Date: Sun, 7 Sep 1997 06:43:26 GMT From: Arthur Kimes Subject: Fried extra crispy in Costa Mesa Here's a report of my experience in the MVW Pro Qualifier at Costa Mesa today (9/6/1997). I haven't played in a tournament since March(!) so I was not only rusty but unfamiliar with the main MVW decks. Analysis of winning MVW decks posted on the Magic Dojo page showed that the big 3 were: A. Red Celerity/Burn B. Black (with U, R or both) Necratog (U decks used Ertai's Familiar, R decks used song of blood) C. Blue (often with a little white for Abeyance) beatdown. Waterspouts, Ophidians, Man-o-Wars and countermagic. Many of the other decent decks were heavily creature oriented. The popularity of decks A and B would have made it difficult for me to trade for the key cards I didn't have. (Hammers, Ertai's Familiars and such). And I don't play permission well. So I decided to go with a heavily anti-creature deck. Aether Flash - Hoses weenie decks and most celerity creatures. Savage Twister - the best board sweeper in MVW. Afterlife - nails big creatures and handles regenerators, Necratogs and those SCARY armored falcons. (note that Afterlife + Aether Flash is STRONG) Those would be the key anti-creature cards. Now to make a deck. After a lot of play testing and tuning, here's what I came up with. Arthur's recursive deck of boredom for pro qualifier Sept 6th, 1997. Forest 5 Savage Twister 4 Gemstone Mine 2 AEther Flash 4 Grasslands 4 Incinerate 4 Mountain 6 Hammer of Bogardan 2 Mountain Valley 4 Afterlife 4 Plains 3 Steel Golem 2 Wall of Roots 4 Ogre Enforcer 2 Rampant Growth 2 Maro 3 Vitalizing Cascade 1 Gaea's Blessing 4 Sideboard Suleiman's Legacy 2 City of Solitude 4 Emerald Charm 4 (only cost 1 mana to cast - might not be able to get 2 mana in play against some lock decks) Preferred Selection 1 Disenchant 4 It's a control deck. Stay alive early on with a host of anti- creature cards. Drop an Aether Flash (or 2!) to make up to half the opponents deck worthless. Then drop a big boy and bash away or recycle the hammer. Steel Golem provides STRONG early blocking. I don't have many creatures so his drawback doesn't mean much. Orge Enforcer can be summoned even if I have all 4 Aether Flashes in play. Maro can be too much for the burn decks to handle if I get him out on turn 3. With 6 fast mana cards (2 Rampant Growth and 4 Wall of Roots) I have a reasonable shot at doing it. (I would have used 4 Maro's but I only have 3). And the Walls of root are first class pains in the neck for creature swarm decks. Go ahead and play more creatures - it makes my Savage Twisters more powerful. The Gaea's Blessings become more and more powerful the longer the game lasts and are useful against opposing Hammers and graveyard (nectratog and such) decks. I felt this deck would be extremely vulnerable to permission and weird lock decks (like Sands of Time/Equipoise). So my sideboard is heavily tilted against that kind of deck. 8 anti-enchantment cards. 4 anti-artifact. 4 Cities. A lot of blue decks like to use various Djinns and Efreets for the beatdown. A second turn Suleiman's Legacy would mess them up big time! Preferred Selection for qualitative card advantage. Extensive playtesting against Igor Freyman's mono-red Celerity deck showed that I was in BIG trouble against that deck style. I must have played 20 practice games against it (with early versions of this deck) and won only 3 or 4. I even tried recursive lifegaining (4 Vitalizing Cascades and 4 Mangara's Blessings along with the Gaea's Blessings) and Igor's deck STILL ate me alive. (I didn't have enough white mana to support Gerrard's Wisdom) Those playtests convinced me to add the Maro's and drop a lot of the frills in the original deck. I don't know if this is Igor's original creation but it was the test deck he was using a few weeks ago and it's worth a look. Igor's deck that beat me like a drum. 16 Mountains, 4 Quicksands, 4 Mindstones. 4 Thunderbolts, 4 Incinerates, 4 Fireblasts 4 Hammers, 2 Kaervek's Torches. 4 Talruum Minotaurs, 4 Suq'Ata Lancers, 4 V. Sandstalkers 3 Orcish Settlers 2 Bosium Strips (!) 1 Final Fortune. I have no idea what his sideboard had. It's a good burn deck - if you can't beat it with your Type II deck expect to lose to it (or something similar to it). It's a notch above a lot of the other Celerity/Burn decks because: A. The mindstones allow for 3rd turn Minotaurs. That means that any one of TWELVE Celerity creatures could be pounding on you by the 3rd turn. If this deck plays first then you'd BETTER have instant speed creature removal that works with 2 mana by YOUR second turn or you suffer beatdown. In the middle game the Mindstones help him recycle the hammer when other burn decks are running out of steam. In the late game (which might be turn EIGHT) the mindstones get sacced to draw more cards - and in this decks those cards will probably be damaging spells. B. The Orcish Settlers give him something else to cast on turn 2. With Land Destruction being an almost completely ignored theme in MVW tournaments, many decks are extremely vulnerable to LD. C. The Bosium strips. The strip attracted a lot of attention when Weatherlight first came out but most decks built around them were unreliable. In THIS deck they work! They're the tiebreaker that lets this deck win burn wars against similar decks and give it more staying power against control decks. It's sort of like the Orcish Librarian in the original Sligh deck. If the deck is so good why didn't I play it? For one, I didn't have 4 hammers! For another, the top local players are familiar with this deck and are ready to deal with it. But it's a good test deck. On to the tournament. I walked around and chatted with some of the stronger players during deck registration. I didn't look closely at their decks (that would be scouting) but it looked like a sea of blue on the tables in front of them. There were about 101 players. Round One. R. Soloman. mono-black graveyard abuse. Strands of Night, Infernal Tribute, Necro-Savaant, Necromancy, Nekrataal, Crypt Rats, Abyssal Gatekeepers and drain life. Thought I could handle this deck. Looked that way in the first game as I delivered the beatdown with a Golem and a recycling Hammer. At one point he hit me with a drain life for 4 while my Golem was running amuck. I think he expected to surprise block it with a Necrosavaant recalled via Strands of Night but I flummoxed him by casting Gaea's Blessing on his graveyard and sticking all 3 of his creatures back in his library. (he was tapped out because of the drain life and couldn't respond by recalling the N'Savaant) In game 2 I screwed up. I had sided in the 4 disenchants. (should have put in some Emerald charms as well - he had a LOT of enchantments) There was a point in the game where he had a N'Savaant and a Strands of night in play. I only had one white mana out and used up my Afterlife on it INSTEAD of Disenchanting the Strands. He just called it back and I got munched. Lost the 3rd game to a Necrosavaant beatdown but don't recall the details. Match score = 0-1 Annoying. I thought I should have beaten that deck. But I was rusty and even if I had avoided the mistakes I made there was no guarantee that I might not have lost later on. But my deck tends to get better the longer the game lasts so losing 2 long games was a real pain. Round 2. My deck clicks perfectly as my opponent doesn't show up. Forfeit. Match score = 1-1 Round 3. J. Robinson. mono-red celerity burn. oh-oh. Lost both games and now I was REALLY annoyed. Because I made all sorts of plays that could be second guessed. In both games I got early, big Maro's out. In both games he bolted me to death before I could pound him to 0 life with Mr. Maro. What kind of mistakes did I make? He puts out a 1/1 Goblin vandal to block my Mighty Maro for a turn. He also has a Minotaur but that was tapped. I COULD HAVE popped a Twister for 1 point and cleared the Gobbo but I was afraid to lose a card from my hand and put the Maro in double bolt range. Or I could have Twistered for 3 but then I would have had to play another land as well - making Maro even smaller. But I didn't do that and the bolts that MIGHT have knocked off Maro hit me instead. Stuff like that happened both games. I guess I just didn't have enough practice against this style deck because I felt I had the tools to win in my hands both games. I have to point out that Robinson played REALLY well in this match - I never noticed a playing mistake. Match score = 1-2. Round 4. Now I'm deeply in scrubland. I have no chance to make the final 8 but intend to play out the tournament as I need the practice. J. Abrams. Mono-Green swarm with Armor of Thorns. I couldn't ask for a better deck to face! I played 2nd. (I chose to play 2nd most of the time as I wanted my opponent to put out many creatures that I could wipe out with a Twister. Plus, I'm playing a 3 color deck and the extra card helps avoid mana screws.) He plays a first turn Lion, a 2nd turn Quiron Ranger and another Lion, a 3rd turn Centaur and a 4th turn Boa. I put out a Wall of Roots on the 2nd turn and popped a 2 point Savage Twister on my 4th turn. The Boa regenerated but the other 4 creatures didn't! My wall could handle the Boa and an Aether Flash was played a turn or two later. I kept Afterlifing, Incinerating and Twistering his bigger creatures until I hammered and Golemed him to death. Since my deck was setup to hose his style deck I only sided in one card - a preferred selection to replace one Hammer. In the 2nd game it was his Emerald Charms vs. my Aether Flashes. He kept charming them and I kept recycling them with Gaea's Blessing. He popped a Nature's Resurgence on me when I had control of the board - he drew 10 cards and I drew 4. In spite of that I almost won but forgot to recycle my hammer a couple of times and got swarmed. In the 3rd game I dropped an early Maro. He was forced to burn up a Meerkat and 2 Armor of Thorns to kill it. As if I had Mind Twisted him. I won a long grinding game without incident. Match score = 2-2 Round 5. K. Azmoon. I play him all the time at Bleacher Bums. He mulliganed the first game. I closely examined his hand. Full of blue annoyances - counterspells, boomerangs, man-o-war's, ophidians and such. My opening hand was GREAT! 4 lands (2 of them saclands), a Maro, Aether Flash, Wall of Roots - what more could I ask? I got beaten like a Hyena at a Lion convention. His first turn, U/W sacland. I play R/G sacland. His second turn, gets an island, plays another island and BOOMERANGS my land. Yuck. I play the same land again and discard the Aether Flash. His 3rd turn. Plays a quicksand and BOOMERANGS my land. Yuck^2. I play the same land again and discard something I didn't want to discard. His 4th turn. Plays another land and BOOMERANGS that land. I could throttle him. No jury would convict me. I discard another important card and play the same damned land. He plays another quicksand and does nothing. He has 5 mana lands in play. I have a tapped sacland. He's playing a permission deck. I'm playing a deck with big creatures and sorceries. I am so screwed. I lose a humiliating game. Since he's fairly light on creatures I pull out lots of anti-creature stuff. I wind up bringing in 11 of my 15 sideboard cards! (everything except the disenchants. I'm guessing he has annoying enchantments in the sideboard and the charms are also useful in bringing down his flyers.) I choose to go first since I DEARLY want to play a 3rd turn City of solitude. I draw THREE cities in my opening hand along with the mana to cast them! I play a 2nd turn wall of roots. I play my 3rd land and cast the City. He's about to powersink it when he noticed the mana producing wall. Ooops. He's not too worried as he has disenchants and boomerangs in his deck. Then I play another City on the 4th turn. And the 3rd one a few turns later. (rubbing it in - payback for Boomerang boy). I get out a ton of land and am quickly able to recall and cast my hammer each turn. He gets a Waterspout out but he's too far behind on the race to zero. In the 3rd game I side out a couple of Charms as I saw no enchantments last game. He plays first. I slip a City of Solitude past him on the 4th or 5th turn. Ironically, I never had a spell he needed to counter for the rest of the game! He put out a Waterspout and I drew nothing that could handle it and was Djinned to death. Match Score = 2-3. Round 6. I discover a drawback of playing out the string. It's likely that my opponents will be discouraged. He was. He didn't show up and I got another forfeit. While I was waiting for my forfeit to become official I watched the match next to me. I don't know their names - let's call them Joe and Bob. Bob showed up a couple of minutes late so he forfeited the first game. Game 2. 1. Bob plays a Plain. Joe plays a Swamp. 2. Bob, Forest and a Boa. Joe, swamp and a Fallen Askari. 3. Bob. Boa attacks for 2, plays an Undiscovered Paradise and a Warthog. Joe's Askari attacks for 2. 4. Bob plays the Paradise again, puts EMPYRIAL ARMOR ON THE SWAMPWALKING WARTHOG and attacks for a billion or so. Joe's Askari attacks and then he concedes. Game 3. 1. Joe plays a Swamp. Bob plays a W/G sacland. 2. Joe plays a Swamp and summons a Skulking Ghost. Bob sacs for a plain, plays a forest and casts a pro/black Falcon. 3. Joe attacks with the Ghost. Falcon blocks and then Joes summons a Barrow Ghoul. Bob puts EMPRYRIAL ARMOR ON THE PROTECTION FROM BLACK FALCON and kicks some ass. Joe concedes a couple of turns later - his hand consists of 5 lands. This match was over before my forfeit was official - less than 10 minutes! Match Score = 3-3 Round 7. Forgot to write his name down. Another mono-red Celerity deck. Not nearly as good as Igor's. This kid didn't even have a sideboard. Of course he fried me extra-crispy in game 1. I went first in game 2 (trying to get out a Maro faster) and played a 4/4 Maro on turn 3, a 4/4 Maro on turn 4 and a Steel Golem on turn 5. I was finally learning that you can't play conservative against these burn decks. The beatdown was satisfying as my fatties quenched the flames of his deck. I drew 3 incinerates in my opening hand for the 3rd game. They blew away a Sandstalker and 2 Minotaurs. While that was going on I was able to drop another Maro and he felt he had to use up a fireblast, 2 mountains and a quicksand on it. That slowed his deck down a lot and I was able to start recycling a Hammer while bopping away with a Steel Golem. I soon had an Aether Flash out and that kept a bunch of creatures in his hand (as I would discover after the game). But he kept blasting me with torches and thunderbolts and I was down to two life in spite of being in complete control of the board! By now I had enough land out to cast the hammer every turn. He was at 3 life with 4 mountains in play. He drew a card. Looked disgusted - "Whew", I thought. "Obviously not a bolt". He played the card - Final Fortune! "WHAT A CRUMMY WAY TO LOSE - HE'S GOING TO TOP DECK A FIREBLAST" It wasn't a damage spell so I won. Final Match Score = 4-3 (2-3 vs. human beings). Sorry I wasn't able to scope out the winning decks but scouting was frowned upon and I didn't feel like hanging around after my tournament was over. Anyway, MVW is a almost a dead format - the Chicago pro tournament will probably be the last to use that format and if you're playing in it you already know what works. Ciao for now. "We'll have no unnecessary floating aboard this ship." - General Merritt