RETURN TO RAVNICA GAMEDAY or The Devils Made Me Do It!

 

It seems like more and more large events are occurring in the Magic world.  They are popping up like every weekend.  Pro Tour and Grand Prix qualifiers, Open Grinders and scheduled Wizards Magic “events” are materializing faster than you can say “There’s a Jace that’s $50.00 again?”  

With that in mind, this past weekend saw great turnouts in all the local venues for their Gamedays, as did the out of town event in Philly.  We had a small gathering at Lilac House, only 10 players, but in contrast to our first Gameday for M13, which saw a field with many newer players, it seemed the sharks came out to feast at Lilac House.  Kudos to Joanne, our rookie, for hanging with said sharks and making the best of it.  You go girl! 

I was uncertain about what I would play going into this.  For a week I hemmed and hawed.  I pimped out more of my Junk Planeswalkers deck but was unsatisfied with its performance play testing against Bill Barrett’s Jund Zombie build.  My sleeper deck had been my mono red Big Red deck, and I had broken it out on occasion over the past few months with positive results.  Rotation took away Koth and some of my other toys, but they found surprising replacements in Return to Ravnica’s card pool. 

4 Ash Zealot
4 Hellrider
4 Rakdos Cackler
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Vexing Devil

4 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Brimstone Volley
2 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Krenko's Command
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Rakdos Keyrune

3 Cavern of Souls
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Hellion Crucible
16 Mountain

Sideboard:
2 Annihilating Fire
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Pillar of Flame
3 Smelt
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Zealous Conscripts 

I’ve got a similar deck on Magic Online.  I’m accused by control players of only “turning Hellrider sideways” to win with this deck.  Well.  Yeah.  That’s what it does.   

And it wins.

 

The object of the deck is swarm without over extending, utilizing Hellrider to add onto the damage dealt.  The sideboard is set to destroy zombies and aggro decks.  With such a simple strategy, you’d think it would be easy to facilitate the way people have complained.  In a perfect world, this deck wants turn 1 Rakdos Cackler, turn 2 Cackler and a Vexing Devil drop or Ash Zealot, turn three Krenko’s Command and turn four, Hellrider with a killing blow on the table. Looks great in black and white, but the fact of the matter is we all know the world of magic IS NOT PERFECT. All day I was plagued with mana drop issues – I wasn’t making my fourth land drop some games until the 6^th or 7^th turn.  This was frustrating at first – but after a few games of dealing with it, I learned the mana humps were actually slowing me down and pacing me.  I found a rhythm and kept to it. 

Round 1:  Vs. Leo Walter IV (UW Cops) I win 2-0.  3 pts. 

I call Leo Leo’s UW build “Cops” for the simple fact that every card in the deck either detains, exiles or otherwise incapacitates every creature you have.  For example, in game one Leo allowed me to drop 3 Vexing Devils.  He played Arrest on EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM! Add to this mix Jace 2.0 and though I won not only that game; but also the entire match 2-0, it took forever and was hard fought.  Leo’s forte is building decks that buck the metagame and once again he proved that going Rogue may not win, but it certainly is fun to play (and to play against!). 

Round 2:  Vs. Steve Wizins (GW Tokens) I win 2-0  6 pts. 

Steve is a hell of a player.  He takes deck archetypes and turns them on their heads, sort of like Cabin in the Woods did to slasher flicks.  Gameday proved to be no different.  Steve’s version of GW tokens was a difficult contest for me.  I eventually won 2-0.  At no time did Nicol Bolas intimidate me. (EDITOR'S NOTE:  I oopsied on Steve's deck when I first wrote this blog, thinking for some reason he was playing Junk Zombies.  So sorry, Steve.  How could I forget such an unforgettable deck.  Note to self - take better notes next time.)

Round 3: Vs. Rich Bourque (Starbucks Coffee Pot) I win 2-1 9 pts. 

I love Rich’s deck builds.  He always puts just the right balance of cards into his Rogue decks. And what gets me is lately he’s been putting them together just before leaving the house that morning for the tournament.  He did it with his Championship deck at last Gameday, and did it again this time.  Thus I shall call his decks “Coffee Pot” builds from herein.  It’s like the caffeine hits his brain and makes brilliant and wonderful card epiphanies.  

Rich stomped me Game 1.  I kept a loose hand and it showed.  He whipped Jace out in no time, making my Goblin tokens ineffective.  In the end, my intent to deliver a paralyzing and game-changing blow with a Thundermaw Hellkite backfired when he stole it from me and delivered his own deathblow.  I fall to my own dragon.  Sizzle.  Good play.   

Once again Rich was in my head.  I shook it off and pulled the Krenko’s Commands from my deck in sideboarding.  Now, most often I sideboard out the Vexing Devils, they just aren’t as effective against certain decks.  But Rich having Jace changed this for me.  It turned out the decision was a wise one, I took out the Commands and replaced htem with more fire power.  After a quick beat down leading to a multi turn pass go, I sandbag a Pillar of Flame to deliver the deathblow. 

Game three was just as ferocious, but I quickly burned him down and took the victory.   

Now that I’ve gotten over letting Rich in my head, we are developing a great rivalry and I look forward to our next match. 

Game 4:  Vs. Justin Cohen (WG Aggro) We draw into Top 4 10 pts. 

Justin and I draw into the top 4. Like Rich, Justin’s appearances at Lilac House are welcome.  He’s a heck of a player and has proven it over and over again.  Our top four becomes myself, Justin, Rich Bourque and Mark Carfagno Sr..  Rich recovered from his loss in round 3 by winning his Round 4 match and Mark Sr. snuck into the top for the 4^th seed, becoming my first opponent in the top 4. 

TOP 4 PLAY OFF: 

Round 1 Vs. Mark Carfagno Sr.  (RDW) I win 2-1  

Mark built his RDW about a month ago.  It’s a fun deck with some fun cards in it and is surprisingly fast and explosive.  He quickly beat me down in game 1.  Game 2 was different and I gained an advantage over him in the end.  Game 3 was epic, with my deck playing by the numbers.  The decision to play a Hellrider rather than a Thundermaw Hellkite in the last two turns of the game was my strategical coup of the match.  Unknown to me, Mark had a Traitorous Blood in hand.  Stealing the Hellkite if I had cast it first would have cost me the match.  Keeping with pace, I played the Hellrider instead, and, as fate would have it, took the Highway to Hell and victory.(EDITOR’S NOTE:  I must digress for one moment.  Mark’s deck would have done much better overall if he had put artifact destruction and graveyard control into his sideboard.  He did neither.  I would like Mark to go back and review my previous blog on sideboarding and keep this in mind the next time he builds one.)

Rich and Justin had a solid match marred by mana issues for Rich that eventually cost him the match.  This would be a theme that carried on in to the next and final round. 

Round 2: Vs. Justin Cohen (WG Aggro) I win 2-0 

Winning a tournament is exciting.  It is.  No matter what the size or the prizes, when you win you feel good. 

Most of the time.  Not today. 

Since playing in Gamedays since 2009, I’ve made a few top 8’s.  This was my first victory.  And it was stained by Justin’s deck puking on him.  For as exciting and well played a match as Rich and I had in the M13 Gameday, this was the polar opposite. 

See, when I write, “I win 2-0” in the heading, it should really be “Justin Loses 2-0.”  I didn’t win in my mind; I didn’t beat him or his deck.  Simply put, his deck was behaving like an overtired three-year old in a candy store – it wasn’t cooperating with anything.  It just didn’t like him this round for whatever reason.  In game one, he mulligans to 5 cards on the play.  I get a nut draw after a mulligan to 6.  Justin fights hard but eventually falls after becoming land flooded.  Game 2 is even worse.  Justin mulligans to 4 cards, once again, on the play.  This is not good.  He quickly recovers, but AGAIN falls into a mana pocket and my deck overwhelms him.  It was a bittersweet victory.  I don’t like losing that way myself and I certainly do not relish victories made in that manner.

 

 

A bittersweet victory, but a victory nonetheless; and for the first time in a long time I went home with the box and finally earned a play-mat. I look forward to the next time Justin and I can play when his deck is in a better mood. 

I noticed some important things during play on Saturday. 

 

The most obvious was the lack of impact Bonfire of the Damned had on my games.  Though it was helpful when it came up, for the most part the card was a non-factor most of the day.  This is notable due to the value of the card.  Might we see a decline in this miracle’s value soon?

RAKDOS CACKLER IS AWESOME.  Got that?  Unleashed, he's a throwback to the Zendikar goodness of Goblin Guide for all intents and purposes.  So what he can't block and don't have haste.  He's never blocking anyway!  This creature won more games for on Saturday than you would think.  Watch this uncommon go up in value. 

Thanks to everyone who made it out and for the great matches that took place!  It’s you guys that make Lilac House the best spot in town to play. 

Until the next time we get a Frankenstorm . . .

 

PEACE!

It’s Not Easy Being Green or: Why are most judges grouchy

Before Mark opened the doors of Lilac House to Magic, the first thing he did was ask me to be his rules judge.  He did this because of my experience and my 2 year tenure as a judge for Tales Twice Told.  I went into this wild adventure as his Rules Advisor, not anticipating the baggage that comes with this “prestigious” title. 

Since March, I’ve had to hand out very few hand slaps.  As long as the players tap 90 degrees and use token cards for tokens and NOT dice (tap a square die 90 degrees, I triple double dog dare you), I’m a pretty easy-going guy and this nonchalance mirrors the “casual” environment that Mark has created. A handful of game losses from not un-sideboarding between matches and tardiness between rounds are the only major “infractions” I’ve had to assess in 6 months.  But for as relaxing a casual environment can be, it can also breed bad habits and disrespect for the “law.” 

Yes, it’s a casual environment.  But we still have rules to follow in the game.  FAM and Saturday Standard tournaments at Lilac House are primarily there for us to have fun and for newbies to learn the game.  Well fine, you’ve got a deck and you “know the rules” so you can play the game and don’t have to “learn” anything new.  Wrong.  Now you turn FAM into practice pit for bigger tournaments – your Gameday box events, PTQ’s, GPT’s and $XK events like Star City Opens and TCG Gold & Platinums.  This forces you to learn proper play and etiquette.  Arguing with the tournament official is pointless, regardless if your point seems logical to you or not.  There is a reason the DCI formats things the way they do and it is the tournament official’s duty to enforce it.  We live in a country where freedom is the way.  Yet we all still stop at red lights or pull over if the lights are flashing behind us.  Stop Signs and Speed Limits become the stack and triggers in Magic.  You can’t have freedom without order.

People need to remember that arguing with an official leads to disrespect.  The official loses their “Air of Authority” from this.  Ignoring an official after they make a ruling is unpardonable.  Colluding behind the Judge’s back to create an outcome in your favor is just as bad.  All of this adds up and makes the Judge wonder why they even bother.

My wife asked me why I haven’t taken the Judge’s Exam.  I told her I’m not ready for it yet, as I still have much to learn.  The rules?  Oh, except for a minor brain fart here and there, I know the rules.  The rules aren’t the problem here. The problem lying herein is my attitude.  I tell myself “Until I can learn patience and develop that iron skin where I can ignore someone’s comments, I can’t take the test.”  Bottom line.  I have to make myself a better person, and for every 3 steps I take forward in what I believe to be positive progress, I do something to wreck it all.  But I can’t be nihilistic regarding my attitude.  I should be LEARNING from my mistakes instead of dwelling on them.  How can I improve my attitude without making a concerted effort to do just that?  Well, I have to judge tournaments, first and foremost.  And that also means I have to take the test.

So this week I’ll be taking the test.  Our reserve Judge, Mark Jr., recently passed the Rules Advisor exam and I now will be doing the same.  Mark and I want you to have the best experience you can at Lilac House and will do all we can to insure that.  Not just for a select few, but for everyone who walks in the door.

We fall so we can get back up.  And run faster.

Until the next time Popeye the Sailorman eats a can of spinach . . .

PEACE!