‘You know, if we wanted to take each other’s rolls,
we could have just stayed home.’
-Rounders
Hello and good luck! My name is Jonathan Kornacki, and many of you have seen me around our Southwest regional Magic tournaments for the past few years.
Standard in the pre-Gatecrash invitational in LA grew pretty stagnant for me. I tend to be typecast as a control player, which I have no problem embracing, but there were no less than 3 people in LA’s Top 8 that will remember me as the Gruul mage I was once upon a time, and acknowledge that I probably know something about turning guys sideways (mind you, the creatures were just basically much worse back then).
That said, this tournament was being touted by all credible resources as far as I could tell to be pretty overrun with midrange opponents, largely because of the success of mono red one week prior. As such, next level metagaming basically inspired me to play this list, which is my own, but if you must attribute it to someone, I choose Larry Kauffman over Mike Flores.
| Creatures (5) 1 Olivia Voldaren 4 Vampire Nighthawk Spells (31) 4 Tragic Slip 4 Sign in Blood 2 Liliana of the Veil 1 Devil’s Play 1 Tribute to Hunger 4 Mutilate 2 Liliana of the Dark Realms 2 Dreadbore 2 Curse of Death’s Hold 3 Staff of Nin 2 Trading Post 4 Rakdos Keyrune Lands (24) 1 Stensia Bloodhall 4 Dragonskull Summit 4 Blood Crypt 15 Swamp | Sideboard: (15) 1 Liliana of the Veil 2 Cremate 4 Slaughter Games 2 Underworld Connections 1 Bloodline Keeper 3 Duress 2 Rakdos’s Return |
I was pretty pleased with my game against creature decks, and liked my odds quite a bit to dismantle opposing control decks with a slew of slaughter games in the post board. Hard aggro like last week’s open winner would prove a challenge, but I was real excited to fight em with Trading Post.
Trading Post and Staff of Trent Reznor basically act as the additional planeswalker I think this kind of control build wants. Both Lilianas serve way too much function to consider cutting, and I experimented briefly with Chandra, the Firebrand, before determining she was, sadly, too low impact.
Round 1- Danny Smith, Naya Midrange
A few of you may know Danny, namely as ‘that guy’ on Facebook. He’s my homie, and we both drove a long way to be here, sadly for him, since his was exactly the type of deck I’d wanted to bash on all day. Game one was close considering the circumstances…I opened up on 2 Swamps, Dragonskull, Rakdos Keyrune, while Danny, on the mulligan, and the draw, went mana dork into Borderland Ranger into Huntmaster. My turn 4 was Mutilate for two, miss land drop. I believe his follow-up was Restoration Angel, which was fine since I started peeling lands and stuck a Trading Post, with Staff of Nin, in just timely fashion to race his Sigarda. Host of Herons. He was pretty sure his draw sucked, but I gained 12 life this game with Post, and certainly would have been dead without. Game two was a lot less close. He gained roughly one million life via Thragtusks, Huntmaster’s, and Restoration Angels, but never took me below 20, since I had time to stick another Trading Post. His draw was a lot less explosive, almost sluggish, and I had infinite time to peel with my Staff of Nin.
Round 2- Off-camera feature match against Mike, on B/r zombies
This match felt like the one that got away, and I’m pretty grateful my opponents un/intentional slowrollS are not documented on camera. Game one, I take a mulligan on the draw, but his first threat is a Vampire Nighthawk. I followed up with my own Nighthawk, predictably trading with a Searing Spear, but leaving him without much play left for his turn. I peel a timely mutilate, which pairs with the efforts of a Rakdos Keyrune to dispatch his board (then including Geralf’s Messenger), but at a pretty unstable 4 life against the Hellrider/Falkenrath Aristocrat deck. He follows up with another Nighthawk, against my hand of only lands, when I untap and peel what I think the average player would consider a pretty poorly timed Sign in Blood. Evaluating the board, I determined correctly that casting the Sign in Blood gave me the best odds of winning…and as justice would have it, I peeled a Trading Post to start getting back in the game with my extra lands. Shortly after a Staff of Nin joined, and I ended the game at 23 life. Game two, on the other hand, I am on the backfoot of a one-drop into one-drop into Messenger hand. Simplifying the board required the use of 19 of my life points, but leaves me in a spot where at least I can hold up a drawn Tragic Slip to try and not die to something like Aristocrat. He untaps, tanks for a few seconds, and then casually Searing Spears me. Game three, my first Nighthawk gets to stick, but gets the awkward duty of sitting on defense, against a Nighthawk of his own, as well as some other dork. I stumple on mana just a little bit, which he gets me with multiple dirty notes from Geralf. I get a clean board at one life, once again, with him hellbent. So he draws, carefully considers his options, and decides to cast yet another Geralf’s Messenger. GG
Round 3-Eric, Grixis
Game one, Eric is on the play, and doesn’t play very many lands. I draw a Blood Crypt off of Liliana IV before it gets dreadbored, and am able to resolve a Staff of Nin past any potential shenanigans. He hits me with a Thundermaw Hellkite, which peaked my interest, but I ended the game with all 3 Staff on the battlefield. Game two, I take a mulligan, and play some series of Keyrune and a planeswalker into a pretty predictable Negate into Snapcaster Negate. Duress eventually indicates that he’s still on the Nicol Bolas plan, which I had some counterplay against. I just let it elude me. After playing out a few permanents, I taste an overloaded Cyclonic Rift, so I replay out some stuff, leaving 3 mana up, when he drops Nicol Bolas, and we enter a classic mistake of his poor play causing me to play even worse, by activating his Nicol to destroy my Rakdos Keyrune. Having seen where the game played out, I think I was dead even if I’d correctly activated my Keyrune in response, but was no excuse for a sloppy shortcut. Game three I come better prepared, acknowledging that whatever his deck was doing post sideboard, it was well within my means to control. I took one Axe from a Thundermaw Hellkite, but managed my resources and removal carefully, picking my spots with Duress, as well as doing as much chip damage as possible with Staff and Stensia Bloodhall. This play forced his hand, to eventually tap down to drop a freshly drawn Nicol Bolas, destroying one of my mana sources, holding a Rakdos’s Return. I could kill him if I ripped a land, and somehow I miracled a Dragonskull summit.
Round 4-John, Human Reanimator
John informed me that he didn’t play much Magic, but was in the process of sharpening up for a PT he recently qualified for. I tentatively played out game one, not sure exactly what he was on, as he had a pretty awkward draw that didn’t have much in the way of action against me. While he was slow and steady, I seized the opportunity to land a Staff of Nin, and start gaining advantage. It was his turn to go for random beats, using multiple zealous conscripts to ping me with my own Staff. I had to wipe his board several times while drawing for a way to kill him, making almost every land drop late into the game. His eventual unburial rites on an Angel of Glories rise demonstrated the quality of his draw against me…giving him more Zealous Conscripts that didn’t do anything, and similarly unimpressive Fiend Hunters. As is natural for Unburial Rites decks, I was required to deal with his same set of threats a few times in a row, but luckily the Staff provided me just enough fuel to do so. Game two, he casts and early Borderland Ranger, into a Grisly Salvage, binning some garbage, and putting Zealous Conscripts into his hand. My Olivia Voldaren shows up, but knowing he has the Conscripts, I need to slow my roll just a bit, and cast my Slaughter Games instead, naming Zealous Conscripts. He reveals a hand of 2 Conscripts, 3 land, with no more Conscripts in the deck. After that point, Olivia handily cleaned up.
Round 5-Kyle Fader, Bant Control
This was the hardest match I had to fight all day. I consider myself pretty well-versed in control style matchups, but considered my deck to be a considerable underdog, and put my boy Faderade on some kind of super shiny control deck before our match started. He led us off on the play, and reams me pretty good game one. Trading Post went a long way in keeping me in the game, and at times it was definitely close, but I was unable to power through his Sphinx’s Revelations. Game one took roughly just over 30 minutes of our round, complicating things further. I did well over 20 damage, but as anyone who’s watched a match in this format will tell you, not good enough. Game two, I have a semi awkward double Dragonskull into Duress, Sign in Blood opening, which reveals a pretty vulnerable keep on his part, having just a Dissipate and a Sphinx’s Revelation to try and beat me or draw me on the draw. My second lesson in the form of an overloaded Cyclonic Rift of the day occurred, and he was going pretty aggro with a sideboarded Sands of Delirium that dodged my discard, but my reassembled board and planeswalker advantage took us to game three with something like 15 minutes on the clock. Props to Kyle, because I was not the only one maintaining a brisk pace of play, trying diligently to avoid a too early draw, more deadly for me, knowing that the kind of deck that typically winds up in the draw bracket is not the kind of midrange opponent that I actually wanted to play. Game three was a marathon, in which I did not presume to have a chance for a large portion of it. My turn one Duress (in order to curve properly, and not discard to my sign in blood), hit his Negate, but missed his freshly drawn turn three Sands of Delirium. I knew he was short on pressure and relatively answer heavy in hand, so I had to jam some threats of my own, meanwhile he had the luxury of holding up and just using Sands of Delirium at his leisure. Tournament Magic is a game of time management, among other things, and I had multiple acquaintances witness a poorly timed second copy of Slaughter Games (hitting Sphinx’s with the first), naming Angel of Serenity, in part due to his useless cavern on Angel the previous turn. He didn’t have Angel of Serenity, and that was information that I’d had access to, BUT I was already at a pretty good disadvantage, and wasting more time tanking or taking notes on his deck was not a risk I was willing to take. I assembled the only semblance of a plan I had against his sands of delirium, applying slow pressure, and ticking up a Liliana of the Veil. I knew I was getting a lot of his answers right out of hand, but also that he would use his cyclonic rift(sans overload) to but turns more + a chance to counter my Liliana. I remained diligent, replaying and ticking up my Liliana every turn, when he cast Jace, Architect of Thought. He got a mini-FOF, which I was playing too quickly to accurately remember, but I made him take one card, which I’m pretty sure means I did it right. The next turn (with my Lili on 6), he elected to tick up his Jace, and ship. I immediately binned my Lili, splitting 5 lands (with colors), against Drownyard, Overgrown tomb, Jace, and Sands of Delirium. I had Keyrune pressure that would dispatch the Jace with ease, and he was on very few cards in hand, forcing him to keep the 5 land, and giving me the breathing room/card advantage I needed to chip away at his life total for a few turns. He stalled out my offense with multiple Thragtusk, but a Devil’s Play he’d milled infi earlier sealed the match, just as time was called.
Round 6-Samwise the Great, GB Aggro
This struck me as a pretty favorable matchup, having considered it as well as Kibler’s list when constructing my deck. His haste guys are real good, but I’ve got a ton of outs to a lot of the powerhouse creatures in the deck, Predator Ooze, Lotleth Troll, and Wolfir Avenger, as well as Dreadbores for his Garruks. I win the roll, and have a pretty timely opening with a Tragic Slip for his Arbor Elf. I am able to just make my drops, the way I prefer it. He manages to extract some value out of Rancor by sticking it on a Strangleroot Geist, but a Keyrune is able to hold back his offense until I land a Staff of Nin, pinging the Geist, and a Mutilate to wipe the board. His counterplay is Arbor Elf, Scavenge on, cast Rancor, which we both read as something that will sadly be ready to attack past my Keyrune the following turn. Low on cards, Sam untaps and casts Garruk V, to peel 6 cards. Hand replenished, and looking to keep pressure applied, he got in with his 6/4 trampler, just in time for me and then him to realise that Staff+Keyrune was going to put him cold in his tracks, stealing any momentum that might have existed, and letting me pull ahead with Staff. Game two felt pretty short and sweet…he didn’t have the fastest possible opening, he was on the mulligan, but had the ultimate price for my vampire nighthawk after only one swing. All I remember this game was just needing a Mutilate, and it not coming. Game three was a pretty strategic, and as it turned out impressive, game. This time my Nighthawk stuck, and I got to gain 6 life, and play some defense, but my mid game drooped a little bit, and I eventually dropped my nighthawk to his Garruk IV. I forced his hand in some of the awkward blocking scenarios that any copy of Garruk often creates for himself, but he had a multiple Strangleroot Geist draw, with Rancor and Dreg Mangler to back it up. I was nearly out of the game, staring down a Yeva and multiple deathtouch wolves, when I topdecked a curse of death’s hold to go with my Tragic Slip, stabilizing. He drew and started doing math: Determined, accurately, by me to be Strangleroot + Rancor + Garruk ultimate leave me at 2, and I think he made the slight misplay of electing to just bash for 4 and add a counter to the garruk. Putting me at two mattered, as I’d cast a devil’s play earlier in the game, and was drawing for a third red source to be able to flashback and kill his last guy, and it would have removed blood crype as an out. I missed anyway, used up all my good topdecks. Sam is my dear friend and coworker, and it’s easy to have mixed emotions on either of our ends in this kind of tight spot, but if it can’t be me, I definitely want it to be him. GGGL
Round 7-Ryan, Naya Aggro
Ryan was a pleasant young man living in San Diego, repping the southern gentleman’s accent acquired from his home state of Mississippi. He’d been playing since M13, and it was his first open. He told me that Thundermaw Hellkite was his favorite magic card, and, by god, he proved it. Game one, I sat on three lands for a few turns, watching him jam guys that I would really like to use one of my mutilates on, but land 4 never came, and his Thundermaw Hellkite most certainly did. Game two, I set myself up with multiple land drops and the removal to hinder his pressure, but the general lack of quality instant speed removal, coupled with my unwillingness to play ultimate price in this deck, meant that I was tanking big damage from a Dragon and many minions, when I wiped the board at 5 life, not the optimal position against the Thundermaw kid. The actual only disappointment was that he chose to excitedly jam down more burn spells than he needed, and that I did not, in fact, get Dragoned again.
Round 8-Art. Jund Midrange
Of the midrange decks in the format, I consider Jund to be one of the worse matchups for this deck. In particular, I find the important task of reading your opponents lands/deck accurately, largely done based on a certain amount of instinct and memorization, to be rather challenging against a Jund opponent. The range of cards in their deck, removal spells, disruptive elements can be deadly when not accounted for. His fairly stock creature base of Thragtusks pretty easily outpaced my removal for game one, while my stable position + Staff of Nin handily won me game two, with plenty of time left. Game three I came to reassessing my sideboard plan, and gripping the realization that his particular build, and specifically his sideboard against me, had him going very slow and steady, controlling almost, but with a much higher threat density. I brought in my Rakdos’s Returns. His early game three was wrought with Farseeks accelerating him, but keeping him off too much board presence. When he stopped accelerating mana and started playing relevant cards, I took the opportunity to Rakdos’s him down to 1 card…sadly his own copy of Rakdos’s return, which, coupled with his [anything] in play, quickly afforded him the match.
An aside, before round 9. This was a 350 tournament, 9 rounds. At this point, I’m pretty safely out of contention for money, but I honestly didn’t give a second though to dropping. These opens are conditioning practice for my magic game, where sometimes, on the higher levels, playing high quality tournament magic for days on end, round after round, is necessary, and, some would say, grueling. Being out of contention and dropping only helps to ensure that a player is less prepared the next time they ARE in contention.
Round 9-Chris, Mono Red
Chris had on a bitching jacket, and was a real funny and nice dude. Yet another reason I was quite pleased with my decision to play them all. Game one, him on the play, opens aggressively, with Rakdos Cackler, into Searing Spear, start missing land drops and firing burn at my dome. By the time I found a Vampire Nighthawk, he was out of three damage burn spells/the mana to cast them, so I started clawing back in with my Nighthawk, making it futile when he did eventually draw out. Game two, I mulliganed twice to his once, and got handily destroyed. I think his opening was cackler into Lightning Mauler. The details of game three elude me, but it was much of the same, my dear friend Chris apesmashing me mecilessly(I was on the mulligan). I desideboarded and we played a for fun game four that I managed to steal with a trading post, the card that drew the most attention from my spectators all weekend.
In summation, when asked if I would play this deck again, I answered absolutely. RtR Standard is about to be a thing of the past, and you’ll be able to find me somewhere in a watery grave, but trading post and Staff of Nin as artifacts that do stuff was a surprisingly powerful engine, for this blue mage used to actual planeswalkers and spell-lands. Rakdos Keyrune was amongst the best cards in the deck, and it remains to be seen wether any other keyrunes can serve the same purpose to be the cornerstone of a control deck, or if we’ll just have some new awesome tools come gatecrash.
Congratulations Tony Murata, is bout time we got another one. My team and friends who accompanied me or met me on this trip, thanks for being so awesome…it wouldn’t be worth doing without you guys.
JFK