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Its all about the Dinosaurs Two weeks ago. The day after the last Boston Qualifier on the 13th. I have taken Secret Force to a 5-2 record. Alan made top eight, and I am trying to improve my deck. It just needs a little push to get over the top. Rodney has come over at 1:00 for some play-testing, and The Lovely Mare has gone down to Bennington to see her folks. It is a full Magic day. I play-test my deck over and over and over again. Alan keeps suggesting Wall of Roots over Wall of Blossoms, and I keep telling him to shut up. I don’t need a five toughness to beat Burn or Pox. I can block a Steel Golem just fine AND get a card from the Wall of Blossoms. Against Burn, the additional card advantage is just key. “Its essential” I tell him. “O.k.” he says. I play against Rodney some, and we work on his deck. We are trying to convince him that he should play Counter- Sliver in the next PTQ. The deck plays itself, we tell him. It has the most amazing top decks ever, we tell him. It’s a beatdown weenie deck, we tell him. “O.k.” he says. And puts on together. Alan and I play a few games and I am playing my burn deck against Secret Force and he is smashing me every single game with my favorite deck. “You know what this needs? It needs Wall of Roots.” “No” I tell him, “It doesn’t.” I am thinking of “Mister Rick’s Ten Step Program to the most well rounded deck.” An article that I am writing for Scrye that is inspired by an email that my friend Rick “The Muse” Saunook sent me. The Walls of Blossoms are the only things in the deck that give me any sort of card advantage. Not that that is usually important to me, but I am trying to follow Mister Rick’s advice because it seems very sound. The article struck me as being very sensible when he sent it to me. Rodney gets his counter sliver deck together and we play for a bunch. My deck is pretty bad against Counter Sliver and Rod pounds me a number of times and then he pounds Alan for a number of times and starts to fall in love with the deck. Just like Alan and I planned. I get smashed again by Rodney and I am getting a little discouraged. Alan tells me, “You know what that deck needs? Wall of Roots.” “Fine. I’ll try anything at this point.” I don’t remember who suggested it. It could have been any one of us, but I also put in two Gaea’s Cradles as well. I put in Wall of Roots and then I play against Rodney again. Here’s my first game against Rodney. Me -Forest, Elf – Go. Best Fatty Ever printed. Third Turn. Ever, ever, ever. Wow. Of course, this is where I have an epiphany. Gaea’s Cradles and Wall of Roots allow you to cast a Verdant Force…. Wall of Roots allows you to cast Natural Order on the third turn even if Burn kills all your elves. Wall of Roots allows you to play a Spike Weaver on the third turn AND fog on the opponents turn…. Hmmmm Alan Webster is The Evil Genius of Magic. I spend the next two weeks in a flurry of play-testing various forms of Secret Force. I play the deck alone for hours on end, doing practice draws and goldfish how soon I can get a Verdant on the board. I add Spirit Guides, and Overruns and pull out Creeping Molds and Monkeys and add in Lyrists and Scavenger Folk. I pull the Natural Orders (BLASHPHEMY!!!) and just start casting Verdant and Overrun because this is just faster. I add Elves of Deep Shadow (The Best Elf Ever) and Priestess of Titania. I remove more and more land and then I add more Cradles and then strip a Cradle out, and then I see the reports of the new Tide decks that are running Evil Thawing Evil Glaciers and Volcanic Islands. (Alan and I rejoice at the new SLOWER-more-vulnerable-to-wastelands Tide decks.) And I add Wastelands to the deck. I go back up to 26 land so I can add four cradles (The Bomb) and Wastelands (Also the Bomb.) It feels good to go back to the Wakefield formulae of land, but then I find out that I have on the neighborhood of an available thirty mana on the fifth turn and then I draw more. Tournament in Middlebury. Joshie Trash Talker has just got back into magic and spends the week working on his version of Secret Force and eventually just ends up playing a near identical deck to mine. We both agree that Spirit guides are the complete and utter bomb. I beat a Pox deck in the tournament by getting a first turn Life Force. (First Turn Life Force + 8 main deck artifact Destruction = Game over for Pox.) I hold cards and let him have all the stuff he wants. I hold my Monkeys and Creeps for his disks, and therefore, my Life Force is never, ever going away. Game. The Danger of Cool Plays. An Excellent article by Chad Ellis that I have been thinking about for two weeks. Here’s why. Joshie Trash Talker is playing Ira Wonderboy. Wonderboy is with Pox. Joshie gets a second turn Life force and that should be game. On Joshie’s fourth turn, he taps out to Natural Order for a Verdant. Wonderboy starts trashing Joshie and telling him how dumb he is. Ira Terrors the Verdant before he even untaps. Joshie pitches two Spirit Guides to COUNTER the terror!!! How cool is that? Not very. Ira untaps, fuming. Top decks his second Rack, and gleefully plays it. Joshie now untaps and takes six big points of damage. He draws one card. Now he takes four more and Ira blocks the Verdant with a Steel Golem. Joshie dies to the racks. We agree that Spirit Guides are the bomb, but Cool Plays don’t really win you games. I end up going 2-3 in the tournament with Secret Force. 2-3 Wow. 2-3. Some Bad. I lose to Jeremy Muir’s amazing Stompy deck when he Hailstorms a whole bunches of my guys away. (ouch) Some Some Bad. That’s supposed to be my trick. I take the deck home and re work it. Scavenger folk work well with the Cradle, but are no substitute for Monkeys. Lyrists are needed to beat Counter Sliver. Creeping Mold and Wasteland together are some good. Better than some Good. They are as game winning as Verdant Force. Gaea’s Cradle is some bad when you do not have any creatures out. Spirit guides allow you to make Cool plays, but they do not actually provide long term mana like Llanowar’s or land. “Combo super elf mana” Secret Force is not as good as utility Secret Force. I make some other changes based on the fact that burn has been steadily dwindling in numbers at the PTQ’s for some odd reason and I do not expect to face it much. I change my sideboard to better reflect the growing number of Tide players. I sign onto IRC and get some last minute advice from Soalo, Bluemage, Billdacat and a host of others. A great bunch of Guys and Gals. EDT (Eric Taylor) literally BEGS me to make the deck sixty cards. He goes on for like fifteen minutes on how I am so close, that if I just go to sixty cards – I will qualify. I laugh at him and say sure, but for some reason his words strike a cord in me. I REALLY want to get to NY. No, More than that I NEED to go to NY. It is that time of year for me to Qualify, and I won’t have to fly. I am going to be going to NY even if it is just to watch, and I HATE having to tell people “No, I’m not playing. I’m just watching today.” God I hate that. I feel like such a dork. I hate feeling like a dork. Hammer has told me this before, and I think Guevin has as well. One of them, I forget which one, once told me “You know how you say – “I never top deck the Drain?” and you say “My next card was the one I needed to win?” If you would go to sixty cards, the card you needed so often would be that next card. “ I lie awake late one night thinking about this…. (Many people have told me 62 is just plain bad. None have persuaded me as much as EDT, Hammer, and Guevin.) I really want to go to NY, but won’t I be dissing the Wakefield School of Magic? Well, a little, but you’re not running 26 land, and you’re not playing a fatty deck based on the fact that you need more land. You’re running Wall of Roots and Elves and Gaea’s Cradles. It throws the whole curve off, and the 62 cards are so you can have 26 lands. I work on the mana ratio some more the next day, and as I fine tune and fine tune the land, I find out that twenty lands is just the right amount. Four Cradles and four wastelands are just too many. It has to be three and three in order to get the best chance to get enough green mana to start, but not enough to get flooded. As amazing as Wastelands and Gaea’s Cradle are – Four do not fit. No matter how many forests I add or take out. This is the deck I end up with after two weeks of agonizing over every land and card slot. 4 Llanowar 3 Wastelands Sideboard 4 Choke As you can tell, I’ve made the deck MUCH weaker Vs Jank and burn. Removing the Acridians, two Spike Weavers, and the hailstorms from my deck. Burn is going to give me fits if they kill all my elves and don’t let me Natural Order. A few words on the deck. Gaea’s Cradle lets you cast Tsunami and Choke on the same third turn with a
medium draw. Play the deck as is. This IS the best version. Believe it or not. Some words on playing the deck. Playing this deck is not as easy as it looks. I have beaten a lot of people while I was holding two natural orders. The deck DOES NOT WIN BY CASTING A NATURAL ORDER. Believe it or not, the deck does not just hope to cast natural order and then win. That’s not how it works. Here’s me in an imaginary situation against another player. I have a Spike Feeder, a Lyrist, and Two elves on the board. I also have a Gaea’s Cradle. He has a Crystalline Sliver on the board. He has the ability to counter based on the land in play, and the number of cards in hand. “I’ll attack with the Llanowar Elves and the Spike Feeder.” Now. Does he block my Elf, and have his Crystalline die because I’m going to move Spike Feeder tokens over to it? Does he block my Spike Feeder and let his Crystalline die? If he blocks my Spike Feeder will I make both my elves 2/2, he’ll take four and keep attacking? Will I make one of them 3/3 and keep attacking with that? He decides to take four. It’s just four right? Right. Next turn I do the same thing. “Take four more.” I am holding a Natural Order and an Overrun. Not that my opponent knows this, but I am. “Done.” I tell him. “Aren’t you going to Natural Order or cast Overrun or something?” he is wondering. Nope. Next turn. I am going to attack for four again. And then I might cast a Monkey since you have no artifacts for me to destroy in your whole deck except for perhaps one Mox Diamond and who cares about that? “Attack for four.” You attack for four for as long as you can. You use Spike Tokens to make your guys as much of a threat as possible. You decide if damage is more important, or killing a creature is more important. When they can take it no longer, and tap some mana to cast a creature, you do whatever you want. Cast a Spike Weaver and see if it gets countered. Natural Order and see if it gets countered. Save your best threat for last. This is advice for playing anyone with counters. If they do not have counters – go get a Verdant Force and win. If they are playing Living death – Natural Order for a Verdant, and then if you can, Natural Order the new Verdant to go and get another. Now you have one Verdant in the grave, and one on the Board – Go Ahead – Cast Living Death. Sometimes, you can cast two overruns on the same turn. It’s NOT about just going for it and getting a big fatty out. It’s about playing the deck best Vs whatever the deck is on the other side of the table. Some decks die to so many creatures. Some deck die to the super outpost on speed that’s also a 7/7 guy. Some decks die to the 7 main deck LD spells. Others can’t handle spikes and you would be amazed at how many this is. A LOT of decks die to spikes. A ton in fact. Overrun is pretty damn good against ANYONE who does not have counter magic. Onward Alan stays overnight and I find out that Gaea’s Cradle + Weenies + Choke + Tsunami + Wastelands is some damn good against Tide. We pick up Kevin on the other side of the mountain and arrive without incident. Time is running out. I have two qualifiers left to make it to NY, and I’m playing mono green. Perhaps it’s not all about the dinosaurs. Perhaps it’s all about faith. Faith in yourself. Faith in your deck. And a lot of faith in Lady Luck. ? Alan is with his utility burn deck. Kevin is with Fish. I am with Dinosaurs. Thank God for Your Move Games Tournaments. We start at 10:15 with 123 people. Talk about well organized! First Round – Scott Howland. His name sounds familiar, and he even looks familiar. He tells me we have emailed a couple of times. Ah. Scott is very cool to play, but a little nervous. Scott is with Burn. Damn, and here I have just made my deck weaker Vs burn! I Natural Order for a Verdant eventually, and as you can imagine, he is not surprised. He gets rid of it with a huge amount of burn including a Fireblast. I Natural Order a token and go get another. He kills this too. But now he is short on land, and I am not. I finally draw another Verdant after our creatures stare at each other for a bit. He has to Fireblast this as well, and now has no land on the board. Some of my other creatures beat him down. Since I assume that he reads my reports, I pretend to side in Hailstorms when in fact I am siding in Chokes, and then I go through my deck and side out the Chokes. I’m so clever. :-) Second game, I am holding a third turn Verdant Force. And a Gaea’s Cradel. I play out three 1/1 guys, and a spike feeder on the second turn. Woo Hoo – beatings! Scott untaps – “Quake for two?” I reel as if punched! Oh MAN is that bad for me. Really really bad! I slowly recover, despite the fact that he has a fireslinger on the board, and finally win, I don’t remember how as my notes are barren. Round one – 1-0 Matches 2-0 games Alan and I and Kevin go get coffee. We have all won. I am some tired. The coffee kicks in, and I am wired for sound. My heart is racing and my ears are pounding as I sit down for my next match. Great – I have made my deck weaker vs burn, and I am playing against Craig (Boetchler? Boechley)? who is the same burn player I mentioned last week. Last week was the first time I have ever beaten Craig, and now I am weaker vs burn. Oh well. Craig mulligans first game, which is some good for me. I get out the amazing wall of roots which is so big against burn. I don’t see any Scrolls, so I start to Creep his land and hope that his mulligan has left him with a light land draw. I finally Natural Order for a Verdant and he kills it, losing even more land. Elves and a Spike Feeder take advantage of his low land status and beat him down. Game two is a Verdant on the draw, plus two walls of roots, and a Gaea’s Cradle. I top deck a monkey for the Scroll he gets this game. And then I cast a Verdant which he has to get rid of fast. We trade creatures for a bit, and then I get the advantage. I have a dinosaur token, a spike weaver, a feeder and a elf. “Overrun?” Despite the fact that he is still alive, Craig concedes aware that he will be at one or two life, and I still have a horde of guys out. I happen to be holding another overrun too. Looks like a promising start for all of us. Alan has won and so has Kevin. Kevin is pretty happy because Tide is all over the place and he is with Fish. The surprising thing is that mono green is all over the place as well. But none of it is Secret Force. It is 10 land Green and Fire Elves and Elf Tech. Oh well. Third round against Joe Ohrt. This round, Kevin, Alan and I are all at table number one. All of us with the impressive record of Two and 0, some strong. Joe is the guy that I beat in the last round at Hammer’s Comics when I was there with Secret Force. He was with Burn at that time, and I am hoping that he is with Burn again. He is not. He is with Forbidian/Draw Goish kind of stuff. Wastelands, Phids, Mishra’s. An overral solid deck, and one that I think is excellent for the metagame. I am with Secret Force and as soon as I see an Island, I am sure that I am going to wreck him. Joe is in very good spirits and we have a great match. Of course, first we
get deck checked. The entire time I am getting deck checked I am
thinking “Stupid Eric Taylor! I’m gonna have one card that’s too beat up to
play, or something!! And I’m going to have one card that cannot be played,
so I’ll have a 59 card deck and be disqualified!! Stupid Eric Taylor!” But
nothing bad happens. I do have to get new sleeves and they are OUT of opaque
sleeves at the dealer that is there. Joe also has to get Opaque sleeves and
we both spend some time re sleeving our decks. Thankfully, Chad Ellis has a
spare box of sleeves and he gives me his. Joe and I start our first game and I am some confident. Hey, I beat the
amazing Brian Kibler playing Control last week, and I have dedicated even
more of my sideboard to beating blue. In the first game, Joe gets out a
bunch of islands and a quicksand. I get out three elves and a Spike Feeder.
Joe shows what a good player he is by not even attempting to quicksand
anything, because he knows as well as I do, that I will just save my guy
using the spike feeder. If he choses to kill the spike feeder, I will just
move the tokens to something else.
Game two.
Joe Force of Wills my second turn Choke. I drop down a bunch of guys and Joe
casts disks, counters the creeping mold and I lose. Some bad.
Game three is tech central. I get two Chokes on the board and then I draw
land for six turns. How many times have I lost when choke has resolved?
Once.
I lose today.
The reason for this is that Joe has the good sense to actually have
sideboard cards for Green. Weird, but it works and I lose. Don’t even ask
for any more details. The last thing I want to see is Blue mages learning
how to beat green. Therefore, even if you write to me and pretend to be a
green mage, I will not let the cat out of the bag as to how he beat me.
Sorry. Green tech is free – Blue tech is locked up tight.
Damn my first loss. Oddly, and coincidentally, Alan and Kevin have also
lost. We are all 2-1.
Round Four versus Andrew Stokinger. Andrew and I played some practice games
last week. I had my Endless Wurm deck and he played the deck he is playing
today. He beat me down. But then, I am with Choke now, and he is not.
Andrew is playing Blue Control with Morphling and Suq Ata Firewalkers. Fire
Walkers are some bad for me, but not as bad as they used to be. There was a
time with this deck when Rodney wrecked me with Firewalkers. But that was an
earlier version. The version with Scavenger folk and more weenies.
In game one Andrew lets me Natural Order for a Verdant, and then steals it
with Control Magic. I Creep the Control, he counters, and then I creep it
again. I get back a tapped Verdant, but its too late because he has a
Morphling beating me down.
I side in 4 Chokes and 3 Tsunami’s. I get out some weenies and a Gaea’s
Cradle. Then I try to force through a Choke, and he counters, so I play
another one on the same turn. Gaea’s Cradle is amazing. Pure and simple –
Massive Mana Advantage is some good. How many games have I lost when Choke
resolves?
Just one. And not this one.
Game three, I can tell Andrew is sweating the Choke. He does his best to keep
it off the board, but you can only counter so much.
Choke resolves.
Need I go into the speel again?
That’s a little better. On the road back. I am now 3-1.
Fifth round. I sit down to play and they announce that there has been a
mistake. They have to repair the round.
Fifth round again. Keith Wargut.
Keith is not happy. Keith is 0-5 in re pairs of rounds. He does not like re
pairs and he is not too happy to see me. I played Keith at the first PTQ
this season when he was with burn, and I was with Epitome. He couldn’t
handle the Hidden Horrors and the War Machines. I am hoping today he is with
Burn again and cannot handle the Verdant Forces.
Keith is with Jank.
Keith gets out a horde of guys, and most importantly he gets out a Shadow
guy that is eating my life total away, two points at a time. I look through
my graveyard and see both Spike Weavers already there. I finally draw a
Natural Order and go get a fattie. Sensing the end is near, Keith attacks
with everything. He has 2 Mishra’s (but only attacks with one) and a shadow
guy. He also has two white knights, a super paladin, a savannah lion and a
Glorious Anthem. Wow are those guys big. I have a 3/3 llanowar elf, a spike
feeder, a wall of roots, The best fattie ever printed, a tyranosaurus rex,
and maybe something else. I don’t remember.
I do remember this -
I am at three life. I am holding an Overrun. Keith is at 17.
I need to survive this attack, and do 17 points of damage to Keith next
turn.
The Shadow guy is going to do 3 damage to me because of the glorious anthem.
I agonize over this, and I am not sure I can do it.
I finally figure out a way, and declare all my blockers. Everything is going
to die except the Verdant. Unless I move a token over from the spike feeder
to my 3/3 llanowar and make him into a 4/4. That will save him. Then I will
have a 1/1 spike feeder that I will sac for two life and save myself.
I do this, and lose everything on my side of the board but the 4/4 elf, and
the Verdant. Keith still has a Shadow Guy, two white knights, and two mishra’s.
I am dead next turn from, at the very least, The Shadow guy.
I am sure that Keith is going to bolt me. He does not and says go.
I untap, draw, wasteland the mishra that he has held back, and then cast
Overrun. For exactly Seventeen.
Keith reels in his seat “That’s a new addition!”
Yup.
Very close.
I look though my sideboard and pretend to side in Hail Storms. I don’t say
anything, as I know that Keith reads my reports and I don’t have to say
anything. I can tell he is expecting them. I keep not playing stuff and Keith keeps attacking with only two guys even
though he has four out.
“Sure you don’t want to animate that Mishra and come in with him too?” I ask
after a while…
We both know what he is thinking I am holding, and he politely declines,
shaking his head knowingly.
It still doesn’t save me.
Game three is interesting in the extreeme. Matt Villamaino comes over. He’s
a really nice level two judge that likes to come over and watch my matches.
He’s the thin guy with the black hair that is not Tony, the head judge.
Matt comes over and we start talking and I draw my hand and see land and
play a forest and then, just like a cartoon, my head snaps back to my hand
in surprise.
2 Verdants, 3 Elf, A Lyrist, and my lone forest I just played.
Ohhhhhh Crap…..
I’m thinking that’s a hand I shoud have mulliganed. But I was busy talking
and joking around and was not paying attention. I am so bad at this game.
(sigh)
I tap my one forest and play an elf.
Keith plays a land and a Lion and says go.
I TOP DECK GAEA’S CRADLE!!!!
There are some days that God loves you.
I play out almost my whole hand on the second turn. That’s right. I go Tap
forest for Elf, Tap Cradle for Lyrist and the other elf, think about the
fact that next turn I have two Verdant Forces in play and the mana to cast
them. Mmm Mana…..
Keith plays a white knight.
I play a Verdant Force. Keith plows it. And then plays another knight.
I play another Verdant Force.
Keith stares at it, and plays a Super knight. Cool – now if he Wraths we
both lose our whole hand.
I top deck an Overrun (Thank You Eric Taylor!) and win on the fifth turn.
Keith looks at his next two draws. Plow. And Wrath.
Super Lucky Guy – that’s me.
Keith ask that I mention that he is now 0-6 in re pairs.
No problem.
Round six. I am 4-1.
Round six is Tim. Tim is with that most hated of decks, Countersliver. I
mean WTF?
I hate that deck and have been lucky in avoiding it all day long. Chad Ellis
comes over and tells me that my record is all due to the sleeves and that
they are good luck sleeves. I tell him that he is probably right, and thank
him again for having them.
Joel Frank is to my right. He is with ten land green and we are both very
excited to be so far up on the tables with Green. Joel tells me he is with
ten land green because he was sick of losing to Tide. Interesting.
The rest of my table is drawing into the top eight because they are 5-0.
That means I have a lot of room to spread out dinosaur tokens, spike token
beads, and dice. Jason Stowe comes over to watch my match. Jason faced Tide
and Jar all day long and they all went off on the third turn or sooner all
day long against him.
Jason played his version of Secert Force last weekend and I know he is
looking to see some dinosaur beatings this round.
I think Tim mulligans this game. I get the two forest, one wasteland,
weenies, and a Natural Order draw.
I Wasteland one of Tim’s few lands and then Natural Order for a Verdant
Force and he does not have a Force of Will. He has all of one Crystalline
sliver on the board.
I top deck the Overrun, and Overrun for 30. I don’t remember how I overran
for so much – but that’s what my notes say, and that’s what I remember. Tim
is a little shocked and shuffles up for the next game. I side in 3 Tsunamis.
Jason Stowe asks me how come he doesn’t get draws like that?
Tim has some bad luck and mulligans down to five cards. Five is not a lot.
I wrote down exactly what happened in this game. It wasn’t hard.
My opening hand – Elf, Elf, Lyrist, Forest, Elf, Tsunami, Overrun. I am
thinking of mulliganing, but I do not let Tim know this. Then Tim keeps
mulliganing and I decide to keep it. Its not like he is running burn or
anything. His elim is wrath and plow, and he’s just mulliganed to five.
I keep my hand of massive speed, little land and an Overrun.
Tim plays a Savannah.
My first draw – Cradle. SUPER Lucky Guy!!
I’m off and running like a runaway train. I play a forest and an elf.
Tim plays a gemstone mine (uh uh- that’s not a very good land.) and a
Crystalline Sliver.
I play all my guys out.
Tim draws, and sits.
I top deck Verdant and play it.
I top deck another Overrun. Attack with the Verdant
I top deck another Cradle. I play Overrun and Tim Force of Wills it. I play
the other Gaea’s Cradle, tap it for mana before it is buried, and play
another Overrun and win.
The guys sitting around watching are very impressed and many laugh a lot.
Not too tough to beat a mana screwed opponent, but many are surprised by how
fast I could take advantage of the situation. Jason Stowe and I laugh long
and hard about my draws. Oh my god was that fun.
Joel also wins and asks me if I can draw in. In fact, right about now,
everyone starts asking if I can draw in. I tell everyone that asks that I
cannot. That my tie breakers are horrible and that I will not be able to
draw in. I think that all my opponents have dropped and my one loss was to
Joe Ohrt and he took two losses after he beat me down with four ophidians on
the board, so he dropped.
Andy Jones wins this round as well. he is 5-1 as well. Andy plays in
Middlebury and is pretty damn good with Jank. He’s played the Brothers Grimm
before too, so he has a special place in my heart as a good friend not
afraid to play and win with my janky decks.
They post the pairings and it turns out I am wrong. My tie breakers are
excellent, and I am the number one cede of the people who are at 5-1. I am
either third or fourth place in the standings right now.
AWESOME!! I can draw in! How cool is that! If my opponent can draw, then I
am in the top eight.
Tom (???? Don’t remember his last name) and I start talking about drawing
in. Tom is one spot below me in the standings and we discuss at length
whether he should try and draw in.
A very peaceful calm starts to pervade my being. For those of you who are
religious – I can feel the hand of God on my shoulder. For those of you who
are not religious – I can feel the hand of Destiny on my shoulder.
Yea, though I walk through the qualifier of death, I will fear no deck. For I
am playing with the best fattie ever printed. He is my rod and my staff and
he maketh my opponents lie down before me and get eaten by dinosaurs.
Life is good.
I am calmer now than I have been all day. I need to draw or win my last
round. And I can feel that I am going to do so. I have complete faith. As I
walk around the room, people pat me on the back and a kid comes up and asks
if I can sign his deck of fatties. He has a deck made up of all the Arena
cards that are oversized. He has Juzams and Shivans and even Balduvian
Hordes. He has enough oversized lands to make a complete deck and has been
playing it between rounds.
He asks me to sign the Shivans, Juzams, and Balduvian Horde.
(Huge Grin)
Sure!
Round Seven. Matt Hale. The kid whose deck I just signed.
Matt is really not into this, and tells everyone that will listen that he is
going to lose. This is a lot of people, as there are a ton of people
watching my match. I thought I heard Matt say that he was with Tide, but I
was wrong. He is with Burn.
We get into a creature stalemate with a bunch of spikes on the board, and
then I get two Overruns in a row and win. I never see a Verdant, a Cradle,
or a Natural Order. I hate when that happens versus burn.
Game two I get the two Natural Order draw. I Natural Order on the third turn
and Matt has to Fireblast and Goblin Gernade it. Wow – that’s some card
advantage! He loses two land, two spells out of hand, and a goblin off the
board. Five cards.
I Natural Order again the next turn and look through my deck and I can’t
find another Verdant. What the Hell? Have I screwed up and with the judges
watching my match, I’ve somehow got an illegal deck??? I start to sweat,
but no matter how hard I search, I can’t find the other verdant. I pick up
my hand. Oh – there they are! I have both of my other Verdants already in
my hand!! I go get a Spike Weaver and Joe Ohrt who is watching the match
gives me a puzzled look. I can’t really explain at the time that I am
holding them both, or my opponent will know my hand. I finally get enough
walls of roots and elves to just start casting the two verdants one right
after the other.
The crowd laughs and I come in for the win. Helen is called to come over and
take a picture of me beating down sligh with a bunch of dinosaur tokens on
my side of the board. I can’t wait until the pictures go up. Sadly, its
Thursday, and I am still waiting…
I am pretty damn happy as you can imagine. I’m 6-1 with Secret Force in a
PTQ, and everything is gonna be all right. People keep congratulating me and
those that don’t know ask me if I won last round. More people come up and
ask me to sign cards. I have an awful pen that doesn’t show up well on cards
so I go looking for a marker. Chris Deroche has one and says he’ll give it
to me if he can be in the report. I tell him that’s fine, and I ask him his
name so I can write it down. He tells me “Chris Deroche Twelth at PT LA.”
Hmm, that’s an odd name, but o.k. Let no one say I don’t pay my debts.
So, some more people come over to ask me to sign cards, and I end up
borrowing the pen for almost the entire night. Overrun’s and Brother’s Grimm
and Verdant Forces keep being pushed in front of my face. I remember a long
time ago, watching Hammer sign cards, and thinking. “That must be so cool.”
And I was right, it is really cool.
Alan and I and Kevin go and get some Pizza, coffee and bottled water. I am
pretty elated of course, but want to hear how they did. Its odd. Kevin has
come with Fish today so he could beat tide but was worried about Jank and
Burn. Well, the odd thing is that Kevin beat burn and beat jank, and lost to
tide. That’s not right…
Alan on the other hand loses his last round and took out his frustrations on
his opponent. Too bad his opponent is Craig B, the guy who usually beats me.
Alan says he feels kind of bad for saying a bunch of mean stuff to Craig.
Alan’s burn deck has a lot more land than most sligh decks, and runs
fireslingers main. Alan loves fireslingers and they are “some good” on the
mirror match. But of course, he gets land screwed running 23 land, and Craig
is running 18 land and plays his out one after another and gets an active
scroll going. This frustrates Alan no end as this is his curse. Play a deck
that runs a lot less land than him, and get land screwed.
So, there is some controversy that keeps us from starting the top eight, but
eventually we get things under way. Hmm Number two seed. That seems pretty
good to me. I anxiously await the number seven seed and it turns out to
be…..
Chris “The House” Senhouse.
Hmm, that doesn’t seem that good for me. Counter Sliver always has the best
draws against me. Oh well, I was able to beat one guy today thanks to the
New Seceret Force and Tim’s bad draws, maybe I can do it again. Chris and I
have been talking all day actually, and we’ve started to develop a
friendship since we see each other at the PTQ’s this entire season.
They steal our decks for deck checking so Chris and I start to shoot the
breexe. Tim (My round six opponent) is sitting to Chris’s right and I tell
Senhouse that I have sped my deck up a little bit.
“Tim, what turn did I kill you on?”
Tim thinks for a minute. “Turn three one game.. no. I think both were turn
four kills. Turn four I think in both games.”
Chris looks a little rattled by this.
(grin)
Wait until he sees my Super IRC Tech Sliver Queen come out of the Board!!!
I am feeling pretty good. Very relaxed, and not nervous a bit. There is a
crowd of about twenty people around us waiting to see the Slivers VS
Dinosaur Beats. You know – If dinosaurs had been allowed in the Inquest War
of the races – I’m betting they would have won. No, In fact – I’m sure of
it.
“Chris, I’m due against you. The last time we played I had the worst draws
of the tournament and you mentioned that those were the best draws you had
seen all day. I’m hoping that today will reverse that and soon you will be
saying – That’s the worst my deck has drawn all day.” Chris smiles.
They bring our decks back and Matt Villamaino keeps track of life totals for
us, and is the judge for our match. He is pretty adamant that he is Judge
for this match, as I think he really likes to watch my deck. Not to be too
full of myself, but I think my deck is a little more fun to watch than Jar
or Tide..
Oh yeah. I guess I should mention the top eight. No idea of seedings, and
well, who cares.
1 Ten Land Green / Stompy Tide was all over the place, but Boston was ready with Arcane Labs,
Wastelands, Choke’s and Blasts all over the place as well.
NO TIDE FOR YOU! NO TIDE!! (The Tide Nazi)
It is Jar vs 10 Land Green (GO JOEL FRANK!!!) All around Senhouse and I are people waiting for the match to begin. Its
amazing. People have pulled up chairs from all over the room, and a bunch of
people are standing to watch as well. Joe Ohrt is sitting behind me with his
feet up on another chair cheering for me “Go Wakefield!” I think we have
such a big crowd because Chris has so many friends here, and because
Dinosaurs are fun to watch.
Chris says that if burn wins, it’s a bye for us into the finals because we
have to play the winner of that match.
“Sweeeet” I tell him.
Chris and I start.
Chris gets the lots of counters, not a lot of creatures draw. I get the lot
of creatures, not gonna do anything else draw. I get an elf, then I get a
feeder, and then I get a monkey. I think Chris has one Crystalline Sliver on
the board, and I am assuming that he is waiting to counter the Overrun or
the Natural Order. He seems to be holding a lot of cards, and not doing
much. I am hoping they are counterspells, but they might be disenchants and
aura’s too. Too bad they are useless against me.
To paraphrase Alan Webster – “If your opponent draws two disenchants
against you Wakefield, its like he mulliganed down to five.”
According to Matt’s notes, I never took a point of damage in this game.
Chris's life total looks like this.
20 Chris remarks that that is the worst draw he’s had all day long.
I was pretty happy with mine.
Let me reiterate one more time for anyone who is crazy enough to try and
play this deck at the last week of the qualifying season – If they are
holding counters, do nothing but attack. Never sacrifice your own guys that
are beating your opponent down in order to make a “Cool Play.” If you have a
billion mana thanks to a cradle, then that’s o.k. to Natural Order AND
Overrun, as long as you are sure that one or even two game winning spells
will go through.
As I am sideboarding – some randrom scrub asks me if he can be in my tourney
report. “Sure” I tell him. ‘Whats your name?”
“Just put ‘some random guy’ or ‘some dude’ or ‘some randrom scrub’ and that’ll
be enough.”
“Hey! I know you! You were in another tournament report under that name
too!”
“Yup. I’m that guy.”
So, there ya go.
Second match against Chris is a Nail Biter. I side in my Sliver Queen, and I
also side in three Tsunami’s. Choke I leave out because I like it when Chris
unintentionally mulligans to five and doesn’t even know it.
I look at my opening hand. Looks great.
Chris takes his turn and plays a land. I take my turn and…..
Draw my Sliver Queen.
Of course I draw my Sliver Queen. I’m playing Counter Sliver. Could there be
anything else I could do but draw my Sliver Queen as my first draw? No, Of
course not. I slump in my chair a bit and groan. (Bad mental Magic, add a
counter to my dice. Never let the opponent know what you drew is ass.)
I start off with the amazing amount of weenies draw, just like I always do,
and Chris starts off holding a bunch of Slivers. I attack with a monkey for
a few turns waiting for him to block and lose a sliver. I get a broken Spike
Feeder on the board and keep attacking with the Monkey for two, and then I
make the Monkey into a Fattie when he blocks, and now I have a 4/4 monkey
coming in.
Here’s Matt’s Notes on the Carnage. (Thanks for taking notes Matt! Props)
Chris – From here, things start to change. Chris starts to empty his hand of
slivers, and soon has a veritable army of slivers on the board including a
muscle, a winged, a chrystaline and a hibernation. I go for it and Natural
order for a Verdant and this goes through. I start to attack with the
Verdant and Chris has to block with a winged and then pay two life to return
it to his hand. My horde of weenies is useless because all his guys are
bigger than mine and he even has more of them. But that will change soon. I
have out the Outpost on speed, and I will soon have enough guys to overwhelm
him. But until that time I have to wait. Chris gets out so many Slivers that
he starts to turn the tide, and even starts attacking me with his guys!! He
attacks with one guy, leaving a whole army behind to block as I build up
tokens. The turn before I am about to rush over, he draws (or plays) a
Victual Sliver.
Yummy. Victual’s are very tasty for Senhouse and now I need about 20 more
damage in order to kill him.
I look at the Sliver Queen in my hand. “Can’t you do something about this?”
She smiles evilly, drools acid from her jaws and whispers to me that soon
“You will fall to my children.” I should have known this wasn’t going to
work….
I get overwhelmed by flying slivers.
Game three is rather anti climactic.
I get a nice draw with a few weenies, but mostly, I get a Forest, Wasteland,
A Cradle, a Creeping Mold, and two Elves. I play my forest and an Elf. Chris
plays a City of Brass.
“Hmm, City of Brass. That’s not a good land. Either Chris’s amazingly bad
top eight luck is showing itself once again and I am going to have an easy
win, or else he wants to Tithe when I play another land.” I tell Chris that
I cannot remember if Countersliver runs Tithe. He says nothing, and does his
best to remain passive and non commital. I play a wasteland and then another
elf. I attack with the first elf.
Chris plays a Gemstone mine.
There’s my answer. I play my cradle, wasteland his city, creeping mold his
gemstone. He plows my elf.
I draw another wasteland and Chris slumps in his seat just enough so you
know that he knows that once again – it has happened to him again. He has
made top eight, and the end is near. I draw another creeping mold, a few
more weenies, and even a Tsunami.
While My Life total looks like this –
20 Chris’s looks like this
20 It still took me a long time to kill him.
Chris and I shake hands and I wait for the next round to start. Joel Frank
(10 Land/Stompy) has just lost to Jar, and sits in a state of unbelief and
quiet reflection at the table they played at. Jason Lanziolta (I have no
idea how to even pronounce Jason’s last name, much less spell it.)
Jason is with Sligh. Jason is Bye Guy. Jason is the guy who wants to be Alan
Webster. He’s been hanging around with Alan at all these things, and uped
the land count on his deck and added some other cards that Alan suggested.
He has also been calling my deck “Secret Crap” all day long and after each
round asks me “How’s Secret Crap doing?” and all day long I have wanted to
smash him with frothing rabid dinosaurs.
Now’s my chance.
Unfortunately, Jason and my match looks NOTHING like anyone would have
imagined.
In the first game, Jason is Super Land Boy and does nothing but play land
and a few ineffective weenies. He gets a Goblin Mutant on the board so I
make an Uktabi Monkey into a 3/3 via a spike feeder token and we stare
across the table at each other, both of us having the worst draws of the
day. It was less than thrilling, let me tell you. I never get a Natural
Order or a Verdant, and I screw up when I play the Overrun.
The only thing that happened of note, was when I finally got enough
creatures to think that an Overrun would finish him off, and I DON’T DO THE
MATH RIGHT!!!
(sigh)
Chad Ellis’s article is ringing in my ears and I make the play, quickly add
up the damage, and realize that if Jason is holding a shock, incinerate,
fireblast, or even a FANATIC that I will be dead next turn. I cast the
Overrun, he has no response, and I come trucking in, thinking I have won.
Jason takes a long time to decide how to block, and I show everyone the
error of my thinking by saying out loud “You cannot just block with the two
Lackey’s you have out. That will keep you at zero – you have to block with
the Flunkies as well.”
I do this because Jason is taking forever to decide how to block, and the
judges even tell him he has to decide what he is doing. Not that he was
being a dick about it. Jason was just trying to put on a show and be funny
the whole match and succeeded a number of times.
Now, my error comes from this. He does have to block with the Flunkies or
die. That much is true. What I do not realize until Chad Ellis tells me
later is that he does not have to block with both lackeys and a flunkie, he
can just block with one lackey and a flunkie and live.
So, I’ve screwed up. Doing the math, I figured that I would kill him, and
then I realized that I would not kill him, but I would wipe out his whole
gang except for a Mutant he could not block with. Even that is wrong. After
the carnage, Jason will have a Goblin Mutant, and a Lackey on the booard
still allive. On my side of the table, I will have a wall of roots with
4 –0/-1 counters on it, and I am at 6 life. That means that if he attacks
with his Lackey and Mutant, I block with the wall, take 4 trample, and am
left at 1 life. And he gets a draw phase to top deck a lackey or a bolt, or
just about anything.
Here’s Jason’s life total.
20 So that’s where the game stands. I see some of the spectators talking, and I
can see from their faces that I have screwed up, and I am think “I know! I
know! It’s the Danger of Cool Plays all over again!! Chad was right! Instead
of Overruning your opponent, why don’t you just play smart and get on the
Pro tour!!!???” Hey, I got up at 4:00 a.m. this morning and drove four hours
to get here and I’ve been playing Magic for 12 straight hours! I’m wired on
coffee, I’ve eaten donuts and Pizza all day and I’m a hundred miles from the
nearest pro player!! Give me a break! :-)”
I add a mistake counter to my dice and prepare to collect my cards.
But wait – I forgot. Jason is super land guy and top decks YET ANOTHER land
and I win the game.
(whew) No matter how badly I screw up.
Let me just take a minute to address something. I made probably 5-10
mistakes through out the top eight, and I’ll tell you, I didn’t make that
many mistakes in all my previous matches throughout the day. So, when you
see someone make a dumb play in the top eight and you think “How did this
guy get here?” you need to understand a few things.
Most people, me included, are not used to having a crowd watch them play.
Many, like myself have been up for about 18 hours already. The pressure of
trying to make the number one slot, with judges watching every move, is more
stress.
Yes, this is what top level magic is all about, and it is the guy who screws
up less with the best deck that qualifies. But if you see a guy screw up and
think “How did he get here?” Well, the answer is he probably played better
in the swiss.
Onward
Jason and I start our Second game, and once again, Jason is land boy. If he
was playing against a Land Destruction deck, he would have won for sure. But
he is not. I get out a lyrist and a spike feeder and then we stare at each
other for a little while. Jason starts to Raze and Wasteland some of my land
and then Jason actually says this
“And now for the Dumbest play of the tournament – I Goblin Gernade your Elf”
I think Jason is trying to keep me from getting to four mana and getting a
Natural Ordered Verdant Out.
Well, he needn’t have worried. I haven’t seen a natural order yet, what
makes him think I’m ever going to see one? I eventually get enough walls,
forests and elves out that I just Cast the verdant I’m holding. He
Fireblasts and Incinerates it, os something, and then I cast another.
Finally. Like 30 turns into the game.
Nothing like the game Jason, I, and the crowd were expecting. Completely
boring and anti climactic.
Oh well, at least I made the top two.
My last opponent is Tom. I forgot to write down his last name, and I was
SURE the dojo would have deck lists up for the top eight in Boston by now,
but no such luck. So, I can’t pull his last name off of that. Tom and I met
staring at the standings sheet and wondering if we could draw in. I was
third or fourth and he was one place below me, and I told him I thought we
should both try to draw in if our opponents would let us. Fortunately, we
got opponents that coud not draw in, and we won. So now, we meet again. This
time for a slot on the pro tour.
I feel the hand of DestiGod on my shoulder and I am without fear. It never
even occurs to me that I might lose and that I will be driving home this
late at night with nohting to show for it but two boxes of asian saga.
Actually, it does occure to me for just the breifest flash,a nd then I
dismiss the thought as if it is preposterous.
Not that I’m that confident of my play or my deck. (although, I do love my
deck, and I do feel I’m an o.k. player) but its more of the feeling that I
have. I am just certain that I have made it back on the tour. One of the
reasons is that I have what is known as the “Reverse Senhouse Curse” also
known as “The Wakefield Blessing” Its very simple. Every time I make top
eight. I qualify for the pro tour.
Tom does not look so sure, and you can tell he is intent on giving me a good
match, but he is not quite so relaxed as I am. Despite this, this is one of
my funnest matches all day. Tom is studious, but not anal or bitchy. We have
a great fun match with a whole bunch of people watching.
The funny thing is, Tom and I are both intent on having a nice pleasant game
filled with respect. We shake hands when we sit down. We roll the dice and I
think I win. We shake hands again. Then we both shuffle for a while, cut
each others deck, and then we take deep breathes, shake hands again and both
say “Good Luck!” and then we start.
Here’s my life total.
20 And that’s it.
Tom’s life total is a little different
I start off with a forest and a Lyrist, and Tom says – “If I had a Force of
Will, you can bet I would use it right now.”
Talk about Blessed. I only have three lyrists in the deck, and I think I
drew one every single game against all three sliver decks I played. I never
even saw a Worship hit the table.
Then I get a Llanowar out and I start to nick away at Tom’s life, and then
Tom starts tapping his City of Brass and going even lower, and then I try to
force through some spells that I don’t care about, and then I cast Overrun
for the Win. I think I got two Overrun’s this game. I think he countered
one, and then I drew another one off the top of my library. I’m pretty sure
that’s how it happened.
Here’s Tom’s Life.
20 And of course, Tom and I shake hands. Then we shuffle up, go to our
sideboards. I side in my Sliver Queen and three Tsunami’s. Tom has a lot of
land that counts as an Island. Then we shuffle some more, hand our decks to
each other, cut, shake hands, take a deep breathe, and say “Good Luck.”
In this game, I get the amazing Gaea’s Cradle out and a bunch of weenies and
then when In look at my hand really closely, I see THREE OVERRUNS. That’s
some dangerous I hear.
Here’s Tom’s Life Total
20 Guess where I cast the Overrun?
I don’t remember this game that clearly in the beginning. I know he got some
slivers out, and then I started attacking with an elf and maybe another elf,
and just waited for him to block so I could Spike Toekns over and kill his
guys. Then I think I attempted a Natural Order just to draw counters out of
his hand, and then I tried to cast a spike feeder, and that was also
countered because he’s seen the cool spikey tricks I can do, and then I
think I went like this.
Tom taps some mana to play something important.
I tap my Gaea’s Cradle and say “Overrun?” and he says “Oh Crap.” And goes
from 17 – 1. QUALIFIED FOR THE PRO TOUR BABY!!!!
Tom and I chat for few seconds and then I get a bunch of people who come up
and ask me to sign Overrun’s, Verdant’s, Brother’s Grimm’s and more. Tom is
still sitting chatting with me, and he asks if he can have one of the
Overrun’s he killed me with, and if I would sign it. I smile really big and
sign a game winning overrun and hand it to him.
Some good.
Does life get any better than this?
Props and Props
Kevin and Alan – We’ve certainly busted our asses trying to get qualified
this season, and these guys have ridden down with me every weekend, come
over for playtesting, or gone to their house for playtesting. My stalwart
companions.
Keith and Louise – Good friends who always have a deck together for me to
playtest against, and run tourneys in the format of the upcoming ptq or pt.
Dan McNiel – Put together a Blue Green version of Secret Force that looked
like a tuned, professional version of my janky deck. It looked like some
really good player took my deck and added all the cards that should be in
there. I hope he makes it to a PTQ with it once more to try and Qualify. Oh
and Dan, on that threat card we disagreed on – I’ve changed my mind – you
need another threat. So, keep that in.
Marty Lund – Always a pleasure to talk and hang out with, and Marty and I
have been working on new super secret Tinker tech that one person showed to
me, and then I go down to Boston and everybody already knew it
Jason Stowe – Green fan like me, gives me good trades and a blast to hang
out with at tournies. Actually played his Secret Force version and wen’t 4-3
with it the week before.
Chad Ellis – Chad and I meant to play Secret Force against each other this
weekend and then write an article together for the Dojo on the matchup but
we never got around to it. But he did lend me the sleeves I needed to keep
competing and the dealer was out – so that was a godsend. Chad was also cool
to hang out with a good portion of the day as well.
Tom Guevin and Mike Flores – Thanks for the great articles, those made my
day. I mean it. They were fantastic.
Your Move Games – Another labor of love, excellently run tournament. 123
people, and the rounds started at 1:15 – how efficient is that? Pretty damn
good and your judges are friendly and excellent. (Although it would be nice
if you sent the Dojo the top eight deck lists- I’m dying to see Secret Force
up on the Dojo)
(sigh)
Too many too even list. I have to end this here. Its 9:00 am, I’m a half an
hour late for work already, and I haven’t even read this over once, and then
spell checked it. I gotta end it here.
One final Note – I PLAN on being in Montreal this weekend. I’d love to play
anyone who shows up with an Urza’s Legacy/Saga deck so I can practice
between times when I am watching Alan and Kevin. Thanks. And for everyone in
Vermont. I’d love it if you guys built some decks for me to playtest against
as well.
Later
Jamie C. Wakefield |