In days long ago, the only Magic information disseminated over the Internet was in the form of tournament reports, posted on The Dojo. Players who did well and wanted to let their peers know, or players who wanted to learn from their mistakes would write out a detailed round by round recollection of their performance. I am writing this report, to help myself as well as the rest of the players in the group. It is through this feedback that will make us all better players. Most of you know me as the guy who plays the silly decks. After all, who would in his right mind put all 15 gods and all 15 Planeswalkers in the same deck? But, when it gets time to be serious, I can put together a deck and compete with it at higher levels. So, here is my recollection of The West Michigan Brawl. I chose to play U/W Control, using most of the deck that Adrian Sullivan took to a top four finish at Grand Prix: Chicago. I felt the deck had a decent matchup against the Big Three (Black Devotion, Blue Devotion, and UWx Control), but would shine against the over-reaching board-based strategies of Green Devotion Gx Monsters, and other such decks that I felt would be a large part of the meta for this tournament. So let me explain a few of the cards I chose. First, from M15, I added Ætherspouts, Jace TLG, Dissipate, and Tormod’s Crypt. Ætherspouts gives the deck an 8th sweeper main board, and can really wreck the day for someone on a token plan, such as Pack Rats, Advent of the Wurm, Master of Waves, Elspeth, etc. Jace TLG is a very decent card. Left unchecked, a control player has a full hand and his opponent has no hand. Dissipate removes problem cards from the game, and with graveyard recursion, as well as Jace, TLG, tough threats need to go away forever. Tormod’s Crypt is another solution to the graveyard game, as I did expect a strong contingent of BWx recursion. Revoke Existence, Deicide, Pillar of Light, Glare of Heresy, and Last breath all exile tough cards to deal with. Getting the right mixture of these cards between board and main deck would be key to a strong performance. Round 1 – Peter McDecitt – Green Devotion Game 1 was an exercise in why it’s a bad idea to overextend in to board sweepers. Verdicts, Cleansings and even Ætherspouts did their thing against the tide of crazy monsters. Game 2 was more of a mana chase. It took me a long time to draw some blue mana, but I stayed in the game due to Pete’s ability to draw forest after forest (2-0, 1-0) Round 2 – Eric Clark – Green Devotion A second round, and a second match against the new deck of the week. However, Eric was much better at drawing the right mixture of lands and spells, and staring down a pile of green creatures with even more devotion ended game 3. (1-2, 1-1) Round 3 – Josh Hilton, GW Aggro This match features the amazing Advent of the Wurm token putting me in the hole. Game 2 was racing Archangel of Thune vs. Mistcutter Hydra, and with a well-timed Ætherspouts, the lady got there. I do feel bad for the Jedi Mind trick of Rendering Silent the first of two EoT Boon Satyrs in game 3. Josh could have casted the second in response, but was nice enough to pick it back up and save me the match. (2-1, 2-1) Round 4 – Kevin Kimbal, RUG Superfriends I should go look up this wedges new name, but I think RUG will stick over it anyway. Kiora, Courser, and Domri Rade make for a very nice team, one that is hard to deal with. My Ætherling alone on the battlefield with a full hand of spells vs. his empty hand brought about concession on game 1. Game 2, Kiora was nice enough to -5 and leave her emblem behind. A cat and mouse game of quicken – Planar Cleansing, Supreme Verdict and an overloaded Cyclonic rift left the board empty on his side, with my 5 Soldiers and Elspeth at 6 Loyalty. (2-0, 3-1) Round 5 – Tony Smythe, Mono Blue Devotion Tony is a grinder, playing a very tight blue devotion deck. Game one was a classic lesson in how sweepers and Deicide can make for a very miserable game for the devotion player. Game two was also a classic lesson, on how judge familiar, Tidebinder Mage, Thassa, and Master of Waves curves out to totally wreck a non-sweeper hand. Game 3 was a great back and forth that had all 8 Mutavaults in the game and then into the graveyard. However, Tony drawing Mutavaults 4 turns in a row wasn’t helping against a live and very active Elspeth. (2-1, 4-1) Round 6 – Evan West, Black-White Devotion Table 7 in round 6 is where you want to be with 3 rounds to play. Winning the next 2 rounds would put me in the position of drawing in on tie-breakers, which wee very good. I was intrigued with his build after game one, of watching Sign in Blood be cast several times with no sign of Underworld Connections. Main deck Blood Baron is devastation against the Meta, and even though I dissipated one, the second finished the job in game 1. Game two, with me boarding out my enchantment removal, saw the Underworld Connections do the job. Evan ran only Sign in Blood main deck, with the Underworld Connections coming in against slower (control, etc.). It was an example of better understanding the metagame, as he would go on to be top seed in the top 8. (0-2, 4-2) Round 7 – Jadine Klomparens – Mono Black Devotion I really didn’t pay attention to the name (which normally, I try to introduce myself to my opponent by using his/her first name), so I was pleasantly surprised to see Jadine sitting across from me. I had watched the coverage of the finals of GP Chicago, but I casually asked how well she did between games 1 and 2. Game 1 was a grind of her resources versus my ability to draw Sphinx’s Revelation. After bringing me to 1 life, she attempted the Sign in Blood Coup de Grace, which was responded to by revving for 5. With her hand and board empty, she conceded. Games 2 and 3 were lessons in why she is going to Hawaii in October, and I will be watching coverage. (1-2, 4-3) Round 8 – Steven Meyerink – Naya Superfriends At 52nd place, I could have dropped, as 5-3 wasn’t probably going to money, but I could hope people in the twenties would be greedy and not good with tiebreaker math. But, after going 7 rounds, what was one more going to hurt. Steve was tired, and at one point could have killed me with his three Satyr tokens, but chose to kill Elspeth instead. I died the next turn. Game two was a ramped Elspeth on turn 5 that I could not draw an answer for. (0-2, 4-4) After the tournament, I did take this chance to sit down with Art Edson and take my level 1 test (92%, damn you layers!), returning me to level 1 status after a 12 year hiatus. What I have learned – Conceding when you are at a high chance to lose in order win the match. Jadine, Tony and Kevin all conceded once they were at the disadvantage. Letting me have another 10-15 minutes to actually score the kill wasn’t in his/her best interest. Jadine masterfully played this into a match win, and Tony almost got there as well. I will work on this skill. These reports would always end with thanks to those who helped. A finish of 67th is not something to be terribly proud of, but it is a full 270 places higher than the last Brawl, which in my book is a huge upgrade. Adrian Sullivan was nice enough to write a report about GP Chicago, which put the deck in my mind this week, and helped me understand how to make it run. Alex Fay, Dwight Dessotelle, Alex Ward and Dallas Johnson all gave good input on the deck this week and helped me get it where it did perform. Alex Ward also loaned me the Jace, Memory Adapt that was in board. I’m glad it was there, but I never saw it after boarding it in only one round. Travis Hauk, Zach Schuman, Randy Marsh and Dylan Johnson gave it the only play testing it had that wasn’t goldfish, which did result in a couple changes that helped in the black devotion and Aggro matchups. All of my opponents were gracious, whether it was my deck working or his/hers. I saw a lot of players who are losing sight of the social part of the game, only focusing on the win/loss. Luckily, none of those players were across from me.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 13:25:18 +0000