still at 13 life.
As I'm making notes after that game, she tells me the name of the deck, just in case I am writing a tournament report. She also tells me that she was working for Wizards of the Coast until the layoffs back in August. This deck is her own creation and I think she did pretty well with it, since I kept seeing her one or two seats away from me for the rest of the day. At some point, we start talking about chances for top 8 and tiebreakers. I tell her that I'm pretty sure I'm out because my tiebreakers will be bad. I may have misunderstood, but I thought she said that her tiebreakers were good because her wins were all 2-0 and the loss was 1-2. I shouldn't be surprised that many people don't understand tiebreakers. It involves a lot of math and many people don't want to figure it out. I'm going to give you a few rules to live by with tiebreakers and explain why.
Even though I'm sure that I cannot make top 8, there is still potential for prizes. Even more important for me, though, is that I am going to the Grand Prix in Seattle at the end of the month and I need to come out of this tournament with a few extra ratings points to get the first round bye. I need to win the rest of my games to be assured of both, so I am just as focused as ever.
There is not much to say about these games, though. In the first game, I hit with Putrid Leech early, but only once before it dies. I sit back and wait, since I'm determined not to repeat my mistakes from round 2. I can play my Cascade spells, since that puts extra pressure on counterspells. I think his Volcanic Fallout takes him to 14 and then I resolve Anathemancer to take him to 4. He has no answer and Anathemancer kills him in two turns.
The second game is long. I play guys and he kills them. He plays Broodmate Dragon and I kill both dragons on my turn and so on. He resolves Cruel Ultimatum before either of us do damage to the other. At 13 life, he plays a second Broodmate Dragon. I draw and play a Vivid for my seventh mana source with two Anathemancers in the graveyard. He hits me for 8 and I go to 9 life. I unearth Anathemancer doing 9 points of damage and then swing for another 2. He has no way to get that last point of damage.
Admittedly, my opponent this round was not as familiar with Cascade and Unearth as my second round opponent who beat me with Five Color Control. I was still very impressed with how well my deck played the long game against the deck.
Jason and I must be about the same skill level right now since we seem to play each other in every tournament. I know that I have to play my best if I am going to win.
In the first game, my opening hand is not great. It's low on land and doesn't have the best mix of spells, but it is not bad enough to mulligan. Jason plays a nice pressured attack with a couple of Kitchen Finks and then Murderous Redcap to keep me from putting up much resistance. He gets me down to 1 life so that I have no way out without killing Murderous Redcap, which would kill me on the persist. Even with a game one loss, I'm still confident that I can beat B/W Tokens, especially since I tested against it the most. I bring Hallowed Burial and Jund Charm.
In the second game, he has a bad hand. I'm pretty sure he mulligans twice and then procedes to play Caves of Koilos, Mutavault, Fetid Heath and Mutavault as his lands. I get out a Kitchen Finks to stop Mutavaults from attacking. He is feeling the pain every time he casts a spell, though his own Finks helps a little. He can't really get going and soon gets into Anathemancer range and we go to the next game.
The third game is a close one. He has an early Bitterblossom, which I love to see. Now I can play the control game. He attacks me a couple of times for 3 damage and then I kill all the tokens. If I haven't got the board sweeper, then I use Cryptic Command to hold them off a turn. Unfortuntately, my deck stalls a bit and he starts really getting out the masses. I've been playing the occasional Kitchen Finks, but he starts to get ahead and beats me down to 11 life. He is also at 11 life, mostly from Bitterblossom. I've got one Kitchen Finks. He has three or four Faerie tokens, three Spirit tokens, Murderous Redcap and Burrenton Forge-Tender. I have two Anathemancers in hand, which is a win with his five nonbasic lands, but the Forge-Tender will stop one of them, so I really need something to sweep the board first. My next draw is Hallowed Burial.
We get the random deck check, so we have a little time to chat. He tells me that he is playing Boros and I don't know what to make of that exactly. It could be Boat Brew or some R/W aggro of his own. He asks what I'm playing and I decline to answer. I'm just not willing to give up that kind of information right before a match. Our decks are fine and we begin.
I get the aggressive start with Putrid Leech, Kitchen Finks and Anathemancer. He defends with Knight of the White Orchid, Mogg Fanatic, Siege-Gang Commander and burn, but I still get him down to 10 life while I'm at 18. I've got 2 Putrid Leech, a Kitchen Finks with a -1/-1 and an Anathemancer. One Leech has two +1/+1 counters from a Jund Charm that was used to save him earlier. He plays Reveillark. His Siege-Gang Commander is in the graveyard, so I'm pretty sure I can't win quickly if Reveillark leaves play. In fact, I know that Reveillark can quickly turn a game around for this deck, so I really need to play around it. I attack with the smaller Leech, Finks and the Anathemancer. He blocks the Leech and I let it die, of course. He has to kill the Anathemancer eventually and the unearth kills him.
In the second game, I take the control role and he tells me later that this throws off his sideboarding plan. He starts out light on land, but makes a brilliant recovery with Knight of the White Orchid and Path to Exile on one of his chump blockers. After some scuffles over early creatures, he resolves a Ranger of Eos to get more guys. (By the way, Knight of the White Orchid is frustratingly good against Kitchen Finks.) I kill some and we trade some. He gets Ajani Vengeant, but I kill it with combat damage. Eventually he resolves a Siege-Gang Commander. I aim a Bituminous Blast at it and cascade into Maelstrom Pulse for the tokens. Cascade is incredibly good sometimes and that seems to make up for the occasional misses. My attack takes him from 14 to 6. My next attack takes him to 3 and an unearthed Anathemancer finishes him.
Here it is. The place I wanted to be since my loss in round 4. If I win, I get prizes and am 99% sure of a bye at Grand Prix Seattle. Of course, my opponent is looking for prizes as well, so he won't be playing loose.
First game he plays turn 1 Birds of Paradise, turn 2 Doran, turn 3 Rafiq and swing for 12. I play the perfect chump blocker: Kitchen Finks. On his turn he plays Bant Charm to put my Finks on the bottom of my library and swings for the win. I'm a bit shaken, but know from past experience that this deck gets the nuts draw from time to time, but otherwise it can be slow and clunky, especially if the player doesn't mulligan well. I bring in Jund Charm from the sideboard to give me more chances to kill the early mana dorks, but my lack of testing shows as I leave Hallowed Burial out.
I get Putrid Leech out nicely on turn 2. He responds with Tidehollow Sculler to take my Maelstrom Pulse. Sculler isn't going to stop Leech, so I take him down to 15 (he felt the pain for the Sculler). My notes are bit sparse, but it looks like I manage to hit once more with the Leech. The key play comes when I have Putrid Leech against his Gaddock Teeg and Tidehollow Sculler. I play Bloodbraid Elf which cascades into Jund Charm and I play it to do two damage to each creature, pump my Leech and swing for big damage. With Teeg gone, I can play Cryptic to force through damage for the win.
I think he may have missed that I was playing Cryptic Command after the first game and he adjusts his deck a second time. I didn't even look at my sideboard, so Hallowed Burial is still out. In game 3, I have some early guys and a chance to force through a medium speed kill, but he has Negate to stop me from tapping his guys with Cryptic. He plays two Rhox War Monk to draw out the Maelstrom Pulse that he knows I have and then plays a third. A second Negate against Cryptic Command allows him to continue building up with Wilt-Leaf Liege, Noble Hierarch, Tidehollow Sculler and then Doran. I get a few rounds of chump blocking with a pair of Kitchen Finks, while he goes from 14 life up to 33 from the supercharged Rhox War Monk. Once my blockers are gone, he takes me down fast with the team.
I realized that I really needed my Hallowed Burials in this last game, but I also suffered from a lack of testing. If I had, then I would also know that this deck is going to play Negate or Guttural Response out of the sideboard and watch for that more. I also felt like I didn't have a good plan for how to deal with it. More importantly, I probably needed to shift my deck toward control.
Overall, I think the deck was good. I will probably play an adjusted version for Grand Prix Seattle, though I have a concern. I expect to see Anathemancer in many top decks at Barcelona. In the context of the Regionals metagame, I would say it is the best card from Alara Reborn. Nearly every successful deck to date has reason to fear that card and the uncounterable Unearth ability is a game finisher, even if it is only 4 or 5 points of damage. Of course, my deck is vulnerable to Anathemancer, but at least I can play 4 Jund Charms, 2 Thought Hemmorhage and 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender to fight it. I will be looking at the results from the Grand Prix in Barcelona closely to see if there has been an adjustment or not, but I doubt it will change my overall deck choice. I like that the deck is very versatile against the large variety of decks in Standard right now.
The sideboard will definitely need to be adjusted. I have decided that Hallowed Burial is not beneficial enough against persist creatures to give up the ability to play Wrath a turn earlier and also possibly get it on a Blast cascade. The Plumeveils were there for manlands and Mistbind Cliques, which I never saw. I think there is a tendency to adjust the sideboard to the decks I played, but the correct approach will be to study results from Regionals and Grand Prix Barcelona and adjust from there.
As I thought about the tournament afterwards, I realized that my sideboarding plan was not very good. I had started by identifying the core cards that I should never take out or never take out more than one. For example, Bloodbraid Elf needs to always be in and I would sometimes take out a single Bituminous Blast against very fast decks. I also had Putrid Leech on that list, but I think there are some matchups where they should come out, like Dark Bant, where having the maximum Pyroclasm and Wrath effects is more important.
In case you are wondering about my quest for the first round bye at Seattle, my Total rating was at 1847 at the start of Regionals and I need 1850 for the bye. I ended up losing 6 points. I will be looking for a couple of Standard tournaments in the next week to try to find those 9 points.
Next time I'll talk about what I think it takes to make a successful playtesting team - something I think has worked for me twice.