As I sit down to fill out my Top 8 player information form, I pause to ponder the second space on the page. “Occupation:” Should I play the serious face and admit to making pizzas for a living, or should I try to be funny? The thought crosses my mind to go with the ole’ cliche standby, “Durdler,” but that would only make sense if I played Magic for a living and would only be funny if I was actually good at the game, like self-proclaimed Durdlemeister LSV. As I think back, I wish I had taken the comedic leap, regardless of whether anyone actually reads the profiles with any level of commitment, if only for the irony that it would have been just as true as any other one-word-answer describing myself as regards this game of ours.
The fact is that I’ve talked-the-talk, but haven’t done much of the obligatory walking. The more I introspect, the more I realise just how small my magical accomplishments are compared to how they appear in my mind’s eye. Even accepting that humility can be difficult for the kind of psychological profile required to be even margianally competitive at Magic, it’s nothing less than a stellar injustice that I’ve gotten away with my delusions as long as I have. That said, it’s interesting how counterintuitive the path to enlightenment can be. Like how I realized just how mediocre a Magic player I really am by Top 8-ing a Starcitygames Legacy Open.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Those who know me, both in Phoenix and Tucson, may or may not have noticed that I’ve been largely absent from Arizona’s competitive Magic scene for a few months now. Turns out, life is hard – a fact I’ve spent much of my young adult life trying to avoid. Sadly, it often catches up with you in spectacular fashion. As such, I’ve spent maybe two hours a week playing Magic Online as my only means of satisfying the savage gamer trapped beneath the skin of a begrudgingly responsible adult. The moral of the story for all the kiddies at home is to make smart life decisions when you’re young so you can game to your heart’s content when you’re older; or whatever other fetish you fall into as time goes by.
To say that I was unprepared for the Starcity weekend in Phoenix was an understatement. The first step was obnoxiously spamming Facebook looking to leech a ride to and a deck for each event. To my great surprise, this part of the plan fell into place with relatively little difficulty. A quick shoutout to Erik Stepnitz for being a bro and living in the literal “middle of nowhere” – AKA five minutes from my house. Ride? Check. But what am I going to play? Enter Scott Fitterer.
Scott and I would probably have a bromance, if either of us had the time for such frivolities. As it is, we not only get along, but have surprisingly convergent points of view on how one ought approach any given Magic format, specifically as regards deck construction. I had originally planned on trying to find someone to lend me a stock Delver deck, if only to play it safe; but as a terminal rogue deck builder, I was helpless once Scott typed the next few words into Facebook: “I have been playing big red, very fun and to good success up here.”
Oh baby! I’d tried so hard at multiple points in time since the release of Mirrodin Beseiged to get Big Red to work in Standard, to very little overall sucess. Scott’s revelation that he wouldn’t be playing due to being hired as a coverage runner and the availability of the greatest high-risk-high-reward deck I could possibly hope for created the perfect storm of enthusiasm that convinced me that no other deck could ever exist for me in Standard. Spoiler alert: I did terrible.
Without going into too much detail, as this part of my report is hardly worth as many words as I’ve already given it, my decklist along with some details about the theory behind the design can be found in this incredibly awkward and anti-climactic Deck Tech: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_big_red_with_joseph_.html.
To be fair, this deck is actually incredibly solid against Delver and tokens; but is pretty terrible against basically everything else. So even though I didn’t play against Delver a single match, one would still be at terrible odds for playing against it every single round, which is basically what it would take to make this deck truly competitive. Do I suggest this deck for a Starcity Open? Obviously not. Do I suggest it for FNM? Hell yes. (If nothing else, it’s a lot of fun to play if you can get past the whole ‘continually losing’ racket.)
My matches were as follows:
Round One: Harry Snieder playing BR Zombies – Loss : 0 – 1
Round Two: Kieth Taylor playing Junk Tokens – Win : 1 – 1
Round Three: Ryan Spivey playing BW Tokens – Win : 2 – 1
Round Four: Jeff Einweiler playing Heartless Architect – Loss: 2 – 2
Round Five: Mads Utzon playing Esper Summoning – Loss 2 – 3
Round Six: Adam Brody playing BWR Tokens – Loss 2 – 4
Drop!
Needless to say, I was feeling pretty terrible after this lackluster performance. To add insult to injury, after an awkward miscommunication regarding my ride home, I found myself begging some of my Tucson friends for a bit of their hotel room floor to sleep on for the Legacy Open the next day. Being preeminent bros, they said yes and we found ourselves shortly thereafter oogling many beautiful women at the Tilted Kilt, hoping to drown away our sorrows in overpriced beer and raging testosterone. Good times were had by all and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening with old friends Ryan Leeper and Frank Gripprudo, and new, meeting California natives and all around bad-asses Garrhet Noda and Kurt Samson. (Note: much like Chekhov’s gun, Mr. Samson turned out to be more important to our story than just another cool guy.) Luckily or unluckily, I’m not sure which in retrospect and with strict observance of the Butterfly Effect, my ride back home magically resolved itself and after a very long drive across town, it was suddenly and unexpectantly Sunday morning.
Did I mention that the second part of Scott’s facebook message was: “I wont be playing so dredge may be available”?
I can’t even begin to describe how exactly I fell in love with Dredge as an archetype. And yes, I’m one of those sadists who really loves the deck. I play it every chance I get, which, frankly, is not often enough. I love winning 90%+ of my game ones; I love feeling completely in control of my opponents’ emotions; I even love playing around the hate. So I was literally jumping with joy when I found out I was, indeed, getting to pilot my baby in the Legacy Open. I couldn’t help but feel enthusiastically confidant sitting down to my first round with this list sleeved up:
| Creatures (21) 1 Flame-Kin Zealot 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 2 Golgari Thug 2 Ichorid 4 Narcomoeba 4 Putrid Imp 4 Stinkweed Imp Spells (25) 4 Lion’s Eye Diamond 4 Bridge from Below 1 Darkblast 3 Breakthrough 3 Cabal Therapy 4 Careful Study 2 Dread Return 4 Faithless Looting Lands (14) 4 Cephalid Coliseum 4 City of Brass 4 Gemstone Mine 1 Tarnished Citadel 1 Undiscovered Paradise | Sideboard (15) 1 Ichorid 3 Leyline of Sanctity 4 Leyline of the Void 3 Chain of Vapor 2 Firestorm 1 Ray of Revelation 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite |
Sadly, as is often the case in these kinds of events, I started out the tournament paired against an acquaintance with whom I’ve shared a long and rich Magic history and whom I respect deeply as a player. I would have much prefered that we played in a much later round, but them’s the proverbial breaks.
Round One: Alex Tamblyn playing Esper Stoneblade
After some jovial banter, I began my first turn with a Gemstone Mine and a Faithless Looting, pitching two dredgers. This elicited the stereotypical sigh from Alex, but also some light-hearted laughter. Alex followed up with a Tundra into Brainstorm. I commented offhandedly that I’d figured he was playing that deck. Alex seemed genuinely perplexed, asserting that his first turn sequence of plays could have been made by dozens of different decks. I replied that assuming his play style and that I’d rarely ever seen him without a first tier deck, I felt reasonably confident that I knew what he was playing, to which he playfully rolled his eyes and passed the turn. I got as far as dredging three-quarters of my deck with the help of a sandbagged Lion’s Eye Diamond and Cabal Therapying Alex for Force of Will and the clear win before he conceded in response, concealing whether I had guessed his deck correctly.
Sideboard: (putting Alex on UW Stoneblade)
+1 Ichorid, +2 Firestorm, +1 Elesh Norn
-2 Careful Study, -1 Darkblast, -1 Breakthrough
When sideboarding against Stoneblade, I generally like to skimp on responsive-hate-hate until I see which sideboard plan they’re on and prepare for a grindy game involving Ichorids and multiple combat steps.
I kept a very mediocre six to Alex’s snap keep on six as well. Alex countered my Faithless Looting dig into trash with a very surprising turn two Ethersworn Cannonist. Cannonist isn’t great against Dredge, but it presents a clock which blocks early combo wins; not that I was anywhere near the combo in this particular position. I dug further with a second Looting into more trash to which Alex trumped me with a Stoneforge for Sword of Fire and Ice. I played a third land (yuck) and Therapied Alex, to which he responded with a Brainstorm. I tried leveling him by naming Batterskull, knowing it was probably useless, and confirmed him on Esper Stoneblade, seeing Lingering Souls and a presumably miser’s Intuition. Alex continued to chunk away at my life total. Drawing still more nothing, I cast a Narcomoeba only to flashback Therapy, hoping for some last bit of information before conceding.
Having not seen what hate Alex had brought in, I decided against diluting my build on the off chance that I’d get blown out by a Leyline or Cage.
I wish I could say that our match ended in spectacular fashion, but after each of us mulliganing to six, me deciding to mulligan to five and Alex tanking and reluctantly keeping an obviously mediocre hand, I drew into the nuts. First turn Breakthrough with a Lion’s Eye discard flipped half my deck after Alex reluctantly revealed he didn’t have the Force of Will. After digging for some answer with Brainstorm, Alex graciously conceeded.
Win : 1 – 0 – 0
Round Two: Michael Wong playing Storm
After mising the turn one “flip my library,” looking like a complete idiot by forgetting a Narcomoeba trigger, (eliciting a gratuitous eye roll from Michael) and still having enough gas to rip Mr. Wong’s hand apart, netting an army of zombies; it wasn’t surprising that we were quickly moving to game two.
Sideboard:
+3 Leyline of Sanctity, +3 Chain of Vapor, +1 Ray of Revelation
-2 Ichorid, -1 Darkblast, -2 Putrid Imp, -2 Careful Study
Chances are I overcompensated for this game two, but I had a feeling about him having Leyline of the Void. Either way, you aren’t interested in grinding this kind of match, so I removed the slowest elements of the deck and piled in altogether too much anti-hate.
Turns out I didn’t have to worry too much as Michael mulliganed to five and I hit a sick read blind Cabal Therapy on Lion’s Eye Diamond. Seeing that Michael had nothing else in his hand but rituals, I was free to combo out on turn two. Michael was very diplomatic in defeat, despite the fact that I could practically feel him seething with righteous indignation at what I’m sure he felt was a terrible beat.
Win: 2 – 0 – 0
Round Three: Jason Broach with Hive Mind
Jason was a very nice fellow who admitted up front that this was his very first big tournament. This didn’t stop him from demolishing me and going undefeated in swiss to the top seed in the Top 8.
Game one I mulliganed into oblivion, keeping two Lion’s Eye Diamond and two dredgers on the draw. He cast a turn one brainstorm off of Volcanic Island, to which I assumed he was RUG Delver. I drew into nothing and passed turn without a play. After quirking his eybrow cartoonishly and chuckling, Jason cast a Grim Monolith off of Ancient Tomb revealing his deck to be Hive Mind. I drew into nothing again, thought for a second, then decided to cast both LEDs on the off chance that he didn’t know what he was doing. Jason mumbled, “ah, Storm,” to which I gave an internal sigh of relief that my hedge hadn’t cost me information against him. He cast Hive Mind and Pact of the Titan then tanked when I didn’t concede. I saw the lightbulb go on when he looked at my LEDs, to which he casually cast a second Pact. I accidently laughed out loud.
Sideboard:
+3 Chain of Vapor, + 1 Ray of Revelation
-2 Ichorid, -2 Putrid Imp
Chain and Ray are pretty terrible against Hive Mind as they don’t interact properly with the namesake enchantment and priority; however, they’re better than nothing and you really don’t want the grindy elements of the deck to stay anyway. That they add protection against random static hate is also a bonus, in theory.
I mulliganed into oblivion again, keeping a highly speculative five, playing land into Careful Study and seeing ever more trash. Luckily, Jason seemed to have kept a slow hand, doing nothing but Pondering and Brainstorming. I drew into a timely Cabal Therapy, which I used to try to mise my way out of a combo kill, naming Hive Mind, but saw that he had two Pacts (one of them Pact of Negation, which is relevant) but no namesake. I reviewed the probabilities, then cast my two LEDs for a second game in a row. Jason countered with a very neat “hey look at this” Hive Mind top deck and cast both of his Pacts in the proper sequence. I pushed back my flaming ego as best I could and conceded as gracefully as I could muster.
Loss : 2 – 1 – 0
Round Four: Jason Black playing Storm
I know Jason from my time in Tucson, but I wasn’t sure what he was playing, despite the fact that he clearly knew what I was playing from the overdramatic grown he gave as he was sitting down, exclaiming, “this deck?!” I felt a little better about my blind odds.
I kept a very mediocre hand on the draw feeling stupid about my one-of Tarnished Citadel in my opener. Jason shuffled his deck with a Ponder off of Undergound Sea for his first turn to which I rightly assumed he was on Storm, sadly realizing that my hand was likely to turn out too slow for this game. I bolted myself to cast Putrid Imp and passed the turn. Jason cast a Brainstorm, shuffled with a fetch and Duressed me for my Careful Study and presumably my only chance of winning the race. I pitched my Grave-Troll at upkeep and dredged into nothing in particular, then bolted myself again to try to Therapy an Infernal Tutor only to see a hand full of rituals, a Brainstorm, and a Ponder. I thought about flashing back my Therapy to snag the Brainstorm, but decided against it and passed my turn. Well, Jason’s Brainstorm turned into a Tutor, which netted him exactly 14 Goblin tokens to my 14 life and my creature who couldn’t block if I had but one more card in my graveyard. I thought about simply drawing to allow my Imp to block, then realized that was dumb considering I couldn’t produce any mana after a single attack anyway, so I dredged… into nothing. Good game.
Sideboard:
+3 Leyline of Sanctity, +4 Leyline of the Void, +1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
-2 Ichorid, -3 Putrid Imp, -1 Darkblast, -2 Careful Study
I wasn’t sure what hate to put Jason on but I knew I wanted white Leyline and Elesh Norn to contract his ability to combo me out. I decided on black Leyline only because I knew he ran maindeck Past in Flames from the previous game and wanted to further choke his ability to combo out.
I kept a pretty obvious turn two kill while Jason tanked and mulliganed to six, reluctantly keeping. I flipped a sizable chunk of my deck on my first turn, while Jason merely Pondered. I killed him pretty soundly the following turn, seeing no hate.
I decided not to resideboard for game three as I hadn’t seen any evidence of needing Chain or Ray.
I kept my opening seven with a white Leyline that I felt pretty good about. Jason attempted to Duress me first turn, to which he comically sad-faced after rereading Leyline of Sanctity. I cast my singleton Putrid Imp and passed back. Jason dug with two more fancy cantrips and morosely passed the turn back. I dredged at my upkeep, revealing little, then attacked for two. Our turns progressed in this fashion in weirdly grindy game, until Jason attempted to combo out, toward the end of which, after he had spent the last of his red mana, I reminded him that I still had the white Leyline. Jason shook his head and conceeded.
Win : 3 – 1 – 0
Round Five: John Kassari playing Punishing Maverick
I vaguely recognized John from SCG LA, not because he won, (which I didn’t realize until after swiss) but because he was involved in an altercation with an unsavory Phoenix player which resolved in bizarre fashion with the Phoenix player being disqualified and stomping out of the venue.
Sadly, this was my least interactive match of the day. Game one he cast a Noble Hierarch on the play, while I flipped a little over half my deck with the two LED nut hand, narrowly missing the combo finish, but setting up an obvious turn two. John simply conceded after drawing his card.
Sideboard:
+2 Firestorm, +1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
-2 Careful Study, -1 Putrid Imp
Again, I didn’t want to sideboard into any anti-hate before seeing what he was playing in his sideboard, but opted instead for the obvious inclusions from my own.
Game two John began with another Noble Hierarch and passed the turn. I cast a Faithless Looting on my turn, pitching two dredgers before passing back. On John’s upkeep, he went into the tank, which concerned me slightly. He decided to simply draw a card, after which he cast a Gaddock Teeg, blocking the combo win, and attacked for one. On my next turn I dredged into money on my draw step, then cast Breakthrough for infinite. I couldn’t go for the autokill because of Teeg, so I instead settled for casting all three of my Cabal Therapies, removing Knight of the Reliquary off of a blind guess and seeing Scavenging Ooze and Enlightened Tutor, revealing why he had tanked the previous upkeep, before removing both of the theoretical problems. I passed the turn with twelve Zombie tokens. John drew for his turn and conceded.
4 – 1 – 0
Round Five: Kelvin Young playing MUD
I new Kelvin was on MUD because of the buzz surrounding his success and having spied a game or two in passing after some of my quick finishes. Frankly, I felt pretty good about my odds simply on theory. Revealing that my instinct was correct, I crushed Mr. Young on turn two of game one, with him not having cast anything.
Sideboard:
+3 Chain of Vapor, +1 Ichorid
-2 Putrid Imp, -1 Careful Study, -1 Darkblast
I knew to put Kelvin on Grafdigger’s Cage, but I also had a small suspicion toward over-hate with some addition Leylines that I’m pretty sure ended up not being there. Regardless, I prepared myself the only way I could, with a handful of bounce spells and the hope that he didn’t draw more Cages than I drew Chains.
Game two Kelvin began with a grin and a turn one Cage. Considering I didn’t have a Chain, I felt pretty bad, despite the fact that the rest of my hand was actually pretty good. I drew for my turn into nothing relevant, and decided to pass the turn without a land drop, pitching a dredger that I didn’t intent to dredge the next turn, still looking for a Chain. Kelvin cast a Metalworker off of an Ancient Tomb and passed back. I peeked at my top card, and held back a gasp when I saw it was a Chain of Vapor. I quickly double checked to make sure it was impossible for me to win that turn, then played a land and passed back, intending to bounce at the end of his turn and winning on my own. Kelvin drew and chuckled a little. He activated Metalworker, revealing a second worker, two Wurmcoil Engines, and a second Grafdigger’s Cage. Dagger! Kelvin played a land then cast the second cage, a Wurmcoil and the second Worker, just for value I suppose. I morosely drew a card, hoping to no avail that I’d hit the long shot on a second Chain, then played a land and passed back, declining to dredge with my Careful Study as it would slightly drop my probabilities of drawing the second Chain. Kelvin attacked in and cast his second Wurmcoil. I drew into nothing and conceded.
Game three I kept the same sideboard configuration and hoped for the best. We both promptly mulliganed to six, after which Kelvin tanked and kept a speculative six, while I chose to mulligan a second time. And a third time. Ruh roh. After shuffling, I laid the top four cards of my library out in front of me face down. Playfully, I pointed to each in turn and said out loud, “land, Faithless Looting, LED, Grave-Troll.” I picked up my hand and felt completely robbed. The Faithless Looting was actually a Breakthrough. Dagger x 2, this time for Kelvin. I shook my head and told Kelvin that while I prefered not to end a match on a completely lucky draw, I was going to take it in this instance, laying my hand face up on my playmat. Kelvin let out a gust of air from his lungs like he’d been punched in the stomach before shaking his head back, chuckling morosely, and entreating me to go through the motions. I hit everything I needed for a first turn half-the-library-flipped-wreck-your-hand. Kelvin sadly conceded but in very gentlemenly fashion.
5 – 1 – 0
Round six: Michael Lester playing Esper Stoneblade
Strangely, I don’t remember much from this match as I was starting to get tired and ended up taking pretty poor notes. I remember that I demolished him game one with a turn two combo and that he sided into Joten Grunt, which I vaguely recall him being slightly smug about casting, and consequently slightly loose about the ordering of the cards going to the bottom of my library because of the assumption that it would be enough to win with. I simply played around the Grunt triggers and dredged down to the cards he had put to the bottom of my deck which he’d assumed I wouldn’t make it to. There wasn’t much more to it than that. I’m pretty sure I sideboarded the same way I did in match one, though I honestly can’t be sure.
6 – 1 – 0
Round seven: Jason Bulkowski playing Dredge
After checking the standings I was pretty thoroughly convinced that I would have to play out the final round of swiss, having the second worst tiebreakers in a tier of points with one too many people for a clean cut. However, Jason approached me offering the intentional draw, stating that according to his math, it would require an impossible leap of tiebeakers for the highest ranked player in the next tier of points to surpass him as the bottom ranked player player already at the threshold X – 1. As it was literally impossible for Jason to jump me in tiebreakers, I gladly accepted, locking my slot for Top 8. Sadly for Jason, his math was a little off and Chris Higashi ended up winning his match to become 6 – 1 – 1 and passed Jason’s tiebreakers by less than 0.1%
Quarterfinals: Kurt Samson playing RUG Delver
I was simultaneously excited and extremely nervous about my very first high profile Top 8 and my first Top 8 in general in a while after having cooled the amount of Magic I’d played over the previous months. Kurt and I had been talking after meeting each other the previous night and were aware that we would be paired as the seventh and second seeds. We knew what each other were playing and we both agreed that I was probably favored in the match. When we went to sit down, we discovered that we were, in fact, the first feature match of the Top 8. In lieu of an actual report on this particular match, I’d direct you to go ahead and watch the recording (fifth from the bottom) which had a number of exciting twists and mostly acts as a fantastic primer on how to punt an unloseable game to pure nerves.
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/120415_phoenix.html
I felt pretty silly after the match, knowing many of the mistakes I made immediately after performing them in game and after being informed about the others by the spectators after the games. Really, it came down to being unprepared for how intimidating being in a video feature match is the first time you do it, as well as being comically out of practice. I felt like I robbed myself of $1800 by not riding the three favored RUG matchups to a full victory, but eventually accepted the fact that Top 8’ing in the first place was an honorable accomplishment.
Consequently, the time since my dramatic failure in the quarterfinals of the Starcity Open has been one of vast introspection about my own skill as a player and what I hope to accomplish in the immediate and distant futures. To say that the Open rekindled my passion for the game and my desire to improve my skill is an understatement of epic proportion. Getting the opportunity to reflect on and objectively evaluate oneself and one’s abilities is something that everyone who plays competitive Magic direly needs and I can’t stress how much I feel that my game has improved simply by being real about my own skills. I am looking forward to starting anew and attempting to break back into the competitive Magic scene in Arizona and beyond; while maintaining the strictest humility and remembering where I came from as well as the mistakes I’ve made in the past.